In the 1940s and '50s, Sturdi-Bilt Steel Products, Inc. manufactured bases for Sears Craftsman woodworking machines. In 1959 the company name changed Sturdilite Products Inc., likely because they discontinued their line of heavy steel materials handling equipment in favor of their woodworking machinery bases. After the name change they began making laboratory, electronics, and industrial work benches. They had a manufacturing plant in Plainwell, Michigan. At some point in the 1960s it seems that they were bought out by Kewaunee Manufacturing (now Kewaunee Scientific). It is not certain when the manufacture of machinery bases was discontinued but it most likely coincided with the rise in offshore machinery imports during the late 1970s and early '80s.
Kewaunee Scientific remains in business and continues to manufacture scientific furniture under the Sturdilite brand. The plant in Plainwell was shut down in the 1980s and moved to Texas.
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