Legacy

Hatch Stamping was founded in 1952 by Raymond, Walter, and Joseph Hatch. Raymond and Walter were tool and die makers employed by Argus Cameras. Joseph was employed by Burroughs Adding Machine Company.

Raymond was the first to express an interest in starting his own business, and his brothers readily supported the idea. They began to work evenings and weekends, and Raymond purchased his first press, a ten-ton Ames, from a company in Dearborn, Michigan. He rebuilt the machine in the basement of his home in Ann Arbor and later moved the machine to Joseph’s basement in Ypsilanti.

Through conversations with friends and acquaintances, Raymond Hatch soon learned of several opportunities to produce tools and stamped parts. The first came from a friend who needed stamped parts for model trains. The next came from Vokar, a manufacturer of resistors. A similar opportunity soon followed to provide resistor parts for Dexter Automatic Products of Dexter, Michigan, and timer parts for a company in Ann Arbor. Finally, Raymond had the opportunity to provide high-volume parts to the Army that were used to produce parts for the M-1 rifle. This marked the beginning of Hatch Stamping Company.