McElroy Manufacturing, a fintube and fusion equipment manufacturing company, got started 50 years ago in a converted garage. According to the company, Art McElroy revolutionized the fintube and fusion equipment industries through his work as an inventor and mechanical engineer.
By the end of the 1960s, McElroy was shipping fintube machinery throughout the world. It was at this time that Phillips Petroleum approached McElroy to design a machine to connect its new polyethylene pipe together with heat fusion. In 1969, McElroy designed its first polyethylene fusion machine and today the company has a comprehensive line of such equipment. In 1983, McElroy added the fluid power division to the company. The initial strategy was to lower the cost of the company’s fluid power needs, but the project soon became a major venture to market hydraulic equipment nationally.
Chip McElroy took over the direction of the company in 1988 after the death of his father. “While we celebrate this milestone, it is the future before us that matters the most,” said Chip McElroy, president and chief executive. “How we will continue to strengthen our positions of leadership, and more importantly how we will address emerging opportunities, will define our reputation going forward.”
