ASCO Sintering Company was formed by Robert St. Clair in 1946 as a distribution company for self-lubricating bearings produced by companies such as Keystone Carbon and Boundbrook. The company later developed a niche, by machining and turning standard bearings to produce components for special applications, which in turn led to the installation of presses for the production of its own bearings. By 1961 a range of simple structural P/M parts were added to the production. In 1964 St. Clair sold the company to Burgess Norton Manufacturing Company in Geneva, Illinois, and Robert C. Burgess went to California to handle the day to day operations of ASCO. Burgess Norton and ASCO were subsequently bought by AMSTED Industries. In 1972 Bob Burgess bought ASCO back from the AMSTED group, and in 1979 he introduced an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) Burgess sold his remaining stock to the employee stock ownership trust in 1985, leaving executive vice presidents Larry Adams and Hugh Jenkins in control of the company.
