A long time landmark along U.S. 40 between Richmond and Centerville, the massive industrial NATCO complex will be gone in early 2011.  Below, note the model of the machine that the National Automatic Tool Company donated to Purdue University in 1958.  The model was photographed in the Michael Golden Lab building on the West Lafayette, Indiana Purdue campus.

• History of NATCO and it's founder, William F. Bockhoff
• Photo of NATCO Building frontage, 2009
• Photo of NATCO sign, before demolition
• Local Author: One Man’s Insider View Of Machine Tool History

(from the display)
Model of a NATCO 58 Station
Holeway Processing Machine

This is an authentic reproduction of a NATCO Holeway processing machine now in use by one of the nation's leading automobile manufacturers for machining cylinder heads.  It performs all of the functions of its "big brother" with the exception of the actual machining.  The miniature heads traverse through the fixture, stopping at each station in turn.  The action of the heads in the machine operations is also authentically duplicated in rapid traverse forward, feed forward, rapid reverse and stop.  It is completely automatic with a cycle of about 70 heads per hour.

The model, scaled one inch to the foot, is 12 feet long.  All of the parts were scaled down from the actual part prints.  Many of the parts, being cast from aluminum or brass, required miniature patterns.  There are between 55,000 and 60,000 parts in the model, consuming some 10,000 man hours to complete.  Weighing approximately 1800 pounds, it can be dismantled into three sections for ease of handling.

This model was built in the Pattern Department of NATCO for display in the Machine Tool Builders Show in Chicago in 1955.  Since that time, it has been displayed in many association meetings and engineering colleges throughout the United States.

Photos taken May 15, 2010 @ Purdue University