History

US Drop Forge, which is located in a rural farming community of Woolwich Township, NJ was founded in 1967 by Charlie, Jake and Ron Lafferty as an extension of Pennsylvania Machine Works. The Lafferty brothers were operating a machining and custom repair facility that was founded in 1931 by their father, Charles William Lafferty and by the mid-1950s had earned a reputation for delivering precision custom machined components on a 24 hour, seven days a week availability that was unequaled in the industry. Their attention to quality and service enabled the company to develop a product line that also included the custom machining of drop forged shapes.

The reliance on third party suppliers located throughout the Northeastern part of the United States for forgings had created numerous quality and delivery issues because of the general forging industries lack of tight tolerance control and an inability to supply a level of quality which could be counted on to offer machining consistency. Having helped guide their company through the Great Depression, a World War and now another Foreign War, the Lafferty brothers were all too familiar with economic struggles and realized that there had to be a better way if they were to improve and grow their company.

The machining and repair business was located in the South side of Philadelphia, in a working class neighborhood, but the facility offered very little opportunity for expansion and definitely not one that would accommodate the installation of forging equipment. However, moving vertically into the supply chain would allow the Company to provide better lead-times than competitors, a broader array of material grade availability and greater buying power from steel producers. The decision was made in the mid-sixties that a closed-die forging facility should be built.

With a plan in hand the brothers embarked on a mission to identify a location that would provide ample space to build a World Class Forge Shop and would also allow enough space for future expansion or a consolidation with the precision machining operations. A site was chosen in southern New Jersey, just South of the town of Swedesboro. The acquisition of farmland was ideal for a forging facility. There was plenty of acreage with easy access to major highways. The only drawback was a river separating Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where the machine shop was and Woolwich Township, New Jersey where the forging operation would be located. With no convenient bridge at that time linking the two, anyone needing to commute the twelve miles between the plants had to make the trip via a river ferry which could often be an adventure in rough weather.

From the very beginning, growth at US Drop Forge is fueled by an unparalleled focus on customer service and the belief that hard work and supplying the customer with superior quality 100% of the time at a reasonable cost will allow success to surely follow. As the customers and their applications continued to grow, so has the forging facility and since 1967 there have been three major expansions to the facility. The expansions continue today always with the theme of vertically integrating the Company and better managing the Supply Chain. A complete, computerized, state of the art tool & die area within the plant focuses on producing the most complex tooling to forge virtually any custom requirement for our customers. Complimentary forging equipment is continually being upgraded or installed which allows US Drop Forge to produce complex forgings ranging from several ounces to over one hundred pounds in almost any configuration or material grade.

Over the last forty years US Drop Forge has gained a reputation for exceeding their customer’s expectations in Quality, Service and Partnership. Quality Certification in ISO 9001 from LRQA along with PED Certification (Pressure Equipment Directive) allows US Drop Forge to supply customers throughout the world. As a manufacturer of closed-die forgings in Carbon, Stainless, Copper-Nickel Alloys and countless Exotic Alloys, US Drop Forge is dedicated to Continuous Improvement and in following our Mission Statement.