Big Kaiser Precision Tooling Inc. recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. On August 1, 1990, KPT Kaiser opened its doors and began its mission to bring Kaiser CKB modular boring tools, developed in Switzerland, to the North American market.

When the company began in 1990, most shops used boring tool technology from the 1950s, where tool changes were a costly and a time-consuming process. Labeling themselves “The Tooling Problem Solvers,” the sales team set out to take on the industry’s toughest problems and prove the efficiency and time savings of modular boring tools. Today, the modular connections are still the same, meaning a tool built in 1969 can still be used on a machine today.

“I started the company out of necessity,” Big Kaiser president and CEO, Chris Kaiser said. “I knew we needed to change how we were selling the boring tools manufactured by my father’s company in Switzerland, Heinz Kaiser AG.”

Now a member of the Big Daishowa Group of companies, Big Kaiser plays an integral role in the company’s worldwide R&D and manufacturing strategy. Big Kaiser develops and provides high-performance tool holders, boring heads, workholding, measuring instruments and custom engineering support for machining companies. 

“After 30 years, I’m proud to say we’ve had a good number of customers from the very beginning,” Kaiser recalled. “Possibly the first was a Swiss-born machinist who carried Heinz Kaiser boring tools back from his vacation in Zurich to his job in the repair center at United Airlines in San Francisco. We’re grateful that companies like United, Bell Helicopter, Sikorsky, Caterpillar, John Deere, Metalex, Vermeer and Viking Pump – among others – are still with us to this day.”