About us

Forming Taps, Cutting Taps, and Thread Gages

Balax, Inc. is a privately held corporation located near Milwaukee in North Lake, Wisconsin. Founded in 1958, Balax pioneered a design for cold forming taps featuring "Lead Form Geometry Correction", a process which reduces tapping torque by creating lead threads on pitch. The new taps, called Thredfloers, were said to be "BALanced AXially", giving rise to the company's name, BALAX.

Thredfloer Taps, with their low torque capabilities, soon found acceptance among US manufacturers across the country. Balax has since added other metalworking tools to its product line, including Thredshaver Cutting Taps, Miniature Thread Gages, and Roughing End Mills.

All manufacturing processes are done in house at Balax, including blank making, heat treating, shank and square grinding, fluting, thread grinding and surface treatments. Balax also maintains a fully equipped tapping laboratory to test new design concepts for tapping torque, tapping speed, tool geometry, coolant or lubrication performance, pretap hole sizing, and material compatibility.