HammerHead Trenchless Equipment Celebrates 25th Year

Challenged to name a market-leading tool that got its start as a prototype built in the family garage, most people might list the personal computer. Ask a utility installer or pipe rehabilitation contractor the same question, and the answer might be in the back of the company truck. The HammerHead Mole, a pneumatic piercing tool that can install a new pipe with “smaller holes, fewer trenches,” was designed in 1989 by an earth-piercing tool owner and two design engineers with an entrepreneurial passion for making tools easier to use, simpler to service and more reliably productive.

Now a market-leading manufacturer of underground pipe installation and rehabilitation solutions, HammerHead celebrated its 25th anniversary May 9.

HammerHead CEO Brian Metcalf said: “Expansion and diversification have been features of HammerHead since its founders Jon Haas, Rob Crane and Steve Wentworth built that first Mole in Haas’ garage. Because of that, HammerHead has experienced double-digit growth year after year, introducing entire new lines of trenchless-related technologies that give customers a complete array of solutions.”

Metcalf said that, 25 years later, with Ditch Witch as its official North American distributor, HammerHead now offers a full suite of solutions. “Customers can come to us with any project and we’ll help them either burst it, line it or shoot a new run with our mole. Or we can line them up with a local Ditch Witch dealer for vacuum excavation, directional drilling or open trenching.”

HammerHead offers technology for piercing tools, pipe ramming, pipe bursting, horizontal directional drilling and cured-in-place pipe (CIPP).

Metcalf said the tooling was not what he was most proud of. It’s the HammerHead team. “When we transitioned successfully from private equity ownership to being part of a privately held, longstanding industry leading company like Charles Machine Works, our employees embraced the change and have thrived in that environment. Our employees create a culture of customer satisfaction, a dedication that fueled the company’s growth, doubling it in a short period of time.”

Employee passion, Metcalf said, has always been a HammerHead hallmark, making it a unique company in the industry. “A passionate team who not only truly believe in our customer, but in each other and in HammerHead as an organization – our employees build upon the legacy of our company’s founders. The past 25 years of leadership, especially from our long-term employees, bleeds red and black.”

Tiffany Sewell-Howard, CEO of The Charles Machine Works, Inc., said, “The HammerHead brand has grown significantly over the past 25 years and we are very proud to have them as part of the CMW family of companies. They are an instrumental part of achieving our vision of The Underground Authority for the next 25 years.”

Metcalf said the next 25 years is looking bright for HammerHead. “We’ll see significant growth from our core market segments, combined with new innovative solutions to meet customer needs at their jobsites worldwide.”