For the past 25 years Ron Migedt has been leading Riverside Tool Corp. in providing its customers with high-quality cutting tools and excellent customer service. “Our philosophy has always been that profits depend on the tools you choose. This has always pushed us as a company to provide high-quality tooling and innovative solutions to our customers,” said Migedt. The company was located in a garage in Goshen, IN in its earliest days. Ron Migedt purchased the business in 1990, renamed it and soon moved to a larger location in Goshen. Migedt said the company has experienced steady growth, which has continued despite an economic slowdown and a disastrous fire.

Profile sanding was a technology that users generally couldn’t find the value in or extract the performance they need in order to use it in production. Our solution solves both those problems. - Ron Migedt

The fire in 2004 was devastating. No one was harmed but the fire resulted in a financial loss and the facility was no longer functional. “We lost everything except for one computer and some files,” said Migedt. “The experience was extremely challenging but it had the effect of forming us into a team. Everyone went the extra mile to stay together. We saw the year of rebuilding as an opportunity to introduce all new technology. We weren’t just interested in replacing what we had so much as investigating what was new. It was a philosophy and policy which propelled the company ahead and set a pattern of forward thinking that exists today.”

“In the early days we started out distributing a lot of tooling and producing a few key products. As the company grew so did our capabilities and experience and today we only distribute commodity items like saw blades and standard router bits. Everything else is 100% produced in-house.” said Migedt. Riverside always had a spirit of innovation and trailblazing that grew stronger as the size of the company grew. “We started producing our own inserts very early in our history. To this day we are a leading producer of inserts, especially with our Riverloy material that we established as a standard in the United States.”

After recovering from the fire in 2004 the rate of innovation started to increase quickly. “We launched our own PCD diamond tooling production in 2006,” continued Migedt, “and we have steadily added machines to accommodate our growth in that area.” Riverside now produces standard PCD diamond tooling and high-shear offerings such as its SuperShear and SuperShear Plus PCD diamond technology. “The SuperShear family of tooling produces the best surface finish of any tool that we have seen. We tell people the life of the tooling is best measured in miles because our first test tool is still running after putting it on the machine over 2 years ago.” said Migedt.

In 2010 Riverside saw another need in the industry and innovated. “Customers kept asking us for a way to barcode tooling and track it. We couldn’t find a solution out there that understood the wood and plastics industry. So we started a sister company and developed our own.” Intooligence was founded and began by producing a solution that allows laser-etched barcodes to be easily read from a variety of metallic surfaces. The software allows the producer of the cutting tool and the end-user to easily communicate and store documents like balancing certificates, CAD files, and inspection certificates. Intooligence can also help track tooling life and display it in a cost-per-foot analysis.

“Enabling Intooligence users to track tool-life in a easy-to-use system has helped Riverside improve it’s customer relationship and improve our tooling. The materials that we produce tools with now are so advanced that we need good record-keeping and analysis to help us understand if a particular tool design is exceeding the performance of a previous design. It’s hard for an operator to easily tell the difference in a 250,000 foot run versus a 280,000 foot run because many times it takes days to realize that. Intooligence helps customers do that and the data they relay back to us is extremely helpful.” said Migedt.

Enabling Intooligence users to track tool-life in a easy-to-use system has helped Riverside improve it’s customer relationship

Intooligence has also caught the spirit of innovation from Riverside and has also developed software for tool sharpeners and vending machine solutions for end-users and distributors of tooling. The vending machines can restrict users to only the items they need and keeps reports on how much users have vended. “It allows customers to place cutting tools and supplies where the users need it the most which saves time and labor. It’s there 24/7 with accountability and is a natural extension of the tool-crib.” said Migedt.

The innovation hasn’t stopped at Riverside. This year at AWFS in Las Vegas Riverside officially released its newest product called SuperSand. “It’s another area where we saw a need and we knew we could develop a better solution for the industry.

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Profile sanding was a technology that users generally couldn’t find the value in or extract the performance they need in order to use it in production. Our solution solves both those problems,” stated Migedt.

“The response since AWFS has been amazing and now we are working hard to keep up with the demand and are already continuing the product development and increasing offerings.” continued Migedt.

Looking back on 25 years Ron has seen a lot of changes, “The advancement in machinery, materials such as carbide and diamond, and the increasing demands of the customers as their machinery and capabilities progressed drove us into further innovation.” When asked if he sees things slowing down, Migedt remarked, “Oh no, the best is yet to come. We are having too much fun producing tools that astonish customers with performance and innovation they haven’t seen before. I’m looking forward to the next 25 years.”

For more information on Riverside Tool Corp. and its products, visit RiversideTool.com. For more information on Intooligence, visit Intooligence.com.