Bearing Four Decades Of Service

Orion Corp. recently celebrated its 40th anniversary of providing products to the global power generation, oil and gas, petrochemical, and marine industries. For four decades, the company has manufactured hydrodynamic bearings for high-speed rotating machinery. Charles LaBahn, founder and owner of Orion Corp., says, “2008 was an extremely successful year for Orion. We’ve had record order entry this year—a 38 percent increase over 2007—and we expect 2009 to be an even better year.” Beginning with just 42 employees in 1968, Orion has expanded its Grafton, WI and Columbus, NE facilities many times over in order to keep pace with steady increases in business over the years. Most recently, the company has completed a building expansion and added several new CNC machine tools at its Grafton plant, thereby extending its production capacity by approximately 25 percent. The company currently employs more than 250 people, and is looking to hire 15 to 20 new machinists before the end of this year. Orion’s Quality Management System, furthermore, has been ISO 9001:2000-certified for 14 years.