Optima USA Inc

Founded in 1958, Balax Inc. is one of the leaders in designing and manufacturing cold forming taps. Based in North Lake, Wis., it offers products that include thredfloer taps, thredshaver cutting taps, miniature thread gages and roughing end mills. The firm provides services, such as blank making, heat-treating, shank and square grinding, fluting, thread grinding and surface treatment. It maintains a fully equipped tapping laboratory to test new design concepts for tapping torque, tapping speed, tool geometry, coolant or lubrication performance, pretap hole sizing and material compatibility.

Founded in 1952, SKF Precision Technologies is one of the leading global suppliers of machine tool and automation components. The company provides contract manufacturing and custom engineering services for the medical, mining, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, food manufacturing and computer industries. In addition, its machine tool capabilities are used in the high-speed milling of aluminum and advanced one-step multiprocess machining. SKF Precision Technologies, a unit of SKF USA, offers a range of linear products, including precision ground ball screws, roll guides and sliders. It also provides condition and spindle monitoring, as well as special sensors for machine tools. SKF Precision Technologies operates its spindle service centers in Grafton, Wis. Additionally, it maintains spindle service centers in Gothenburg, Sweden; Schweinfurt, Germany; Steyr, Austria; and Chino, Japan.