OUR STORY / OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE
Built on experience.
Carried forward
by family.
Founded in 1961 by Loren George Andre. Now a third-generation business.
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
THREE GENERATIONS.A CONTINUING COMMITMENT TO MAKING.
A history of making parts.
And the machines
they belong to.
Acraloc began in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in 1961. Founded by Loren George Andre, the company continues today as a third-generation family business.
By the early 1970s, Acraloc was fabricating steel components for research equipment and developing vacuum-packaging technology. Those early records show a combination of component manufacturing and machine development that continues in our work today.
Our roots are also part of Oak Ridge’s industrial community. In a 2010 oral-history interview, Martha Adler-Jasny recalled Grove Development Corporation helping provide buildings for Acraloc and other local businesses as the city worked to broaden its economic base.
Oak Ridge oral-history interview, March 26, 2010Courtesy of the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History and the Oak Ridge Public Library.
Today, we bring that practical manufacturing background to CNC machining, metal fabrication, custom equipment projects, and 3D scanning and reverse engineering.
FROM THE FAMILY ARCHIVE
Our original mark.
A continuing story.
This early business card belonged to our founder, L. George Andre. Its orange-and-black emblem and lowercase lettering are part of Acraloc’s original identity.
We have brought that identity forward into today’s company—a connection to the family and manufacturing experience behind our work.
MILESTONES
Ideas made tangible.
Selected moments from our company story and the public engineering record.
- 1961
Acraloc begins
Loren George Andre founds Acraloc in Oak Ridge, Tennessee—the beginning of a business that would continue through three generations.
- 1962
The people behind the early years
Bernice Dodson Simmons joins Acraloc. Her published obituary records a career with the company lasting thirty-seven and a half years, until her retirement in 1999.
Bernice Dodson Simmons remembrance - 1971
Components for Oak Ridge research
A 1973 Oak Ridge National Laboratory report credits Acraloc with fabricating steel structural components for the PM Capsule 1 experiment, which ran in the High Flux Isotope Reactor in 1971.
ORNL-4856, Figure 6 and irradiation history - 1973
Improving vacuum packaging
A vacuum-nozzle patent is granted to Acraloc, naming Paul W. Worline as inventor. Filed in December 1970, it addresses practical packaging needs including positive shutoff, easier cleaning, and reduced drip-back.
U.S. Patent 3,722,558 - 1974
Rotary packaging machinery
A patent filed in January 1972 is granted for a rotating machine that evacuates, clips, and trims bagged products. It describes a circular product table with radial vacuum nozzles and names L. George Andre, Wayne R. Barthalomew, and Paul W. Worline as inventors, with Acraloc and Rheem Manufacturing sharing the original assignment.
U.S. Patent 3,795,085The USDA’s June 1974 equipment directory also lists Acraloc conveyors, packaging tables, racks, and vacuum nozzles—evidence of an established range of food-processing equipment.
USDA equipment directory, June 1974, page 9 - 1980
Vacuum packaging and clipping
A U.S. patent for a high-speed evacuation chamber packaging and clipping machine names Acraloc and Rheem Manufacturing as assignees. Its inventors include L. George Andre, Harrison A. Ailey Jr., and Roman M. Tomczak.
U.S. Patent 4,189,897 - 1986
Further development in packaging machinery
Acraloc and Tipper Tie are named as assignees on a patent for a high-speed evacuation chamber packaging machine and method. The record includes L. George Andre, Lawrence D. Boody, Charles M. Heard, and Harrison A. Ailey Jr.
U.S. Patent 4,578,928 - 1993
Advancing loin-pulling equipment
Acraloc receives a patent for a loin puller with adjustable cutting depth and width.
U.S. Patent 5,234,371 - 2003
Refining the cutting process
A patent for a dual-blade loin knife assembly is granted with Acraloc as the original assignee.
U.S. Patent 6,547,658 - 2016
Loin pulling and skinning together
Acraloc is named as assignee on a patent for a loin-pulling and skinning system. Its inventors include Scott Andre, Harrison A. Ailey Jr., Lawrence D. Boody, and E. Scott Pierce.
U.S. Patent 9,247,755 - TODAY
A third generation. The next project.
We continue to manufacture parts and support complete equipment projects, with 3D scanning and reverse engineering available to turn existing physical parts into usable CAD files and engineering prints.
THE WORK CONTINUES
Experience for
what comes next.
Recent work includes new Rota-Matic equipment prepared for customer shipment and cylinders made in-house with custom Delrin ends designed to reduce noise and protect the cylinder shaft.
Whether your project starts with a drawing, an existing component, or an equipment requirement, we can help define the next manufacturing step.
Explore our work