In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

DEVAL
CORPORATION
@
Above: Early DeVal (CARCO) after start up
in late 1950s.
Below: Early expansion at DeVal in the
early 1960s.
DeVal Corporation, a Philadelphia company,
is a manufacturer responsible for the efficiency
and reliability of vital armament weapons
support equipment aboard U.S. Navy aircraft
carriers and various land bases throughout
the world. DeVal Corporation, a prime contractor
for the Defense Department, manufactures
and remanufactures certified weapons
loading equipment for the Navy, Marine
Corps and, to a lesser extent, the Air Force.
In addition, various large defense companies
such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman
and AUSTAL Ship Building are also long
term customers.
DeVal Corporation produces weapons handling
equipment such as transporters, loaders
and adaptors used by the military to load
bombs and missiles. The various products manufactured
by DeVal ensure that weapons may be
moved safely from the holding areas and the
magazine area, and then transported to the
aircraft and loaded onto the various aircraft.
DeVal has grown from a small one-or-two
man garage-type operation to today’s modern,
sophisticated AS9100C certified manufacturing
facility. The company was started December 8,
1954, by Navy Veteran Charles A. ‘Chick’ Russo
as a small, all-purpose machine shop. Russo
died relatively young, but the business was
carried on by two of his sons. Under their
direction, the company began to expand.
The company’s first growth came about
when the company obtained substantial subcontracts
from Yale & Towne for machined
parts and forgings for their forklifts. In the
1960s the firm began supplying parts to
Chrysler Tank Division for machined parts
involving weldments such as the Turret
Platforms for tanks, which were formed
and welded at DeVal, DeLaval Turbine
(large machined rings), and Westinghouse
Electric for centrifugal castings, to mention
but a few.
In the beginning, the company name was
CARCO Industries, derived from the founder
Charles A. Russo’s initials—CARCO. As the
company continued to diversify, the name
was changed April 12, 1962, to DeVal
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