Our founder, Jim Weinel, a NASA lamination materials engineer, purchased two vacuum formers and leased a small manufacturing space in St. Louis Park, MN. The first products manufactured were custom parts components for signs, packaging, and consumer and industrial products. Jim and his wife, Sharon, named the company Gemini after the newest NASA space program “Gemini.”
An electrical fire ravaged our plant, destroying equipment, raw materials, and finished products. This would have been the end, but Jim and his team started rebuilding, determined to reestablish and expand.
Gemini makes thermoformed cases with new machinery and technology as an extension of its custom plastic parts. Kary Kases, the first official case line, debuts, and company sales hit $1,000,000 for the first time.
Kary Kases are sold under the Kase/Specialty Products division of Gemini, alongside the company’s growing Letters division. Gemini builds its first manufacturing headquarters in the small town of Cannon Falls, MN. Along with the relocation is an effort to reduce reliance on external suppliers by becoming more vertically integrated. Gemini is now poised for expansion with the ability to supply custom manufacturing solutions for a growing customer base.
The Kary Kase line was originally a standard line of products with customization options for specific customers. Over time, more and more customers sought a custom solution, and custom cases soon outsold standard cases. Gemini further expands manufacturing capabilities with a new rotational molding process, enabling the company to serve new markets with a more rugged and robust case platform.
Gemini invests in injection molding equipment to replace vacuum-formed shells. This additional manufacturing capability makes creating a new line of lightweight, airtight cases possible, and the first fully injection molded case is introduced, the “Gemstar.”
Gemini’s Case division becomes “Gemstar” and soon becomes a separate company named Gemstar Manufacturing. Soon after, a need arises in the industry for a supplier of highly engineered, customer-centric cases. Gemstar Manufacturing takes on the challenge to manufacture cases to fill this niche.
Parent company Gemini continues to invest in Gemstar Manufacturing with new state-of-the-art manufacturing technology and excellent customization capabilities. Gemstar launches its three brands for its three manufacturing platforms: VersaPro®, SENTINEL®, and STRONGHOLD®.
To this point, the majority of our product performance validation was outsourced to local test labs. With more and more custom solutions going through the shop, there was an increased request from customers for us to assist in formal product testing. In support of our continued effort to vertically integrate our capabilities and to increase speed-to-market for not only our expanding lines of cases but also for our customer-specific case designs, we developed our own in-house test lab. Our equipment allows us to test to a wide variety of industry standards for materials and reusable packaging performance.
A new 40,000 square foot facility is built for Gemstar Manufacturing on the Gemini campus in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. This addition provides the company with increased space for rotational molding and the production and assembly of cases and custom plastic parts.
A dedicated world-class testing and resource center is created on the Gemini campus in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Testing services in the new center include drop testing, immersion, UV chamber, salt fog chamber, vibration, lateral impact, temperature, and other customized testing.
Gemini continues to invest in leading-edge technology with the addition of Robomold™ robotic rotational molding. Gemstar Manufacturing is now the only case manufacturer in the U.S. with four platforms to produce high-performance packaging cases. Like Rotational Molding, Robomold produces rugged double-walled cases for Gemstar’s Stronghold product line.