The company was then purchased by Frank Johnson in 1979, moved downstairs to a 1200 sq.ft. shop and the name changed to Acorn Welding. Then in 1987, the company of three employees was purchased by Don Hrabec, today's president of Acorn Welding.
"When my wife and I purchased the company we asked Frank why he called it Acorn. Frank claimed "from the little acorn comes the great oak", so we decided to keep the name and try and live up to it".
Acorn Welding has grown to become Canada's largest aircraft exhaust and engine mount company. Growing even more in 2006 with the purchase of Radial Exhaust from West Virginia, Acorn is now also the largest radial and vintage aircraft exhaust company in the world. Between 1999 and 2009, Acorn Welding successfully performed 30,353 repairs to various aircraft components. At the same time, Acorn Welding successfully manufactured 212,206 various general aviation components from small brackets, braces, and struts all the way to large riveted assemblies.
Today with a modern 50,000 sq.ft. A facility, forty full-time staff, almost 100 new manufactured products, aircraft exhaust, and engine mounts for over 50 makes and 270 models, 750 fabrication fixtures, Acorn Welding continues to grow.
"We're bursting at the seams, but a quality service and product are still our #1 and we can still weld anything but a broken heart and the crack of dawn" states Don.
We are always striving to improve our quality, which is not always the easy way. For us, it is the only way. We have four full-time quality personnel on staff monitoring all products and repairs with a Transport Canada approved quality control program every step of the way.
With experienced welders certified to the AWS D17.1 Aerospace Welding Standard and rigid fabrication fixtures for everything we do, yours parts pass through a process that ensures quality.
Acorn Welding is committed to complete customer satisfaction by being a reliable source of parts of unsurpassed quality, workmanship, and airworthiness. Acorn Welding will continue to expand our support of customer needs adhering to the highest standards of excellence and service.
Acorn Welding is a Transport Canada Civil Aviation approved Maintenance Organization #100-91. We are also one of the very few EASA approved Welding Facilities. Our approval Number is EASA.145.7212
We are also a Transport Canada Civil Aviation approved manufacturer. Acorn Welding holds ratings for Welding, Components, NDT, and Structures as well as distribution of aviation parts.
For your convenience our approval certificates are provided online.