The Inception of Banjo
The story of Banjo starts in a small garage in Crawfordsville, Indiana. We need to go back to 1959 to see where the spark ignited for Banjo. Jack Canine set out to solve problems by offering high quality products - and nothing short of that attribute. Soon after he set out to accomplish this feat, he was able to move out of the garage and established Terra-Knife. Which was a small fertilizer knife supplier that focused on delivering quality products to farmers throughout the United States.
As the agricultural industry grew, so did the small supply company known as Terra-Knife. Jack Canine and his team recognized the need to expand their product offerings. The company quickly began offering ball valves and cam lever couplings. Shortly after this product line expansion the company was renamed to Terra-Products, in an effort to better represent its added product offerings.
The name Banjo Corporation came as a result of Jack Canine’s personal hobby and love for the stringed instrument. An additional factor was that the shape of one of the company’s newly heralded key products, the ball valve, somewhat resembled a banjo. Thus, Terra-Products transformed into present day Banjo Corporation and rapidly expanded their production capacities of polypropylene products.
4-Bolt Ball Valves
Current Day Banjo
Let's time warp forward a few decades to 2006. Banjo Corporation joined IDEX Fluid & Metering Technologies Division. This further strengthened the IDEX global position and allowed them to deliver complete fluid handling solutions for Agricultural and Industrial applications. In today’s marketplace, Banjo is recognized as a world-class producer of a broad and diverse range of mechanical/electrical valves, self-priming centrifugal pumps, and fittings for agriculture and various industrial applications. The Banjo name is prevalent wherever quality fluid handling solutions are required throughout the world.
Banjo boasts a large fleet of molding presses and numerous machining and assembly cells. OEM customers worldwide trust Banjo due to the long track record of delivery quality products. This sets Banjo apart from the rest of the pack:
- Part specification tolerances at one-ten thousandth of an inch
- 36 plastic injection-molding presses
- Capacity of up to 17,000 valves produced each day
- 3-day lead-times
- 98%+ first-pass yield
Commitment to Quality Control
In order to maintain their quality, Banjo has implemented various checks throughout their manufacturing process:
- Multiple finished goods inspections
- Daily process checks to isolate potential issues
- Monthly Rapid Improvement Events to identify opportunities where operations can be improved
- Inbound material inspection
Jack Canine ingrained a commitment to product innovation at the inception of this organization. That commitment to product innovation has continued since 1959, when Jack set out to design a better knife to apply anhydrous ammonia. Not only is Banjo committed to product innovation but to customer-driven innovation. Some examples of that include:
- Quick-change manifold systems to improve ease-of-use and versatility
- Electric valve product line tailored to specific OEM needs
- Patented Dry-Mate dry disconnects which tremendously reduce the possibility of spillage
The Banjo name is synonymous with high quality products delivered on time. From oilfield applications all the way to cornfield applications you can see the Banjo name prominently displayed on various valves, fittings, and couplers. Here is a link to our Banjo manufacturer page on dultmeier.com. We hope you enjoyed this manufacturer highlight. Stop back any time!
