Indiana Gear Works, a precision gear manufacturer, began in 1933 as a partnership of Louis C. Buehler, formerly of the Indianapolis Tool and Manufacturing Company, and his son John L. Buehler, newly graduated from Purdue University. The small firm, located at 1458 East 19th Street, received contracts for airplane gears and, in the 1940s, became a pioneer maker of gears for helicopters built by Sikorsky Aircraft. From then on, a majority of its gross income came from Sikorsky, despite efforts to diversify.
Incorporated in 1949, the firm was renamed Buehler Corporation in 1960, shortly before moving most of its operations to a large factory at 3051 North Post Road. The name change reflected a move into turbo-powered boats and racks for storing nuclear waste. By 1966, the firm employed 1,500 persons.
After John Buehler retired in 1971, production delays became problematic, and Sikorsky, while changing product lines, reduced orders. In 1977, the company merged with Maul Technology, Inc., a New Jersey manufacturer of machines for bottle factories. Reorganization specialists made Indiana Gear Works, Inc., later IGW Systems, a subsidiary of Maul in 1980 and sold it to a Chicago-based holding company. The gear works prospered early in the decade, then faltered.
Purchased by a Cleveland-based turnaround firm in 1986, IGW Systems went bankrupt in 1988.
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