Midland-Ross Co. was an American steel, aerospace products, electronics, and automobile components manufacturer which existed from 1894 to 1986.
A major downturn in the automobile industry in the early 1980s led the company to spin off most of its divisions, leaving it with just aerospace, electronics, small metal castings, and thermal processes.
[4] The merger was complete in mid-May 1923,[5] making Midland Steel Products the largest automobile frame manufacturer in the United States.
[8] Three years later, it had annual sales of $72 million ($781,080,569 in 2023 dollars), and it ranked as the 428th largest company in the entire United States.
[9] On October 16, 1957, Midland Steel Products announced it was merging with the J. O. Ross Engineering Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of atmospheric control plants for factories; finishing and painting apparatus; coating and printing equipment for paper, sheet plastic, and tires; and a wide array of couplings, joints, valves, and similar fittings.
[11] Ross Engineering brought several subsidiaries to the deal, including the John Waldron Corp.,[11] which manufactured paper processing machinery.
By the end of 1957, Midland-Ross owned 11 manufacturing plants, in which it made automobile frames, brakes, miscellaneous automotive products, and atmospheric control devices for factories.
[16] In April 1959, Midland-Ross acquired Nelson Metal Products of Grand Rapids, Michigan, maker of zinc and aluminium die castings.
[18] The company, maker of industrial furnaces and heat treating equipment, was headquartered in Maumee, Ohio.
[15][20] Midland-Ross purchased the Fandaire division of Yuba Consolidated Industries in February 1962 and merged the company (which made air-cooled condensers and cooling products) with Surface Combustion.
The division used a patented natural gas process with the same name [Wikidata] to manufacture high-iron content metal pellets for use as ore by the iron and steel smelting industries.
[29] One of Midland-Ross' last acquisitions came in February 1970, when it gained control of Cameron Machine, a company that made winders, sheeters, and slitters for the paper, plastic, textile, metal, and rubber industries.
It consolidated Ross Engineering, Waldron-Hartig, and Cameron Machine into a new Machinery Division in February 1971;[31] sold Midrex to a West German steel manufacturer, Korf Stahl A.G., in January 1974 for $25 million ($154,453,441 in 2023 dollars);[32] merged Industrial Castings and Unicast into a new division called National Castings in July 1975;[33] spun off Capitol Foundry into a new division called Capitol Castings in July 1975;[34] sold Reinforced Plastic Container to the Youngstown Steel Door Company for $2 million ($11,324,675 in 2023 dollars) in December 1975;[35] and merged Nelson Metal and Grand Rapids Bright Metal into Power Controls in December 1977.
The new division focused on the manufacture of air horns, air reservoirs, control valves, bus door operating systems, load levelers, and aluminum and zinc ornamental and functional die castings like taillight trim, hood ornaments, and name plates.
[42] The Midland-Ross Corporation was acquired by Forstmann Little & Company, a private equity investment firm, on July 1, 1986, for $450 million ($1,250,819,672 in 2023 dollars).
[43] Midland-Ross ceased to exist, and many of its divisions were spun off as stand-alone companies or sold to other firms over the next two decades.