You tighten the adjustment knob on the top handle and when you squeeze the handles shut, the mechanism locks, and the handles stay put. That's still the design pioneered by William Petersen (it's known to mechanical engineers as an over-center cam latch employing a four-bar linkage mechanism). Fit and FinishĮagle Grip locking pliers employ the same sophisticated movement and locking mechanism as all well-known locking pliers. What started as a handful of workers as the plant began reopening three years ago has grown to 67 full-time employees. “We found all of that and more in DeWitt,” said Mardon Quandt, at the time Malco's President and CEO, in a statement prepared for the plant's re-opening ceremony. Outlast.” In seeking to add locking pliers to its portfolio of tools for craftworkers who build, maintain, and repair heating and air conditioning systems, Malco found the ideal fit in this small Nebraska town. At an employee reunion, Badman recalled of the Petersen family who previously ran the factory, “If you had a problem, they would help.”Įnter Malco Products, a 100-percent employee-owned business, whose motto is, “Work. “They cared about those employees,” Cindy Badman, a former employee who worked her way through college at the plant, told the Lincoln Star Journal a year after the plant’s closing. DeWitt was devastated and not only by the loss of work. At its peak, there were more than 500 employees working at the factory when the plant shuttered, there were 300 employees. Vise-Grip had more than a hold on damaged bolts and screws it had a grip on the people of DeWitt. They're exactly the kind of people who need a good locking plier. Malco has a loyal following in the building trades, the kind of customer base that's the envy of many larger companies.

Now, scrappy little midwestern Malco (headquartered in Annandale, Minnesota, population 3,228) is pitted against manufacturing giant Stanley Black & Decker. Stanley Black & Decker bought the brand and its parent company in a $1.95 billion deal in 2017. Newell Rubbermaid purchased the Vise-Grip brand and the parent company that owned it in 2008 and promptly shipped pliers manufacturing to China, where it remains. Petersen, a Danish immigrant who patented the tool in 1924. The original manufacturer of the storied Vise-Grip pliers was Petersen Manufacturing, named after the founding blacksmith, William K. Malco Products has reopened the former Vise-Grip pliers factory in DeWitt to make a locking plier, branded Eagle Grip in the U.S. It's also the scene of the latest chapter in American versus Chinese manufacturing.

A steer's face is worked into the brick monument that greets visitors to the town. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playĭeWitt, Nebraska is named after a famous 19th-century Presbyterian minister and consists of 515 people spread over 267 acres.

Vice grips