MW Components has acquired Western Wire Products Company (Western Wire), a wire forming manufacturer with a storied history.

A press release said that the acquisition bolsters the scope of MW Components, which is active in the spring and wire forming industry. Its holdings include Century Spring, Fox Valley Spring, Maryland Precision Spring and over a dozen other locations that produce precision metal components. 

The addition of Western Wire will result in an increased selection of stock, standard, and custom wire forms including cotter pins, hitch pins, spring pins and an array of highly engineered precision metal components. “We are thrilled that Western Wire is joining the MW Components portfolio and hope to strengthen Western Wire’s service and 100+ year history of entrepreneurship.”

The Western Wire website spells out the company’s rich history of the business that was owned by members of the Young family for more than a century before being bought out in 2016 by its CFO, Michael Basler. Below are just two innovations it cites.

Western Wire Products Company was a “family business” even before its 1914 incorporation in St. Louis, Missouri. The company’s origins date back to 1907 when the uncle of its founders invented a machine that made woven wire fabric. The patent on this machine is considered by some historians to be the original precursor to today’s chain link fence.

In 1912, family inventor Ira J. Young, under a different company name (Wire Manufacturing Products) applied for a patent on a machine for forming split pins, later to be known as Cotter Pins. That business later became part of Western Wire, which serves customers in all parts of the U.S., and exports to Europe, South America, Mexico, Asia, Australia, and Canada.