Patterson Manufacturing News

Patterson Manufacturing‘s new davit cranes are designed from the ground up for improved safety, ease of use, durability and reliability. What more could you ask?Patterson Manufacturing has supplied equipment into the marine market for more than 160 years, consistently expanding its lines of winches, rigging and fittings to meet evolving demands along the way, and even engineering custom products when the job requires. Now the Pittsburgh-based manufacturer is adding a new line of davit cranes to the mix.The new cranes…

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…

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.

Our annual Ferry and Passenger Vessel edition kicks off the New Year in high gear, even if oil prices aren’t necessarily following suit. As vessel operators – our ferry drivers included – celebrate lower bunker prices, another maritime subset frets over what might happen to the offshore service market if the downturn in crude oil prices continues unabated for a significant length of time. That said; if your market focus is ferries and/or passenger vessels, then you won’t find another more comprehensive or diverse look at this sector than that which is depicted in the pages that follow. It turns out that the passenger vessel and ferry industry is a forward-thinking, innovative and problem solving group of businesses.

President & CEO: David B. The Patterson Manufacturing Company began operations in 1858 on the banks of the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. In the 1950s, they began designing and manufacturing towboat and barge winches, something which the firm is now best known for. In the beginning, Patterson made just a few sizes of winches, but now offers winches with capacities from 20 tons to 90 tons and in three operating formats: manual, electrical, and hydraulic. Over the years, Patterson has improved the winch by listening to the needs of the end user.

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?

PITTSBURGH— Patterson Manufacturing announced that it has launched a newly redesigned website, www.pattersonmfg.com. The new site also features downloadable videos for four of the company's flagship products: the YoYo Winch, the Low Profile Strap Winch, the Three Shaft Manual Winch, and the Barge Connector Winch.

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.

Patterson Manufacturing introduced the Yo-Yo winch series designed to make ratchets obsolete. According to Patterson, the contained spring coil virtually eliminates injuries due to rope memory as well as fouling of wire rope on the winch drum. The Yo-Yo winch requires little or no re-tightening while the barge is underway and the patented double-dog design makes for easy maximum line tensioning. www.pattersonmfg.com/yoyo