In 1985, Mathey Manufacturing, still successfully marketing both its pipe cutting and beveling equipment and its wireline winching devices, was purchased by Hinderliter Tool Company, a Tulsa-based manufacturer of oil-field well-drilling products. Then, only 2 years later, Mr. Donald Lockhart, a ten-year Hinderliter executive, bought the business from his former employer. Shortly after that, he also acquired the Leland Truck equipment line, known for its expertise in winching, and changed the company’s name to Mathey Leland. However, in the late 1980s, the company decided to focus on the cutting and beveling business and sold the Leland division, which included the wireline business, and the company’s name changed once again, to Mathey International, LTD. Meanwhile, also in 1986, Cogsdill Tool Products of Camden, SC, a manufacturer of mechanical deburring and roller burnishing tools, had acquired the clamping systems product line of Dearman International, Inc.

One of the most important changes to the structure and business model of Mathey came in 1996, when the company acquired the rights to the Dearman clamping systems from Cogsdill Tool Products, and changed its name once more, this time to Mathey Dearman, Inc.

Then, in 1998, a 10-year working relationship with C.I.A. Italiana culminated in the acquisition of the Milan-based company by Mathey Dearman, adding not only a European presence, but also welding ovens and additional pipe cutting machines to the company’s product lines.

Mathey Machine Works continued to manufacture the same basic machines into the early 1950s. Then, around 1952, Mr. Mathey re-designed the original saddle machine, and introduced to the market the more compact, one-piece cast aluminum design that the company refers to today as the original short saddle.

At about the same time, Mr. Mathey had developed and patented several designs for wireline winching equipment for oil and gas exploration and production. In 1954, when the company changed its name to the Mathey Manufacturing Company, the Mathey name was known around the world for both winching devices and pipe cutting and beveling machines.

In the most recent decade, from its Tulsa headquarters and its European base in Milan, Mathey Dearman focused on international growth. It expanded its global presence by adding key distribution partners throughout the world, and as of the end of 2009, almost 40% of the company’s sales were outside the US and Canada.

Mathey Dearman has also rededicated itself to the design, manufacture, and marketing of innovative products to help welders and pipefitters wherever they work. Today, the company prides itself on being the foremost authority on preparing pipe and vessels to be joined together by welding. It has a strong distribution network, made up of some of the most successful and well-known distributors of welding, pipefitting, and industrial equipment in most countries around the world. Its products are found in the construction of oil and gas pipelines, power plants, ships, refineries, LNG terminals, petrochemical plants, bridges, and many more projects…in short, wherever pipe is being installed. As the company reminds its customers: “Where there’s pipe, there’s Mathey.”

Tim Dearman, with 25 years of experience in welding and pipeline construction, designed a number of tools to help welders and pipefitters do a better job in less time. Working at night and on weekends in his garage in Flint, Michigan, he built prototypes of each new tool and then tested them in the field. In 1970, encouraged by enthusiastic response from welders who used these tools, Mr. Dearman withdrew $2,200 from his savings account and started to manufacture these devices. In 1974, he moved the company to the Houston suburb of Pearland, Texas, where his manufacturing operation grew into a global, multi-million dollar business.

In the 1930’s, Chester A. Mathey began building saddle-type portable machines for cutting and beveling pipe, making his first sale in August 1936. Mr. Mathey’s customer profile was remarkably similar to today’s: pipeline and heavy construction contractors, pipeline operators, refineries, shipyards, oilfield operators, and the suppliers to those segments of the market.