About Us

Burns Machinery was begun in 1981. The founder of the company is a mechanical engineer and prior to the formation of the company gained valuable experience as an engineer at an aerospace ring forging plant in California. He was responsible for design and improvements to the original "California vertical ring mill", that had been made popular by companies like Carlton Forge, Schlosser Forge, and Reisner Forge. In 1981, the founder was inspired and encouraged by Chuck Larson of Larson Forge, Chicago, to break out on his own and to use his talents and experience in the design of forging machinery, and the result was the beginnings of Burns Machinery Inc. To this day, Larson Forge (also known as Charles Larson and Sons) remains a loyal and faithful customer. Burns Machinery has been instrumental in helping to develop and improve upon the highly productive ring forging machinery used by Larson Forge as well as many other significant producers in this industry. Our customers include, Forged Metals (California) Firth Rixson - Verdi, Nevada, Firth Rixson - Rochester, NY, Anderson Shumaker .

Our expertise - due to the requirements of our customers, have centered around vertical style ring mills and associated ring sizing machinery (Ring Expanders). In 20" to 70" (500mm - 1800mm) rings, these mills offer significant advantages over European machines. The most notable advantage is the ability to use starting mandrels which are commonly one-half the diameter of competitor machines. When dealing with exotic alloys, this can represent significant savings in punch out losses, and time lost to "saddling" donuts to obtain starting IDs which can fir onto larger mandrels. For example, an Inconel 718 donut blank that weighs 150 pounds (68 Kg) and is 5" (125mm) thick, might require a 3.5" (90mm) punch-out which would use a 3.25" (82mm) starting mandrel. Mandrels this small are unheard of on European machines with radial loads of 150 Tons. This is achievable due to the ability to adjust the mandrel support roller span in such a way that the unsupported span of the example above is about 8" (200mm).

Other significant innovations developed by Burns Machinery, include multiple and redundant non-contact ring measuring systems. These are highly accurate measuring systems which provide the operator a continuous display of the ring OD, ID and wall while rolling, a well as digital set points.