About Us

L A Nelson Inc. was founded over seventy years ago by Louis August Nelson. Lou was a proud man and very talented in his trade…Patternmaking.

In a small garage  in East Orange New Jersey Lou had a dream…to build a business with skilled craftsmen and provide quality service to the foundry industry.

The company was growing fast and Lou had hired some of the best pattern makers on the east coast. These men were from all different ethnic backgrounds Italian, German, English, and Polish. In 1955 he hired a skilled patternmaker named Thomas W. Sibilia, who in 1969, along with Montero Cariani and Richard Knorr bought the company from Lou . These young men helped build  L A Nelson to become one of the largest pattern shops on the east coast. With over 18 patternmakers working on the bench Nelsons provided patterns for  companies such as Westinghouse, General Electric, Singer, and ITT Avionics. They kept the name Louis A. Nelson Inc. because it represented quality and quick service.

In 1984, LaNelson was contracted to work on the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island restoration project. To read more about visit here: “Statue of Liberty”

In 1987 Richard left the company, and in 1988 Thomas passed on, leaving the company to Montero and Helen Sibilia.

In 1989 L A Nelson started moving forward in a new direction…computer aided manufacturing. We bought our first CNC and computer for programming, and built up from there to now having five CNC machines.

LaNelson is now one of the top leading tooling providers for the thermoform industry

View Our Services Visit Our Gallery

David started working at L.A.Nelson in 1973.

Serving his 5 year apprenticeship, he had interests in bringing technology to the industry.

In 1989, David was key in implementing that technology by purchasing the company’s first CNC machine.

Steve started at L.A.Nelson in 1979

His strong work ethics have brought much success to the company.

His expertise in the display industry as been a great asset to the company.