By Frank Sinatra, AAP Editor
While driving around town in Pennsauken, whether it’s part of your daily commute or you’re looking for a short cut, you’ll most likely pass a building with a company’s name on it; and eight out of ten times, you’ll have very little idea what goes on inside.
One place in particular, a stone’s throw from North Park Drive in Pennsauken, does some pretty amazing things. And in the 70 years they’ve been in business, Rosenberger may have helped you find your best commute or favorite shortcut.
Rosenberger is a global company that, among other things, designs radio frequency technology for the communications industry. While the parent company began in Germany in the late ’50s, the local part of this international enterprise got its start in 1948 as Louis Toth & Sons, a tool and die shop based in Cherry Hill, N.J.
“We started out as an RCA shop. They were our first customer,” says Ted Toth, one of the third generations of his family to get into the business and a senior technical advisor for Rosenberger. “We had a small facility in Cherry Hill that we just outgrew. We’ve been in Pennsauken since 2004 and moved both divisions here around 2007.”
Then known as Toth Technologies, the business began to partner with Rosenberger’s North American divisions in 2011. The working relationship was so strong that Toth was purchased by Rosenberger the following year, with two of the Toth brothers staying on in advisory roles.
“They took us to the next level. They’re a family business too,” says Toth.
To say that what Rosenberger manufactures is out of this world is not an exaggeration. The company’s had parts on manned space missions, Moon landings, and both the Voyager and Mars missions. They also work on communications technology for a defense contractor. But the biggest impact Rosenberger has on the general public is something people use every single day: they manufacture essential parts for GPS satellites.
“We’ve built a lot of parts for GPS satellites,” explains Jason Bauer, who started with Toth as a machining apprentice in the ’90s and returned to Rosenberger about a year and a half ago as operations manager. “The signals they’re getting on their phones are from antennas we have in space. We built them here.”
If you were to tour Rosenberger’s facility, it’s more science lab than machine shop. Fifty computer numeric control machines in a pristine environment are designed to transform metal rods made of very specific materials and pieces of glass into thousands of complicated components and parts. From the initial milling to the finish product, quality control is key. Demanding customer specifications barely allow for any variation – down to a one hundredth of a percent – if at all. And what makes it even more challenging is that these parts are extremely small; you actually need a microscope to see all the detail.
“A lot of the RF connectors, they’re very, very tiny. They’re very complex parts,” says Bauer. “When I started, someone handed me very small pieces. I thought it was excess material removed during the milling process. They were actually the parts.”
From its humble beginnings 70 years ago, Rosenberger in Pennsauken continues to grow in leaps and bounds with no signs of stopping. Both Toth and Bauer attribute their success to hard work and dedication of their staff, around 20 percent of whom live in town.
“Rosenberger is very interested in developing their people. It’s great to have a company willing to do that,” says Bauer. “We have a lot of people with a lot of good ideas that make an excellent, quality product.”
“It’s a skilled industry. Our employees, who are blue collar technology workers, are our resource,” adds Toth. “A lot of our employees have been here for 20 years. My two brothers and I are very proud of how Rosenberger has built on our family’s heritage to take the company to the next level.”
Rosenberger in Pennsauken is looking to hire new employees with experience in machining. For more information, contact Human Resource Manager Barbara Lilley at barbaralilley@rosenbergerna.com.
