Our Company

Xtek's roots can be traced to a young inventor named Russell Bloomfield who, at the turn of the 20th century, was seeking a way to make cup and cone bearings for bicycles that could take the harsh pounding of the period's cobblestone streets. Bloomfield's work led to the development of a steel hardening process that eventually became known as the Tool Steel Process (TSP) because the metallurgical properties that it imparted to gears and bearings made them "as hard and as durable as tool steel."

With the financial backing of a prominent Cincinnati family, the Tool Steel Gear and Pinion Company was officially formed in 1909 with a principal focus on gears for traction cars. Later, the company applied its metallurgical techniques to heavy-duty equipment applications in railroads, mines and steel mills.

Under the leadership of the founding Brooks family, the company enjoyed steady success and growth, expanding into new plants at Elmwood Place in 1911 and Sharonville in 1952. As the company broadened its product lines and served markets, it gradually outgrew the "Gear and Pinion" name and in 1976, the company was renamed Xtek, derived from the term "Exact Technologies."

The Brooks family remained the principal owners of Xtek until the early 1980s when a series of transactions led to the formation of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). By 2000, the employees owned 100 percent of the company and it continues to serve as a model of involved employee ownership.

Also in 2000, after years of incremental plant expansions, all Xtek operations were consolidated in the Sharonville facility, which now serves as the company's world headquarters. Today, Xtek's products span a broad spectrum of industries and reach all industrialized areas of the world.