Our story · 1903 to today
A family history. A Baltimore history. More than a century of adapting the craft of manufacturing.
Joseph O. Danko, Sr., at the age of seven, emigrates with his parents from Austria-Hungary and settles with his family in Mahwah, New Jersey where his father finds work at the American Brake Shoe and Foundry Company. After only a few years of education, Mr. Danko supports his family's income by sweeping the floor at the company's pattern shop where he eventually learns the trade.
Shortly after the US Congress passes The Naval Act of 1916 which provides unprecedented funding for the U.S. Navy to become "second to none," Mr. Danko finds new prosperity as a government patternmaker working at the Washington D.C. Navy Yard.
Mr. Danko leaves the Navy Yard and establishes the Danko Pattern and Manufacturing Company at the corner of Light and Lee Streets on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD. The site is now the location of the Harbor Court Hotel and the area has become a major tourist attraction.
Mr. Danko becomes well known for producing patterns for railroad frog switches, locomotive fire box grates, wheels, and other components used at the neighboring B & O's Mount Clare Shops and Roundhouse. Photo courtesy of the B&O.
During the Great Depression when work was scarce, Mr. Danko manages to retain his skilled workforce by paying them out-of-pocket to construct his new Sears and Roebuck home on West Cold Spring Lane – a California bungalow design with rustic stone enhancements.
The company grows in supporting World War II efforts by constructing patterns for local Baltimore manufacturers including the Bendix Corporation, Bethlehem Steel & Ship Yards, the Glenn L. Martin Company, and the Ellicott Machine Company.
Mr. Danko constructs a new facility at the present address in the Arlington neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore. He also starts another company named the Arlington Bronze and Aluminum Company with personnel and machinery from a discontinued division of the Standard Gas and Equipment Company.
A new machine shop division under the name of the Wabash Manufacturing Company is added to meet increasing demand by customers to purchase patterns, castings, and machining as one complete package.
Joseph O. Danko, Jr. joins his father as the company's Chief Engineer and becomes President eleven years later.
The foundry cast aluminum seat brackets for Baltimore's reconstructed Memorial Stadium for a seating capacity of 31,000 fans. The company is very proud to have literally supported so many thousands of cheering Colts and Orioles fans over the venue's lifetime.
Wabash Manufacturing purchases the assets of the Greenwood Engineering Company, a local manufacturer of corrugated box machinery. Mr. Danko constructs a new 20,000 square foot facility adjacent to the pattern shop to house the acquisition. The company later sold Greenwood in 1959 to the Langston Company of Camden, NJ.
The company constructs a 14,000 square foot warehouse to accommodate the need for expanding storage.
Danko Arlington purchases an instrument manufacturer which uses machined aluminum castings in the new field of photogrammetry. The Kelsh Instrument Division made sophisticated cameras and stereo plotters to produce topographical maps. Today, satellites and digital graphics have made the optical-mechanical Kelsh equipment obsolete.
Danko Arlington adds a new 28,000 square foot facility across the street from the foundry. The custom built structure is faced in a local stone, Patapsco quartzite, and includes rooftop parking to accommodate an expanding commuting workforce.
At the height of the Cold War and Vietnam, the foundry, pattern, and machine divisions produce hardware for hundreds of defense programs. The company's close proximity to Annapolis, MD, and Washington, DC, benefits government engineers who perform tests and experiments for naval, intelligence, and space efforts.
The company's founder, Joseph O. Danko, Sr., retires after exactly fifty years in the business.
Danko Arlington produces a 25 foot scale model of the Hughes Glomar Explorer, a secret CIA ship built to recover a sunken Russian submarine.
The company expands its jobbing work in scaled ship models and low-volume, high-quality castings for military and aerospace programs.
John D. Danko, son of Joseph O. Danko, Jr. enters the business as Chief Engineer and becomes President eight years later.
As the Cold War comes to a close, the company refocuses its efforts toward high quality commercial casting markets.
At the dawn of the internet era, proprietary PC networked foundry and manufacturing software was developed in-house and receives a U. S. Copyright. The use of bar codes and statistical process control reduces overhead and operating costs.
The company expands its jobbing machine shop with improved CNC and CAD/CAM technology for increasing customer demands of one-source manufacturing.
Danko Arlington casts a processional cross designed by Joe and John Danko as a gift to the Archdiocese of Baltimore to commemorate the beginning of the new Christian millennium.
The company invests in 5-axis CNC technology.
The Pattern, Foundry, and Machine Divisions work tirelessly to manufacture air, shipboard, and ground based components used by the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Company expands its operations, overtakes two adjacent buildings, and installs an efficient reclamation system which recycles 100% of spent foundry sand into a clean and renewable molding media for lower costs and a cleaner environment.
The Company becomes ISO 9001:2008 Certified.
The company invests in Rapid Prototype Technology and can now cast new designs in several days time.
The company purchases its second large FDM 3-D printer.
The company purchases a new 11 axis CNC Lathe Mill for high speed machining.
The company re-acquires 20,000 square foot building at 4715 E. Wabash Avenue, originally constructed as a machine shop for Greenwood Engineering, for future expansion.
The company becomes AS9100 Certified.
The company is named American Foundry Society’s (AFS) Metalcaster of the year.
The company renovated 5000 square feet for a new Additive Manufacturing Center for its newly purchased 3-D sand printer from Voxeljet, AG – the first machine of its kind in the USA.
The company announces its additive manufacturing apprenticeship, connecting technical learning with hands-on manufacturing.
A company-wide LED lighting upgrade continues the investment in energy efficiency.
Investment in ZEISS ATOS 5 optical inspection and Optical Inspect 3-D reconnects modern measurement with a history that began with Kelsh instruments in 1962.
Danko Arlington welcomes Naval Surface Warfare Center and University of Maryland collaborators to discuss advanced foundry research and workforce development.
