Milacron History

Our Rich Heritage

Milacron Plastics Machinery has a rich history dating back over 125 years.

At the time of its incorporation on March 19, 1884, the Cincinnati Screw and Tap Co. and its dozen or so workers occupied the third floor of the building at the left. It was located at the southeast corner of Pearl and Plum Streets, a few blocks from the Ohio River. Two years later, the company moved to the second floor of the adjacent building at Second and Plum.

The present-day Milacron grew out of a small, mid-19th-century machine shop in downtown Cincinnati. In 1878, the shop needed a new milling machine to make its screws, tap and dies. But money was tight, so business partner Fred Holz built one himself.

Milacron's broad lines of general-purpose injection molding machines rank number one in North America and help make the company the second-largest supplier of machines and components to process plastic in the world.

In 1884, Cincinnati Screw and Tap Company was incorporated, and a few years later, in 1887, Frederick A. Geier saw the possibilities and decided to invest his capital and exceptional sales skills in the business.

With Holz and Geier at the helm, the company switched its focus to machine-making, and in 1889 it became The Cincinnati Milling Machine Company.

For 30 years, the company’s mainstays were milling machines and cutter grinders. In 1900, one of its milling machines won a gold medal at the World's Fair in Paris.

Over the next several decades, the company grew into the world's largest machine tool company. In the 1920s, The Mill, as the company was known, added a new product line: precision grinding machines for the growing automotive industry.

During World War II, the company experienced a sevenfold increase in production and built 17,511 machine tools in 1941, 7.8% of the nation's total machine tool production.

In post-war years, The Mill introduced the first water-based fluid to cool and clean both the cutting tool and work piece during metal-cutting (an industry that is now the cornerstone of Cimcool).

The company also began developing machines that made plastic products, capitalizing on the increasing popularity of plastic. The first injection molding machine debuted in 1968. During the 1970s and 1980s, the company that was then called Cincinnati Milacron continued to expand its plastics-processing lines, becoming an industry leader in building injection molding, blow molding and extrusion machinery.

By the 1990s, Milacron was the world's broadest-range supplier to the plastics processing industry, not only building machinery but also offering mold tooling, parts, supplies, services and support. It acquired several companies to strengthen this line of business, including Ferromatik (1993), DME (1996) and Uniloy (1998).

In 1998, the company sold its legacy machine tool business and became Milacron Inc.

In 2004, it completed the divestiture of its metalworking tools and grinding wheel businesses. For the next five years, it remained focused on being the world leader in plastics machinery, mold technologies and industrial fluids.