Thanks to steady growth over the past few years, Fullerton Tool Company has remained in healthy balance, with figures already beginning to exceed those of last year. Favored by customers for maintaining strong values, this legacy firm is on its way to 82 years of the Curry family passing down its appreciation for excellence and people from one generation to the next.
As part of the Curry Family of Companies, owned by cousins Patrick Curry and Mathew Curry and including carbide tooling manufacturers Carbro and Endurance Carbide, Fullerton Tool Company fabricates a wide range of solid carbide cutting tools like end mills, burrs and saws, specialized milling cutters, and other tools used to create specialized metal components for a variety of industries. The company is especially well known for its high-performance form tools capable of complex tooling, which eliminate the need for multiple tools and machines.
In serving customers with parts and components fabrication for sectors including automotive, medical, aerospace, and more, the company sees its role as more than just tooling fabrication; instead, Fullerton supports the manufacture of the components that America runs on. In some cases, like artificial hip insertions, helping Americans run becomes quite literal.
Headquartered in Saginaw, Michigan, with another facility in the same town and one in Huntington Beach, California, Fullerton has a team of just over 200 permanent staff and around 55 regional sales associates and industrial representatives. This team is synonymous with improving on existing concepts through fresh approaches, often refining coatings, designs, and other adaptable aspects of tooling to create upgrades of traditional concepts. The company achieves such improvements consistently and with a dedication to quality.
Education plays a significant role in the company’s cultivation and maintenance of talent and skill. Improvement is so important to this company that it has established Fullerton Tool University, an in-house learning facility created to deepen the team’s understanding of the fields in which it specializes and the tooling and equipment that make its work possible. It is also home to FAST Academy, which provides three comprehensive courses for clients and the sales team to teach them how to optimally apply their tools to achieve cost savings, longevity, much-improved speeds, and precision material removal.
In the courses, participants learn how to achieve the same outcomes using the same tooling in around half the time, bringing a 20-minute cycle down to less than 10, for instance. “We have a striving and a passion for getting better. The only way you do that is to continue to educate yourself and your teams. We’re really big on that,” President Patrick Curry tells us.
Appearing as keynote speakers at the MMA Operations Conference hosted by the Michigan Manufacturers Association in Lansing on April 17 this year, Fullerton Tool Company representatives will introduce these value-added services to interested audiences looking to learn more about these models. “For us, our big point is about education: trying to educate people on what we’re all about, what we can do to help them be more successful,” Curry says.
Fullerton’s strong focus on education dovetails perfectly with the company’s commitment to innovation. As such, the company has an impressive selection of cutting-edge tooling components that have changed how tooling is done in many markets. One of its latest products, the V-MAC with improved chip breaking and removal capabilities on high-temperature alloys, is a high-performance end mill that cuts through difficult-to-mill metals with ease. Named after Morgan Arthur Curry, Patrick and Mathew’s grandfather and the company’s founder, the product is deemed the best of its kind that the company has ever released.
Fullerton is especially proud to be the main importer of InovaTools, a respected German brand of outstanding quality and innovation supplying sought-after mold and die tooling, into the United States. It carries a large inventory of these tools to provide customers with maximum support. The company also imports Hobe Micro Tools, popular in medical fabrication like the manufacture of dental molds and related small parts from cobalt chrome, titanium, and steel—especially those used for implants and surgery. Focused more on custom components, Hobe supplies complete machining packages to fabricate unique designs. Customers “look for innovative solutions that help them be successful in what they’re trying to produce,” Curry explains.
As Fullerton sees the medical surgery side of its business still recovering following the COVID-19 pandemic, Curry also notes a move away from electric vehicles. “There’s been major disruption in [the] automotive industry with the changes from electric vehicles back to maybe more of the [combustion] and hybrid engines,” he says. “That shift and change has disrupted that market.” He notes that many vehicle launches that were postponed because of COVID are now being brought back to life and made a reality. Of course, during that time, Fullerton’s business from the aerospace industry also dipped significantly, and it has taken a while to get it back into full operation again—but things appear to be back on track this year.
“It’s usually a slower process, but we’re seeing that industry starting to take off,” Curry shares. “Defense is also picking up. Moreover, the United States Navy is revamping and replacing aging vessels and equipment, bringing more business to Fullerton Tool Company.
With a legacy rooted in craftsmanship, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to education, Fullerton Tool Company continues to lead the way in American manufacturing. As industries shift and evolve, Fullerton adapts with agility—advancing technology, refining performance, and investing in knowledge. From supporting critical sectors like defense, aerospace, and medical to helping customers optimize their production through smarter tooling solutions, the company stands as a testament to the strength of values passed down through generations.
