Founded in 1910 in Rockford, Illinois, Roper Whitney has evolved steadily as the needs of our customer base have changed. Our company was originally established as Whitney Metal Tool, designing and building hand tools for sheet metal fabricators. Many of those original tools are still in use today—a testament to the lasting durability of our products.
In the 1970’s Roper Whitney expanded by purchasing Peck, Stow and Wilcox “PEXTO”. Importantly, Pexto has a long and rich history as one of the original American sheet metal tool manufacturers. Through this purchase, Roper Whitney can actually trace part of its lineage all the way back to 1785 which is when the old Roys & Wilcox Company began. We’ve brought other great names “into the fold” as well. In 1985, Roper Whitney made a strategic purchase by adding the “Connecticut” line of manual brakes, known for being among the most accurate and dependable in the industry. The addition of this line makes Roper Whitney a leading supplier of high quality sheet metal fabricating equipment.
Growth also came from the inventive minds of our own employees, something that goes back to founding fathers like William A. Whitney – who acquired 95 patents over the course of his lifetime. During the critical decade of the 1980s, Roper Whitney expanded its line of sheet metal equipment by designing and manufacturing both powered shears and powered CNC folding machines. Such machines have become sheet metal industry standards. Today, Roper Whitney is changing the shape of the sheet metal forming industry through highly sophisticated, automated equipment and cutting edge control solutions.
Browse some of our vintage catalogs below as we will be adding them periodically:
