June 2018

82 83 THE COLUMBIA MACHINE COMPANY ed Columbia’s new technology by building a one-quarter scale version of his machine, loading it in the back of a Buick station wagon, and taking it to nearby rock quarries and cement manufacturing operations. “He’d pull the machine out of the station wagon and make product right on site,” says Goodman. Shortly thereafter, Columbia built the first hydraulic machine to make two standard 8x8x16-inch blocks. Because of the precision and quality of blocks these machines could easily produce, the building public accepted the new Columbia machines enthusiastically. Over the next several years, Columbia continued to perfect its block machine. In 1955, the company moved to its present location on Grand Boulevard in Vancouver, where it incorporated as Columbia Machine, Inc. By 1957, it had established a firm position as a leading manufacturer in the U.S., and began expanding its market across the globe. To- day, the company is the industry leader in concrete block manufacturing equipment, with a complete line of products to outfit any and all concrete products plants. “We have the equipment with the most uptime, with the fastest cycle times, and the least amount of cement and other materials used to manufac- ture pavers and retaining wall block and concrete block,” says Goodman. “With our Columbia Vibra- tion Technology, we can make much more consis- tent products. That’s an area where we excel.We sell to over a hundred countries, worldwide.We cover all of the developed, first-world countries, and many of the emerging market countries.” Columbia Machine also has a Batching and Mixing Division, and offers a full line of mixing options to serve specific plant needs. All its mix- ers, including planetary, rotating pan, twin-shaft, and ribbon blade mixers are built to the highest standards of durability, with low maintenance costs, ease of use, performance enhancing op- tions, and concrete repeatability. Another compa- ny division manufactures molds for the making of blocks, pavers, and retaining wall units. In the 1960s, Columbia expanded its opera- tions to include the manufacture of palletizers - machines that provide an automatic means for stacking cases or other packaged type goods or products onto a pallet for efficient transportation and storage - when some representatives from a local brewery asked if the machinery that it used to stack concrete blocks onto a pallet could be configured to work with cases of beer. The com- pany’s engineers went to work and, soon, supply- ing this type of equipment to all types of con- sumer products companies created diversification