The Gear Works is a second generation, family-owned and operated business. We’re enormously proud of our long history that dates back more than 60 years. Founded in 1946 by Ingwald Ramberg, today his legacy is carried on by his two sons, Roland and Sterling Ramberg and an extended family that includes a team of talented professionals, many of whom have been working for The Gear Works for decades.

Moving a Legacy Forward from Jerry Magnuson on Vimeo.

Our beginnings were humble. Ingwald and his partner started in a garage with a couple of small gear cutting machines. In the early days, they did it all: quoted, machined, built and delivered the gears, and grew the business, reinvesting as fast as finances permitted.

More than 20 years later, The Gear Works is thriving and has grown from a local gear shop to an international presence with customers across the country and the globe. The Gear Works gears can be found everywhere from deep underwater to far outer space.

Tools of Change

Many decades and two moves later, Ingwald built a new state-of -the art facility in the South Park neighborhood of Seattle, where The Gear Works remains today. Our campus includes 150,000 sq. feet of production area. Take a tour of today’s facility or walk down memory lane in the slide show below. You’ll see how we’ve grown and changed through the decades – and we’re not just talking cars and hairstyles!

Brothers in Business

When Roland and Sterling joined the business in the 60s and 80s respectively, they too had humble beginnings. Both learned the business from the bottom up, beginning with after school jobs sweeping the shop floor and shoveling metal chips. Subsequent shop experience molded both brothers’ perspectives and gave them first-hand knowledge of manufacturing challenges and risks. This stood them in good stead to carry on the business when their father passed away in 1982.