Sheffer Corporation is an American manufacturer of hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders with a record that speaks for itself: over seven decades of firsts, a customer list that spans commercial manufacturing to deep-space launch systems, and a culture of engineering rigor that has never wavered. We are not a volume commodity supplier. We are precision specialists — the company engineers call when the application is too demanding, too critical, or too complex for an off-the-shelf solution.Sheffer founded Sheffer Engineering in Reading, Ohio. What began as a small shop built on mechanical ingenuity has grown into a multi-facility manufacturing operation with a direct-to-market sales model, in-house robotic welding, five-axis CNC machining, and a product line trusted by companies including Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, and Blue Origin.Sheffer story is fundamentally American. Two brothers, a shared belief in manufacturing excellence, and the discipline to formalize it — Sheffer became incorporated in 1956, just four years after its founding, signaling from the outset that this was a company built to last. When the Ralph J. Stolle Company acquired Sheffer in 1961, it didn’t slow the momentum — it accelerated it. That family commitment to the company has endured across generations: Ralph Stolle’s grandson, Jeff Norris, has served as Chief Executive Officer since 1997, bringing continuity of vision and ownership-level accountability to every decision made at Sheffer.Sheffer had outgrown its roots. A newly constructed 40,000 square-foot facility in Blue Ash, Ohio gave the company the manufacturing footprint to match its ambitions. A year later, a licensee agreement in Europe extended Sheffer’s reach across the Atlantic — proof that even in its early years, the company was thinking beyond regional markets.Sheffer has never been a marketing position — it is the operational reality of a company that has consistently solved problems no one else had solved yet. The late 1960s and 1970s were transformational years that established Sheffer’s technical identity and industry standing.Sheffer entered the nuclear cylinder market — one of the most demanding, specification-intensive sectors in all of industrial manufacturing. The standards required for nuclear applications set the baseline for quality across the entire product line.Sheffer developed the current slipper piston seal design — an engineering refinement that significantly improved product reliability, seal life, and performance across operating conditions. It remains a hallmark of Sheffer cylinder durability.Sheffer grew aggressively — and strategically. An additional 30,000 square feet was added to the Cincinnati facility in 1980 to meet rising demand. In 1981, a new 45,000 square-foot Atlanta facility expanded Sheffer’s southern manufacturing footprint and created the dual-facility structure that supports the company’s production capacity today.Sheffer entered the mobile cylinder market, further expanding its product offerings and manufacturing capabilities.Sheffer’s modern era has been defined by a series of technology investments and market partnerships that few cylinder manufacturers can match. In 1998, Sheffer introduced an industry-exclusive advanced configurator — giving customers the ability to spec a custom cylinder with precision and speed that set the benchmark for digital product configuration in the industry. That same year, the acquisition of Reddick Cylinder Company added depth to the product line and engineering talent to the team.Sheffer acquired its first 5-axis CNC machinery, unlocking complex geometries and tighter tolerances that elevated the precision of every cylinder that came after. In 2013, Sheffer introduced industry-exclusive captive cushions — a proprietary advancement that improved performance and reliability for demanding applications.Sheffer cylinders powered the Space Shuttle Crawler — the massive transporter system that moved the Space Shuttle from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad. There is no more demanding proof of product capability than that.