History of Jp Mfg, Inc.

The Optical Society of America OPN Article - Optical Innovations

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Jp Mfg. was founded in 1969, by Albert Kania, an optical mechanical engineer, who had a diverse background ranging from positions as a high pressure boiler technician to a head foreman at Omnitech, (a ground-breaking optics firm). Working in his garage with a few small plastic injection molding machines, Albert manufactured and sold magnifier "bug" boxes along with various small hand magnifiers. These new products were sold mainly to the hobby and educational markets. Soon, the company began making more sophisticated and higher tolerance products for other industries.

A few years later, the company outgrew the original garage space. A larger building was purchased at 13 Lovely Street, Southbridge, Massachusetts and was remodeled in 1973. The operations of Jp Mfg., Inc. are still at this original location.

In 1976, Edmund Kuzdzol joined JP Mfg's as the Chief Executive Officer. With 25 years of experience in ophthalmics at the American Optical Co, Mr. Kuzdol brought many new opportunities and growth potentials.

Jp Mfg. has continued to grow by increasing our molding capacities with continuous improvements including the addition of lense coating equipment, advancements in assembly capabilities, an in-house machine shop, 19 molding machines with capacities from 40 to 200 tons, and investments in our quality assurance department.

Today, the company is lead by Jan Kania, (the son of the company's founder) in the position of the Chief Operation Officer with Mr. Kuzdzol continuing as Chief Executive Officer

Jp Mfg's products are used in a wide range of fields such as surgical instrumentation, standard optical lenses, infra-red sensoring, teaching aids, consumer products, hobbies, custom molded optical, and non-optical products.