Our history
Over the past 80 years, Clemco has grown from a small contractor equipment rental company in California into a global leader in surface preparation blasting solutions for a wide range of customers and industries. The Clemco name was derived from the original location where rental equipment was stored on Clementina Street in San Francisco in 1941 by Al Cleary, the company’s founder. Today Clemco employs more than 130 people and serves customers worldwide through our corporate headquarters and 150,000 square foot research and production center in Washington, Missouri, our international headquarters in Munich and our distribution center in Singapore.
Clementina set out to make its own blasting equipment with design input from its rental customers, which gave birth to a whole new manufacturing and sales division in the early 1950s. Clementina began to use the brand name Clemco and a formed a separate company called Clemco in 1960 that eventually became known as Clemco Industries in 1970.
As Clemco grew, we built a sales network in the United States that included over 400 distributors offering a full range of portable blast equipment, blast rooms, standard hand cabinets, and specially designed automated cabinets. Clemco’s international operations were also expanding at a rate of over 30% annually in the early 1970s, and Clemco International, Inc., was established in 1973.
About this time, a company in Washington, Missouri that had been in the dairy equipment business since its founding in 1946, started making blast cabinets and quickly gained prominence in the blast cabinet marketplace. This company, called Zero Manufacturing, used Clemco pressure blast equipment on its pressure cabinets. In the early 1980’s, Clemco started purchasing this company’s sheet metal fabrications for its hand cabinets and in 1986 Clemco acquired Zero Manufacturing. In 1990 Clemco consolidated its U.S. activities into a newly built Washington, Missouri location.
Keeping pace with the progression of industry, Clemco consistently offers high-performance solutions to its customers. We provide engineered solutions tailor-made to a wide range of surface treatment needs: preparation, cleaning, peening, and finishing.
1940 Maritime Supply and Service
Due to its strategic position on the Pacific coast, a sharp increase in shipbuilding and maintenance, both military and commercial, emerged in the San Francisco, California Bay Area. In response to this ripe business opportunity, Clementina began building and supplying pressure blast vessels to the docks. This new type of surface prep technology quickly became popular, prompting the company to market these vessels under a new brand name, "Clemco."
1950 Infrastructure Expands
The decade of the 1950's saw massive expansion of roadways, railways, and bridges in both the USA and Europe. The expansion of oil exploration and refinment came with its own challenges, among them, corrosion. With the construction of these new layers of commerce, transportation, and oil, abrasive blasting occupied a prominent role and still does to this day.
1960 Changes in Manufacturing
Throughout the 60's, the technology and processes used in manufacturing became more complex and efficient. Recognizing this improvement in quality and procedure, Clemco expanded its product line from portable equipment to blast cabinets and industrial blast systems.
1970 The Evolution of Safety Standards
In the 1970's, the standard for industrial safety and maintenance developed rapidly. The passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) resulted in the formation the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Already an industry leader in safety and protection, Clemco maintained its total compliance to all new safety and health directives, paving the way for a new standard in abrasive blast safety.
1980 Aircraft Maintenance
In the 1980's, the aviation industry began searching for alternatives to chemically stripping paint from aircraft, and sought new equipment to aid this process. The technology of dry stripping of aircraft and other lightweight surfaces with specialized blast media was developed in response to this new demand, a technology rapidly adopted by the US Air Force and others around the world.
1990 Globalization
As communications technology improved, enhancing the ability of global companies to coordinate, expand, and interact, an increasing need for infrastructure and energy to support this new boom followed. As oil drilling, gas extraction, power transmission and cargo shipment swelled and diversified, abrasive blasting had to evolve in tandem. This new, global, and dynamic economy demanded new and sophisticated blast technology, calling for fully-controlled and automated blasting, specialized non-aggressive medias, and contained, closed circuit blasting, keeping pace with a changing world economy.
2000 Green Energy
As awareness of climate change and limited energy supply became more evident, industries expanded their methods of generating energy from diverse sources, such as wind, water, and sun. This new energy-creating machinery required protection for long-term durability, and the role abrasive blasting plays is critical, providing the fir steps in assuring reliability and consistent performance of alternative energy generаting machinery.
