MN100: Patterson Manufacturing, Inc.
The Patterson Company provides a full product line for an array of industries – from winches to ratchet turnbuckles to tensors and beyond. Every day, Patterson seeks out new ways to improve its products through innovative teamwork with customers and partners throughout every market sector they touch. Patterson’s winches, turnbuckles, and tensors are designed and manufactured with an eye toward innovation. This year, the company that brought the inland towboat industry the patented YoYo Winch…
‘Securing’ the Inland Markets with Innovative Standardization
Patterson Manufacturing follows its substantial success in the barge winch markets with an equally impressive boat-to-barge coupling system. In 2008, Pittsburgh-based Patterson Manufacturing Company developed the YoYo Barge Winch, a revolutionary design that reflected a total re-thinking of the way winches do their job. Fast forward to 2015 and the YoYo has penetrated North American inland markets in a big way, in just a few years. Even as the “YoYo” winch has arguably become the inland standard in barge winches – especially considering the 10,000th YoYo unit sale was recorded last year – Patterson has plans to engineer the same sort of revolution in the niche boat-to-barge coupling markets.
Winch Safety through Standardization
For decades, barge owners and operators had no reason to think twice about their rigging. There were only a few choices when it came to winches, and there were ratchets as well. Because of the simplicity of these machines, few people in the industry were compelled to think critically about how such a basic item might be improved. But winches and ratchets have their downsides: fouling and birdnesting can and do happen. Wire rope is heavy, and traditional rigging takes a lot of it. And old-fashioned winches require a good amount of time and effort to operate. But what else was there?
Patterson Acquires Blackburn Marine
Manufacturer to Service Deck Fitting Product Line. Patterson Manufacturing, the marine equipment manufacturer based in Pittsburgh, today announced that it has acquired Blackburn Marine, a deck fitting manufacturer based in Canyon Lake, Texas. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. "We're pleased to be able to service Blackburn's excellent product lines," said David Grapes, CEO of Patterson. "Blackburn has been producing high-quality deck equipment for years, and their products are a fitting complement to our own. Patterson Manufacturing has been manufacturing winches, ratchet turnbuckles, tensors, and other marine equipment for more than 150 years.
