815-964-6771 TF: 800-338-5471

Piranha Has A Long History

let us show you!

Piranha has the widest range of metal fabrication and thermal cutting equipment on the market. How did we get here? It’s an American story spanning three centuries.

This is the equipment your grandparents used. And it’ll be the equipment your grandchildren use, too. See how the legacy was built.

Join the Legacy
\

1879: Bertsch

Founded in Cambridge City, IN, Bertsch and Co. moved from manufacturing agricultural tools to producing light-duty sheet metal fabrication equipment back in the 1880s.

Collecting a series of patents over the following decades, Bertsch would eventually become renowned for strong, long-lasting bending rolls. These bending rolls were used to build the United States’ first nuclear submarines and can be seen in metal fabrication facilities worldwide today.

Bertsch was acquired by Piranha in 2003.

W.A. Whitney, a relative of famed American inventor Eli Whitney, started his eponymous company in Rockford, IL to manufacture the world’s first punching hand tools. It has since invented scores of new technologies across punches, shears, plasma tables, punch-plasma combination machines and, most recently, fiber lasers.

Whitney equipment has delivered metal fabrication successes of all sizes: The underwater railway between France and England was created with a Whitney CNC plate punching, notching and nibbling machine.

In 2004, W.A. Whitney was acquired by Piranha.

\

1907: Whitney

​

\

1974: Piranha

Piranha made its name off of its ironworkers. Harry Oswald and Bob Brown developed the machine to help them streamline production at the foundry where they worked. Turns out that plenty of metal fabricators wanted to get their hands on one.

Those original ironworkers still run today. Which is part of the reason Piranha is the current market leader.

Since the introduction of the Piranha ironworker, product lines have expanded to include a massive range of reliable, resilient metal fabrication and thermal cutting equipment.

Beginning in a two-car garage in Bend, OR, Arclight Dynamics has since become a leading manufacturer of CNC plasma tables. It has built a reputation for innovations in customer experience across its audience of metal fabricators, hobbyists, artists, mechanical contractors and beyond.

Arclight Dynamics joined Piranha in 2024. With its addition to the Piranha roster and dual distribution models in place, customers across both the Midwest and West Coast have easier access to the most reputable equipment and service in the business.

\

2010: Arclight Dynamics

 

\

2025: Piranha opens its new facility

Rockford, IL, the site of Whitney’s original facility and a manufacturing hub even before that, has long been home to the Piranha family. But we’ve been growing.

2025 marks the opening of our new facility in Belvedere, one with more than 15,000 square feet of showroom space designed exclusively for metal fabricators. The new facility offers opportunities to work directly with applications engineers on your projects and take advantage of free training.

Pay us a visit. We’ll introduce you to the whole family.

Join the Legacy

Fill out the form. A Piranha rep will be in touch soon to see how we can build you a shop meant to last.