Universal Stenciling & Marking Systems, Inc. was established in 1904 under the name Universal Fountain Brush Company. The company founder, Wilfred J. Wright, invented and patented the world’s first fountain stencil brush in Summit, NJ. Officially named the Master Model Fountain Stencil Brush, this product with its innovative ink supply in the handle, rapidly gained industry recognition and Universal emerged as an industry leader in stenciling technology.

In 1934 Wilfred and his son, Milton B. Wright, moved the company to St. Petersburg, Florida where they continued to produce fountain brushes and industrial felt tip marking pens.

In 1946, Milton’s son, Donald C. Wright, joined the company and began working on the development of the stencil roller as a means to improve the efficiency of the stencil marking. His first product release was a triple roller unit named the Roll-A-Stencil. This unique roller applicator contained a felt roller which served as an ink reservoir and two foam rubber rolls which applied ink to the stencil at an impressive speed. The popularity of roller stenciling changed the focus of the company and Donald was later awarded additional product patents for his Press Button Fountain Stencil Roller.

In 1973, Donald C. Wright, Jr. joined the company and assumed control of the operations. Requests from the agricultural industry in Florida to supply a durable contact roll coder led to Universal’s entry into the contact coding business. After a few tours of these packing houses, it became obvious that the harsh environment and extremely high production rates in these operations would destroy anything but the most durable equipment. Nearly a year of design research, prototyping and field testing was invested in the development of our first production roll coder and the experience gained was invaluable. All of Universal’s coding products are designed and manufactured to withstand the demands of high volume production environments and rigorous field testing is standard development protocol.

As requests for a coding system to print on varnished cartons, plastic films, metals and other non-porous materials increased, Universal began research on the most challenging project in its history. Printing on these materials requires fast drying solvent based inks which had always been very problematic for any coding system. The fast evaporation rates of these solvent based inks at normal ambient temperature would render the inking systems on standard roll coders inoperable after a matter of minutes. Developing a simple, inexpensive, non-porous inking system design took a great deal of time and creative thinking but the result was an innovation worthy of international patents. Universal’s Non-Porous Inking System is simplistic yet truly effective for handling inks that dry as fast as 2 seconds at 75 degree ambient temperatures. This innovative product is the only system of its kind on the world market and it provides unsurpassed performance while requiring minimal maintenance.

Universal Stenciling & Marking Systems is dedicated to the advancement of contact coding technology and through research and innovative designs, our products have remained one of the most efficient and cost effective methods of coding currently available.

Universal’s offices and manufacturing facilities are located at 205 15th Avenue Southeast in St. Petersburg, FL on the edge of Tampa Bay. In a determined effort to improve efficiency and reduce our reliance on outside suppliers, our business has become practically self sufficient in every aspect of company operations.

Customer Service Department: Platinum Accounting Software on a Windows NT Network is used to enter and process orders, route shipments internationally and provide all internal accounting functions. Network interfaced shipping software provides immediate feedback on shipping status and freight tracking information. Our Customer Service staff is very knowledgeable about product applications and most customer orders leave our plant within 24-48 hours ARO.

Graphic Arts Department: Operating in a completely digital environment, our Graphic Arts Department designs and produces price lists, product manuals, parts lists and product technical bulletins. An impressive equipment inventory includes high speed, high resolution Monochrome and Color Laser printers, a large format Ink Jet Printer for poster size bulletins, high resolution digital photography and scanning equipment. Currently we produce all of our printed literature in-house and have started offering private labeled publications to our large OEM customers and distributors.

Engineering Department: Our Engineering Department utilizes state of the art CAD Systems for product design and documentation. To facilitate comprehensive communications with our customer’s engineering departments, we commonly use E-mail to exchange CAD files in both .dxf and up to AutoCAD R14 .dwg file formats. We respond quickly to requests for custom designed marking systems and special coder mounting assemblies. Our Engineering Department also provides free application consulting services and makes product recommendations based on the specific application requirements. Selecting the best product for an application helps to ensure complete customer satisfaction with our products.

Manufacturing Department: Our manufacturing facilities are equipped with modern high speed CNC production machinery including lathes to 8” capacity with hydrodynamic bar feeds, a Vertical Machining Center with automatic tool changer, automated assembly systems and a new Ultra High Pressure CNC WaterJet shape cutting system.

A Virtual Gibbs CAM system is utilized to quickly convert CAD designs from the Engineering Department into G-Code for the CNC production machinery. Industrios Manufacturing software is used to schedule and route production orders and control inventory. An internally developed quality assurance program places the quality control responsibilities on the shop floor. This proactive approach to quality control ensures consistent quality and minimizes production costs. We produce over 1600 difference product components in-house which accounts for over 85% of our requirements. Coding machines are assembled to order to optimize inventory control yet delivery is typically 24 - 48 hours ARO on most orders. The efficiency of our production operation is constantly under review and new manufacturing technology is implemented on a regular basis.