Knight Carbide Celebrates 40th Anniversary
Founded in 1972, Chesterfield, MI-based manufacturer, Knight Carbide, has earned a reputation for innovative manufacturing and start-to-finish customer satisfaction.
Chesterfield, MIÂ – Knight Carbide, a leading manufacturer of precision-ground, carbide inserts, celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2012. Knight is a second-generation family owned manufacturer serving a diverse network of customers across the United States. Knight Carbide is headquartered in Chesterfield, MI.
Founded in 1972 producing threading, grooving and form tool carbide inserts, Knight has earned a reputation for setting industry standards for quality, repeatability and accuracy.
“Knight Carbide consistently strives to support and satisfy customer application requirements with the most comprehensive and technically advanced cutting tool solutions,” said Chris Kyle, Vice President of Knight Carbide. “Knight succeeds in achieving excellence in manufacturing and start-to-finish customer service through competitive pricing and cooperative relationships with distributors, toolmakers, and end-users.”
Within the first 10 years of operation Knight had developed a diverse distributor network for serving customers across the United States. “Working with distributors is crucial to ensuring our customers receive the highest level of service,” Kyle said. “Knight’s sales force and distributor partners work closely with customers to fine-tune the best carbide grade, geometry, edge prep and coating for each application.”
In 1985 Knight became the first carbide insert fabricator in the United States to purchase a CNC periphery, and top and bottom grinders— thereby expanding production capabilities to include precision ground milling, turning, and boring inserts.
Confident in producing traditional make-to-order specials, Knight expanded their product portfolio in 1991 producing stocked ball nose cutters and inserts, and again in 1999 with the launch of the Spade Drill inserts product line.
Functioning as a one-stop supplier for custom and standard cutting tool solutions, Knight produces blueprint specials to exact specifications and fulfills standard applications through a large in-house inventory.
“While standard solutions are ideal for some applications, there are times when customers settle for off- the-shelf due to budget or turnaround time,” Kyle said. “At Knight, we want the application to determine between standard and blueprint special. To eliminate cost-related hesitation, Knight Carbide manufactures standard and blueprint specials at the same cost and reasonable turnaround time.”
From investing in capital equipment and talented employees to integrating advanced technology and contemporary manufacturing techniques, Knight has always responded to customers’ evolving needs, for example, through Legacy Tooling.
“When the standard tooling customers depend on is no longer available—or no longer considered standard, they’re faced with the task of finding replacement tooling that may or may not perform to expectations,” Kyle said. “Knight Carbide will manufacture an exact replica of the tooling as a custom end-product that will deliver the exact performance they once had. We do this quickly and for the same cost as standard tooling.”
As Knight Carbide celebrates its 40th anniversary and continues its forward momentum for growth and increased versatility, Kyle insists that “Knight Carbide’s ultimate goal will always be to serve customers with high-quality, cost efficient solutions for achieving greater productivity, accuracy and repeatability.”
Please contact Knight Carbide for further information: www.knightcarbide.com and 586-598-4888.
Knight Carbide is a leading manufacturer of custom and standard precision-ground carbide inserts, indexable inserts and carbide cutting tool solutions. ISO 9001: 2000 Certified. www.knightcarbide.com.
