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The year was 1925. After 13 years of innovation and refinement, Carl Naylor was
ready to form his own company.
He had long been interested in the manufacture of pipe, having built his first
machine to make straight lockseam pipe in 1912, while working in the sheet metal shop of
Robertson Brothers Manufacturing company.
By 1919, he had perfected the first machine ever
to produce a lockseam spiral pipe. A pipe literally wound on a lathe-turned mandrel, with
the edges interlocked into a rigid four-ply seam, a pipe with an accurate diameteras
round as the arbor on which it was turned.
So it was on March 13, 1925 when Mr. Naylor formed Naylor Pipe Company. Starting in
a small lockseam pipe fabricating shop in a corner building at 92nd and Avalon on
Chicagos South Side, Mr. Naylor and a handful of employees began to produce a unique
and distinctive pipe.
Two years later, in 1927, the young company introduced the first welded spiral
pipe, having developed a process to weld the lockseam spiral automatically during
production. The results of this innovation completely revolutionized the pipe making
field. There was now a lightweight pipe that could be used as a pressure vehicle.
As a result, Naylors Lockseam Spiralweld Pipe was used extensively during the
1930s and 1940s throughout the then rapidly expanding oil fields for gas
gathering lines and for surface casing. It helped the Allies during World War II, by
supplying fuel oil and gasoline to our advancing troops in North Africa, Europe, and the
Pacific.
Those early years also saw the company continue to add services and products to the
line, manufacturing pipe in increasingly heavier gauges, and providing new products such
as, the exclusive, patented Wedgelock Coupling. By the mid 1940's, Naylor established a
complete fitting and pipe fabricating department to serve other customer requirements.
As the product line continued to expand, so too did the opportunities. During the
1950's and 1960's, Naylor Pipe found widespread use in such new markets as construction
and mining, by proving to be an ideal answer to such applications as air and water supply,
product lines and hydraulicking.
Although years of success continued to prove the tremendous value and popularity of
Naylor's Spiralweld Pipe, it was not without its limitations. So, by 1970, Naylor
introduced Spiral Buttweld Pipe. This versatile pipe was able to be produced in much
heavier gauges and larger sizes to meet the piping needs of the 1980's and 1990's. In
fact, today it is available in wall thicknesses as heavy as 1/2" and in diameters as
large as 10 feet.
While other pipe manufacturers have come and gone, Naylor continues to grow and
prosper, concentrating on what it does best
the manufacture of spiralweld pipe. Much
credit goes to the three presidents who guided the Company through such troubled times as
the Great depression, three wars, and numerous recessions: Carl Naylor from 1925 to 1950;
Newt Turney from 1950 to 1971; and Bill Skeates from 1971 to the present.
But even more important, are all the men and women who have served the company down
through the years. To them and to our many customers we pay tribute, fully aware of our
past accomplishments and ready to achieve even more in the future.
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