History
A History of Diamond Tool & Engineering
How We Started
Diamond Tool & Engineering started in 1989 as a tool and die company specializing in the injection molding plastics industry. Founder and President, Kent Smith had been in the tool & die industry for over thirty-five years. Kent started in Minnesota and a few years later found himself in Ohio. While in Ohio, he found himself longing to return to his home town of Bertha, Minnesota.
Kent took a leap of faith and returned to Bertha, Minnesota to begin a company that would not only provide economic security for himself, but also create good paying jobs for people in his home town.
Bertha, Minnesota
Bertha is a thriving rural community located in central Minnesota with a population of approximately 500 people. The community of Bertha offers four churches and a K-12 public school – Go Bertha-Hewitt Bears! Other establishments include: Star Bank, Main Street Express gas station, Bertha Museum & Historical Society, Seip Drug, Bertha Medical Clinic, and the Amish Country Co-op. The family-focused, small town tranquility of Bertha is reminiscent of Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”
As fate would have it, Diamond Tool & Engineering’s first project was a rubber injection mold for the instrumentation on a Polaris four-wheeler. The project was not a plastic injection mold but it was a start. The first year the firm grew gradually to three full-time employees. By 1998 Diamond Tool & Engineering reached thirty-five full-time employees, upgraded equipment, and underwent a complete building remodel.
Our Next Stage
In 2004, Chris Smith, who car-pooled with Kent in Ohio during the ’80’s, joined the team to open up operations in Ohio. Chris started with automotive industry sales out of his home. And within a couple of years, Chris opened a 2,400 square-foot support facility in Englewood, Ohio. In 2008, Diamond Tool & Engineering needed a larger facility in Ohio. A bigger building with more space for the increase in business and the capabilities to handle the larger molds was found in Laura, Ohio.
Diamond Tool & Engineering Today
Diamond Tool & Engineering’s facility in Bertha, MN has grown to 6,500 square-feet. The Minnesota facility is a full service tool and die shop, complete with the most advanced robotics. Diamond Tool & Engineering can repair or update tools up to 16,000 lbs.
We at Diamond Tool & Engineering take pride in our work and in our local communities.
