H&B Machine

H & B Machine Corporation was founded in 1947 by Joseph Bracht as a maintenance machine shop for the flourishing and expanding graphic arts industry. Many of the jobs taken on required handling heavy components on site. This is where our portable gantries were developed. The applications required a lifting device that was strong yet portable, many times being hauled, set-up, used and taken down by one person. All the original models were all steel construction. Many customers saw the gantries in use and liked what they saw. H & B began building them for many local machinery movers, machine re-builders, millwrights and bank vault installation companies. The gantries were very portable but still heavy. WW II brought on many technological advancements. One of them was making aluminum a common structural material as well as the ability to weld it with relative ease. In the early 1960's H & B built its first aluminum gantry. It caught on quick. What was portable and easy to use to begin with just got more portable and easier to use.