American Machine and Foundry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American Machine and Foundry or AMF was founded in 1900 and was once one of the largest recreational equipment companies in the United States.
Its sole remaining asset is the AMF Bowling Corporation, founded in 1936, and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. AMF Bowling employs 16,000 people and operates worldwide. AMF, up until the mid-1980s, once produced the following leisure equipment: tennis racquets, snow skis, snowmobiles, lawn and garden equipment, wheelgoods, Ben Hogan golf clubs, Voit inflatable balls, exercise equipment, SlickCraft powerboats (1969-1980), Alcort sailboats (including the Sunfish), Hatteras Yachts, SCUBA gear, and once owned Harley-Davidson Motorcycles and Dewalt Tools.
In the early 1960s, American Machine and Foundry partnered with the French company SAFEGE to design, construct and market a monorail for American cities. The AMF Monorail was exhibited at the 1964 New York World's Fair where it traversed a continuous elevated loop above and around the Amusement section of the World's Fair. It was displayed as a practical form of transportation for the future.
In 1971 American Machine and Foundry was renamed the AMF Company.
In 1985 AMF was bought out by Minnesota based MINSTAR, Inc but continued to trade as AMF and supply the bowling industry with bowling equipment.
In 2005, the company became known as QubicaAMF, as it joined forces with Qubica, which specialises in state-of-the-art custom scoring hardware and software.
