For some companies, being the “customers’ choice” is just words. But for Walter USA, it’s a philosophy the company lives by.
High-precision tools are an important part of any manufacturing process. To that end, Walter USA offers a variety of high-precision tools that serves a gamut of industries. Those tools include those used for milling, turning, drilling, and threading applications. Walter’s expertise also includes advanced options for engineering specific jobs.
Walter has more than 40,000 standard tools and countless customized solutions supplemented by product data, drawings, models, and more.
Being the customers’ choice means Walter works together with its customers to develop custom solutions for fully machining components for use in the aviation and aerospace industries, as well as automotive, energy, general engineering, and gear manufacturing.

German beginnings
Walter’s roots trace back to Germany, where the company has built a rich global history. Over time, it has steadily established a strong and growing presence in the U.S. manufacturing market. Combining its German engineering heritage with a commitment to innovation, Walter has made significant inroads and continues to serve a wide range of industries.
‘Walter is a German company, and Walter USA is part of Walter AG, which was founded in 1919 in Düsseldorf, Germany,” said Jason Dodds, marketing director for Walter USA. “The company later relocated to Tübingen in 1925 and initially focused on serving the European market. Walter entered the U.S. market in 1976, introducing our products to U.S. manufacturing, and officially established Walter USA as a company in 1998.”
Many of the advances Walter has made in the United States have been driven by a combination of strategic acquisitions, expanded sales efforts, and focused marketing initiatives, according to Dodds. This multifaceted approach has allowed Walter to steadily increase its presence in the U.S. market while maintaining a strong focus on engineering, backed by its German heritage.
“The U.S. market is a cornerstone of global manufacturing, and Walter is dedicated to delivering premium, high-performance tooling solutions to support it,” he said. “Originally headquartered in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Walter took a strategic step in 2022 by relocating its Americas Campus and Technology Center to Greer, South Carolina. This move underscores the company’s deep commitment to the U.S. market and positions us to better serve customers with a state-of-the-art facility tailored to meet the evolving demands of modern manufacturing.”

Working with customers
In order to process tools that are to a customer’s exact specifications, Walter works with its customers closely to make sure they get what they need. This could mean modifying existing tools that Walter already has in its inventory or working from the ground up to create something unique and special, according to Dodds.
“Engineering competence is part of our brand promise,” he said.
Part of that brand promise becomes even clearer with the addition of Walter’s new education training center in South Carolina, according to Dodds.
“We have built this center to be a physical on-site education environment, but it also has a virtual element in which we can have live interactions with customers,” he said.
The virtual component is often necessary when companies’ workers are often not able to travel to the physical center itself, according to Dodds.
“Let’s say a customer is running into an issue with a particular process; we could set that up in our equipment and be live interacting with the customer anywhere in the country in order to real-time work out what’s happening with what they’re seeing,” he said. “And we can do the same thing within our on-site facility, of course, where we have all the equipment attached to virtual components. We know that not everybody can travel. It was very important for us to also be a virtual problem-solving place for our customers, and we’re very proud of it.”
The training center officially opened in January 2025, with events scheduled to begin in early February. Dodds said he expects training to really ramp up at that point.
“We have a large ambition, and we have different types of things that we can host here that we’re excited about — including very specific events like a gear-manufacturing element,” he said. “It’s very state-of-the-art. It’s all about thinking about educating and delivering the best results that we can for our customers.”

All-purpose facility
Walter’s Americas Campus in South Carolina not only offers educational training opportunities, but production ones as well, according to Dodds.
“It’s actually also a production site, so not only are we educating and partnering with customers to help their processes, we have the latest equipment in manufacturing and coding technology sitting right here attached to the campus, right next to the building,” he said. “That’s another signal to our customers of the commitment that Walter has for the U.S. market.”
Customer collaboration
If it hasn’t been made clear by now, the manifestation of the center all boils down to one factor: how Walter approaches its customers, according to Dodds.
“When a customer approaches us with a challenge, we always take a collaborative approach, and that really starts by listening, understanding, and seeing what their unique problem and situation is; then we work together with them to customize the solution and address their specific need,” he said.
That collaboration is made possible through the vast knowledge that comes from Walter’s heritage and its experience — not just regionally, but globally since Walter has an historical global footprint, according to Dodds.
“Another point of pride for us is that we are in a continuous, innovative mindset,” he said. “We have an R&D organization that is constantly being challenged with developing new tools and advancing our digital manufacturing capabilities. It’s an important piece to remaining that trusted customer choice as well as that partner for our customers.”

Big commitment
Walter’s massive investment in the U.S. market just goes to show how significant its commitment to its customers is, according to Dodds.
“One of our more significant achievements here in the Americas, and particularly in the U.S., is the investment and the commitment that we have made to this market with this new facility,” he said. “I think it sets us up to be that customer choice and a partner for them. It highlights the importance of U.S. manufacturing globally and strengthens our customer partnerships.”
With these investments, Walter continues to push for excellence across all the industries it serves, according to Dodds.
“Through this, I think we can deliver some of these digitalization and automation events that we are developing,” he said. “And here at Walter, we’re prepared to lead the way in offering cutting tool solutions designed using this mindset of a digitalization, automation, and Industry 4.0 partnership. So, our focus will continue to be that, moving forward.”
Looking to the future
That automation and digitalization is expected to play a big part in Walter’s future moving forward as well, according to Dodds.
“We see this continued digitalization and automation coming into play,” he said. “We see more data-driven manufacturing, and so this will be key for collecting information and developing higher performance tools. Walter is not only adapting to the era of Industry 4.0 but leading it, integrating data-driven manufacturing with cutting-edge tooling advancements. We see continued advancement in material technology and accuracy of machines. As machines become more advanced, we also have to advance our product. If you go back 10 years, the machines were different, and the manufacturing processes were different, and so the products that were used at that time were developed for the accuracy level within those parameters. As the machines became more advanced and more reliable, the tools had to do the same.”
This constant evolution requires ever-increasing precision—not only in the machines but also in the tools and the equipment used to produce them, according to Dodds.
“We’re in a constant evolution of pushing that ability,” he said.
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