Bourn & Koch, Inc. of Rockford, IL, is pleased to report that Rob Swiss has recently joined the company as the national sales manager for gear manufacturing machinery. Swiss will be responsible for the sales and support of all gear manufacturing equipment for Bourn & Koch. This includes the new gear machinery lines of Bourn & Koch brand horizontal gear hobbers; Bourn & Koch and Fellows gear shaper brands; as well as all in-stock and custom remanufactured gear manufacturing machinery. Swiss will also assist with the design and development of new gear manufacturing machinery for Bourn & Koch.

Drawn to the history of gear manufacturing at Bourn & Koch, Swiss looks forward to supporting the existing customer base and also to growing the gear manufacturing business. Bourn & Koch acquired the Fellows line of gear shapers in 2002 and the machine tool division of Barber-Colman back in 1985. Bourn & Koch continues to manufacture the Fellows 10-4 and 20-4 gear shapers today, re-engineering these classics as well as new shapers for modern gear manufacturing standards. Today’s Bourn & Koch brand horizontal gear hobbers and shapers were designed and developed with access to all that historical OEM documentation and expertise. 

Swiss explains, “Everything built at Bourn & Koch today is an improvement on the time-tested legacy gear manufacturing designs. Bourn & Koch’s in-house machining capabilities and precision assembly crew mean that every piece of gear machinery built here is well-crafted and designed to last. I’m happy to join this team in supporting customers and helping Bourn & Koch expand into new gear manufacturing markets.”

To this new role, Swiss brings 20 years of experience in the gear industry with his most recent post at Gleason Corporation where he served as regional sales manager and engineering supervisor. Swiss was educated in England where he completed a 4-year apprenticeship and gained a higher national certificate in mechanical engineering.

Bourn & Koch will be exhibiting at IMTS 2018, September 10-15 in Chicago, booth #236854 (North building, level 3).