W.A. Whitney introduced several new presses into its product line in the 1930s but remained a small company, with only three part-time employees in 1954. That changed with the hiring of Ted Brolund as W.A. Whitney’s engineer in the mid-1950s. Under his influence, W.A. Whitney became the first company to incorporate hydraulics in punching tools.
W.A. Whitney soon expanded its product line to include coper-notcher-benders, duplicators, gang punches, large panel presses, portable hydraulic punches and shears, all designed by Brolund, although its focus remained mainly on small hydraulic punches and hand tools.
In 1961, Spengler spun off W.A. Whitney as its own stand-alone unit, beginning a period of serious expansion for the company. Through the rest of the 1960s, W.A. Whitney introduced a number of new products, including a sheet metal duplicator and numerous portable metalworking tools. Also around this time, the company pioneered the use of numeric controls with sheet metal punching machines, and it developed the Beamline Punching Unit, capable of punching angle iron, I-beams and structural steel.
By 1963 W.A Whitney employed 50, with sales of $1 million.