Key Industry Case Studies

Challenge Machinery History      Challenge Machinery has been in business for over 151 years and is now the sole U.S. manufacturer of paper cutters/guillotine cutters for the printing industry. The company dates back to 1870 when it was founded by partners, James L Lee and Paul Shniedewend, as Shniedewend & Lee. Current President Todd Huizingh discovered ...

Who We Are Hazekamp’s Premier Foods is a meat and fresh food processing and distribution facility with a unique line of consumer-ready products. A family-owned business started in 1905, it is currently operated by the 4th generation of the Hazekamp family.   How We Started For 85 years we harvested animals at our facility. We ...

Seven Decades of Manufacturing Leadership Howmet Aerospace Inc. has been a manufacturing leader since 1951. That was the year a group of engineers from Detroit-based Michigan Steel Casting Corp. arrived in Whitehall to found Misco Precision Casting Company with just 26 employees. During those early years, Misco perfected its monolithic shell process of investment casting, ...

Rick Smith Innovating a Platform Technology to disrupt the Beverage Industry. In 2017, Rick cofounded HyVIDA Brands, Inc. after learning about the therapeutic benefits of molecular hydrogen gas (H2) and the emergence of hydrogen infused beverages in Japan. Hydrogen is a powerful antioxidant that efficiently navigates the body to neutralize free radicals and balance cellular ...

A Bright Idea While working to solve quality control problems for Michigan manufacturers, Matt Pinter Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Smart Vision Lights needed specialty LED lights. The lights were used in machine vision, a technology that allows machines to “see” using a camera and special LED lights. Without the right lights he could ...