In 1959 a young British engineer Leonard James Chant, his wife and three sons immigrated to the United States. It was in the heydays of the United States space program and there was a shortage of engineers. Recruited by the ITE Corporation, Jim worked on special Government test programs and equipment.
Humble Beginnings
In 1962 he was hired as the Chief Engineer at Boonshaft and Fuchs Co., a small but well known Government testing equipment and machinery manufacturer. Of the many projects he worked on, the most well known was the first human centrifuge located at the Naval Warfare Center in Warminster, PA. John Glenn and the Mercury Astronauts trained for their upcoming space mission using this human centrifuge.
By 1970 the economic climate had changed and Jim left Boonshaft and Fuchs to start his own business. L. J. Chant Associates was started in the basement of Jim's home as a consulting business. He had no product, no sales force and no money, just his good name, reputation and engineering expertise in servo hydraulics and testing machinery. Although there were many lean years, ultimately through hard work and perseverance, the consulting business lead to customers wanting to know if he could supply them with control systems and hydraulic power units to go along with the engineering designs he was providing.
In 1976 the company moved to a rented garage, a technician was hired to help out and the name was changed to Chant Engineering Co. Inc. The company remained unchanged until 1986 when Philip Chant, Jim's fourth son joined the company as a full time employee.
Phil had grown up helping out in the company when needed but was reluctant to stay working at a tiny consulting company that had no product or sales force. The company had to grow and in the end the steady growth came from a partnership of Phil's energy and Jim's experience.
Today Chant Engineering is a global, diversified engineering company that designs, manufactures, services and calibrates testing machines, systems and related accessories for worldwide industrial and military customers.
Fueled by growth, the company now resides in a new 38,000 sq. ft. "green design" energy efficient manufacturing facility. With 30+ employees, the success and the growth continues.