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48665 Structural Drive, Chesterfield Township, MI 48051-2666

Knight Carbide Timeline

1971
1971

James Kyle and Thomas Cantenacci

Knight Carbide
At Max Machine, a machine shop in Warren, Michigan, two machinists named James Kyle and Thomas Cantenacci come up with an idea to develop a gauge to measure bore diameters. They resign from Max Machine to focus full-time on creating a patent-worthy prototype. They discover they can generate revenue in the interim by using their grinding machines to grind carbide for Carboloy in Detroit.
1972
1972

Incorporating Knight Carbide

By 1972 the gauge project has stalled, but the carbide grinding has taken off. The two partners incorporate Knight Carbide and expand their grinding for Carboloy, purchasing additional equipment to keep up with increasing volume. They move from their sublet in Roseville to a  5000-square-foot, multi-tenant facility on Calahan in Roseville.

1973
1973

James Kyle Continues with Knight Carbide

James Kyle Continues with Knight Carbide

Thomas Cantenacci leaves to start his own carbide company while James Kyle continues on with Knight, further expanding into threading, grooving, and form tools. At this point, raw materials are provided by the client, and products are sold under their name. Click here to view the 1976 Knight Carbide brochure.

1980
1980

10,000 Square Foot Expansion

10,000 Square Foot Expansion

Knight Carbide expands again, purchasing a 10,000 square foot building on Beattie in Sterling Heights.

1982
1982

Knight Welcomes Bruce Kyle

Bruce Kyle graduates from Northern Michigan University with a degree in marketing and begins working at Knight Carbide.

1983
1983

Knight Carbide joins ASMMA

Knight Carbide joins ASMMA

Knight Carbide joins ASMMA, the manufacturer and distributor trade association now known as ISA. Procuring materials from Duramet, Ultramet, Carbitech, and VR Wesson, and coatings from TI Coating, the firm begins to manufacture and market its own products through industrial distribution under the Knight Carbide name. Click here to view the 1983 Knight Carbide brochure.

1984
1984

New Equipment

With the purchase of a CNC top and bottom grinder and CNC periphery grinder from German machine tool builder Wendt, Knight Carbide becomes the first carbide insert fabricator in the U.S.A to utilize CNC grinding for carbide inserts. With this new equipment, milling tools are added to the product line.

1986
1986

EWAG CNC Grinder

EWAG CNC Grinder

An Ewag CNC grinder adds threading and grooving capabilities.

1987
1987

Knight Carbide Video

1991
1991

Bruce and Christopher Kyle

In January, Knight Carbide Founder James Kyle passes away and ownership transfers to his sons, Bruce Kyle and Christopher Kyle. Chris takes over the sales responsibilities, adding Steve Keller, Leonard Jankowski, David Nowicki, and Harold Borden to the sales force with Teresa Rylee in order entry, Brian Dunn in quality control, and John Sexton in engineering.  

 

Knight Carbide partners with Lumco on a line of ball-nose cutters and inserts for the die and mold industry. This marks the firm’s first venture into selling tool holders well as inserts.

1992
1992

20th Anniversary

Still expanding, the company moves to a 14,000-square-foot building on Metzen in Chesterfield Township.

 

In January, Knight Carbide marks its 20th-anniversary with a formal gala for employees, clients, and vendors.

 

Click here to view the Ball Nose catalog.

1993
1993

Second Building on Metzen

Knight leases a second building on Metzen and purchases two Schneeberger 5-axis cutter grinders to accommodate the production of a full line of spade drill inserts. Other products introduced at this time include a line of thread chasers for the oil and gas industry.

 

Bruce Kyle’s son John joins the company to assist in inside sales and engineering. We add a full range of PVD coatings to our offerings through a partnership with Blazers

2000
2000

Metzen Fire

In November, a fire decimates the main building and everything in it. The newer building, where ball-nose cutters and spade drills are produced, is undamaged.

 

We are able to lease a small building adjacent to the property and outfit it with showroom models of machines. By outsourcing some production to various grinding companies around the country we are able to meet our customers’ expectations while we rebuild.

2001
2001

Move to Structural Drive

In May of 2001, we move to our current 24,000-square-foot building on Structural Drive.

 

The salesforce now consists of Chris Kyle, John Kyle, Jack Kroll, David Nowicki, and John Hoh with Lisa Markel in order entry.

 

The ball nose and spade drill product lines are retired and Knight starts selling more engineered custom tool holders and inserts. Gear shaving tools are added to service the automotive drive train market.

2007
2007

Haas multi-grind CNC profile grinders

Haas multi-grind CNC profile grinders

Haas multi-grind CNC profile grinders are purchased to increase our capabilities for complex form tools. We also introduce laser marking for the permanent identification of tools. The product line is expanded to include standard turning tools, and new vendor relationships are formed with Tungstemet for materials, and Cemecon and Ionbond for coating.

2015
2015

Equipment Upgrades

Knight acquires a Keyence visual inspection system to automatically inspect our tools and provide detailed reports in real-time. We also introduce 3-D printing capabilities to make internal tooling and to generate tool-holder and component prototypes for marketing and engineering purposes.

Ewag Compact line added for increased productivity and capacity for threading and grooving tools. Wendt Wam alpha added for updated periphery grinding on milling inserts.

Brian Dunn moves from inspection to inside sales and estimating, Bob Green takes over quality control, and Dave Panich heads engineering.

2016
2016

Haas VF2YT 5-Axis Grinder

Haas VF2YT 5-Axis Grinder

A Haas 5-axis mill is acquired and specially configured to grind carbide. This further increases our capabilities for broach blades, dies, and other larger carbide tools.

2018
2018

Knight Carbide exhibits at 2018 IMTS

Bill Wise joins the salesforce.

2020
2020

PCD and CBN Tools

We introduce the capability to provide PCD and CBN tools in both standards and specials and to provide special solid carbide drills and end mills.

2021
2021

Stahli DLM 605

Stahli DLM 605

Our original Wendt WBM top and bottom grinder is replaced with a Stahli DLM 605. This increases our capability and capacity for top and bottom grinding.

2022
2022

Upgrades

We begin our 50th year in business with a newly retooled website. Later this year we will also look at upgrading our periphery grinding capability and capacity.