Initially founded during World War I in 1917 as a local train repair workshop, in the interwar period the company was part of the Polish State Railways.

[1] After the company's equipment was confiscated, dismantled and sent to Germany during World War II, the factory was rebuilt as a train repair workshop, but in 1951 it was turned into a defence contractor producing guns, firearms and machine tools.

[2] From 1951 the company license-built M1939 37 mm automatic air defense guns and Nudelman N-37 aircraft cannons used in LiM-2 and MiG-17 fighters.

While Poland was still in the Warsaw Pact, other types of Soviet-designed military equipment were also introduced: 57 mm AZP S-60 and ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, 2M-3M naval cannons, armament for the 2S1 Gvozdika SP howitzer, DShK, NSV and KPV heavy machine guns, as well as domestic designs.

Among projects currently developed in the Tarnów Mechanical Works are the WLKM-12 Szafir 12.7 mm multi-barrel machine gun, ZSMU-70 missile system and GA-40 belt-fed grenade launcher.