About Us

Graham Corporation is a global leader in the design and manufacture of mission-critical fluid, power, heat transfer, and vacuum technologies for the defense, space, energy, and process industries. Graham Corporation is a public company with the main campus located in Batavia, NY, USA. Dan Thoren, the previous President and CEO of Barber-Nichols, is now President and CEO of Graham Corporation.

Graham Corporation

Ken and Bob, two brave, if not naïve men, had a dream about working for themselves, doing things that could have a real impact on the world, and having a lot of fun in the process in Colorado. They founded Barber-Nichols (BN) as a turbomachinery engineering company in 1966. Early on they saw the need to broaden the company’s capabilities to include manufacturing and testing their innovative designs. Recently, BN has grown rapidly from programs that involve complex production and system integration. We are located in Arvada, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.

Barber-Nichols started as a two-employee company that is still continuing to grow over 55 years later. With a dedication to the purpose and core values, Barber-Nichols has earned a 98% repeat customer base. In areas such as aerospace, cryogenics, military defense, energy, transportation, and more we are able to pave the way for the future. Would you like to help get rockets off the ground? Help create machinery that develops the latest medical technology? Help the military defend our country? And that’s just the beginning! Join us and start a career that makes a difference.

Purpose

Accelerating the delivery of innovative turbomachinery systems through collaborative customer relationships merged with integrated engineering and manufacturing to explore the universe, enable sustainable energy, and protect freedom.

Our Values

• Connect passion with purpose
• Foster each other’s strengths
• One team, all in

On August 19, 1985, Bob Barber set the land speed record for a steam-powered car. The vehicle was designed and built at Barber-Nichols and traveled at 234.33 km/h (145.607 mph). The vehicle is currently displayed in the National Automobile Museum in Reno, NV.

BN continues to experience rapid growth in current business industries including undersea power & propulsion systems, thermal management systems, space-based applications, and advanced power generation & energy storage. In an effort to facilitate this unprecedented expansion, the company acquired property adjacent to the current campus. Construction was completed in early 2021 and the new facility improves manufacturing efficiency by consolidating BN’s machining, quality control, and manufacturing support operations. Barber-Nichols continues to seek and hire qualified machinists, technicians, and engineers from the Denver metro area.

Want to know more about how Barber-Nichols got started and what we’ve done to get here? Check out our 50-year anniversary video. It’s a fun way to get a glimpse of BN’s history.