Knight Carbide Timeline
James Kyle and Thomas Cantenacci
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.
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.
10,000 Square Foot Expansion
Knight Carbide expands again, purchasing a 10,000 square foot building on Beattie in Sterling Heights.
Knight Welcomes Bruce Kyle
Bruce Kyle graduates from Northern Michigan University with a degree in marketing and begins working at Knight Carbide.
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.
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.
EWAG CNC Grinder
An Ewag CNC grinder adds threading and grooving capabilities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Knight Carbide exhibits at 2018 IMTS
Bill Wise joins the salesforce.
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.