Industrial Strength: No Horsing Around In Sterling
Morse Manufacturing Inc. in Sterling is a survivor. Not just that, the 115-year-old company that began as a maker of horse-drawn wagons, has thrived.
Today, Morse's products are familiar to anyone who's ever seen a utility crew or a construction site.
Steve Schneider, president of the 50-employee company, makes it sound easy.
"The company started in 1883 making horse-drawn wagons...as the technology changed, people went to trucks; what we do is really specialized trucks," he said. In fact some of Morse's trucks are truly custom-made. The company employs engineers that "will custom engineer (a truck) to do almost anything," Schneider said.
Great Utility
Morse doesn't manufacture automobiles at its 26,000-square-foot facility off Chocksett Road, but it does make aerial lifts - the cherry pickers, cranes and dump bodies - you see on any number or type of service or utility vehicle. In fact, Morse makes the cherry pickers for most of the utility companies in New England and a great many between Maryland and the Canadian border.
The company's products vary from heavy-duty, two-man material handlers, to lifts with arms that extend beyond 180 degrees, to lifts with telescoping arms that allow workers to reach places over obstructions.
In what Schneider called "a big year," Morse will make more than 1,000 cherry pickers for utility companies. The company also services its products, often for second owners, like municipalities and contractors that buy them from utility companies, Schneider explained.
Morse also makes digger derricks used for digging holes for utility poles.
Much of the technology used in Morse's utility trucks is also used in trucks for the forestry and landscaping industries.
Morse's cranes are just as widely used as its aerial lifts, and the company makes a variety of models that can lift from one ton to 20 tons anywhere between 8 and 92 feet in the air. Schneider said many of its cranes wind up on construction sites loading and unloading building materials.
Don-Jo Manufacturing Inc. is another of the interesting businesses in this little part of Sterling, and despite only being in business for little more than a decade, it's a little old school.
Don-Jo makes door and lock components and accessories, and while that may sound a little old fashioned, security is a high-tech business, and Don-Jo's manufacturing facility is state-of-the-art.
If it has anything to do with a door or a lock, Don-Jo makes it: Kick plates and door edges, door stops and bumpers, bolts, latches, coordinators, door controls, latch protectors, strike plates and even signs.
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