Manufacturer catalog
Ajax Hardware Manufacturing Corporation was a California hardware manufacturer best documented in public sources through door-and-window hardware records, patent filings, litigation, and a 1972 U.S. Government Accountability Office review of the BLU-63/B bomblet program. The GAO review places Ajax in City of Industry, California, and records its 1970 contract to produce 42 million BLU-63/B bomblets for the CBU-58/B cluster-bomb program.
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The company's commercial hardware line included door latches, sash locks, catches, cabinet hardware, door stops, hooks, pulls, hinges, door closers, slides, rollers, and rivets under the Ajax mark. Those records help explain why a metal-hardware producer could appear in a munitions procurement program built around stamped-steel bomblet parts.
For this catalog, Ajax matters because GAO procurement records connect the company to BLU-63/B production, and the BLU-63 family is catalog-connected through both the BLU-63A/B submunition record and the CBU-58A/B cluster bomb lineage.
GAO recorded that Ajax Hardware Manufacturing Corporation received a three-year firm fixed-price contract in 1970 to produce 42 million BLU-63/B bomblets, the stamped-steel submunition family later represented in the catalog by the BLU-63A/B submunition entry.
Sources: GAO BLU-63/B review
GAO says programmed BLU-63/B bomblets were applied to the CBU-58/B program, and the catalog's CBU-58A/B record covers that dispenser-and-bomblet lineage.
Sources: GAO BLU-63/B reviewThe Ajax trademark record lists first use and first use in commerce in 1948 for a broad set of door, window, cabinet, and other metal-hardware products.
Sources: USPTO trademark record
A Google Patents record for a door stop construction lists Ajax Hardware Manufacturing Corporation as the California assignee, showing the company's door-hardware business line in the mid-1950s.
Sources: Google Patents door stop construction
GAO recorded a three-year Ajax contract for 42 million BLU-63/B bomblets at an initial unit price of $0.28775, later revised to $0.29731 as of October 22, 1971.
Sources: GAO BLU-63/B review
A U.S. Government Accountability Office review of the BLU-63/B bomblet program identifies Ajax Hardware Manufacturing Corporation in the production history and says GAO review work at Ajax was completed on September 29, 1971.
Sources: GAO BLU-63/B review
A federal appellate opinion records Ajax Hardware Manufacturing Corporation as plaintiff in litigation arising from a machinery appraisal connected to a contemplated U.S. government time-fuse manufacturing contract.
Sources: Justia appellate opinion
Historical records for Ajax are sparse and often surface through patents, trademark filings, court opinions, and procurement reviews rather than a surviving corporate site. Public records use both Ajax Hardware Manufacturing Corporation and Ajax Hardware Corporation; the munitions procurement source uses the manufacturing-corporation form.
Category
Standalone missiles, bombs, rockets, torpedoes, and guided or unguided explosive payloads.