Founded in 1921, on Hamilton St. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Steele Canvas Basket has been leading the industrial basket manufacturing industry. We paid a visit to the family-owned and operated facility in Massachusetts for a closer look at their processes. See who this 90-year old company has developed its operations to a modern-day factory while still staying true to quality.
Layout and Cutting Room
All of the canvas used is either Steeletex (vinyl-coated nylon) or leather. The materials is first layed out and cut using an electric knife.
Stitching Department
The next step is to take the raw materials to the stitching department. Here is where all of the basket bodies, tote bags, and liners are stitched by hand.
Wood and Steel Department
Every basket needs heavy duty structure to hold as much items as possible. In the back of production facility is the wood and steel department where the appropriate frame is selected.
“Slide-On” Process
Once frame is selected, the hand-sewn canvas bodies from stitching, as well as other basket materials, are put together.
Flash-Welding
The final step is flash-welding. The basket rims are flash-welded on to each basket by hand. Factory workers operating this C-gun attach the rim to each of the basket’s u-rods weld by weld.
This is what a finished Canvas Small Basket would look like:
http://www.steelecanvas.com/
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