About

JW Bell continues its legacy of parts, sales, service, and manufacturing with an exciting new outlook.

James W. (Jimmy) Bell founded James W Bell Co., Inc. in 1923 from an office next door to Howard Hall, founder of what was known at the time as Iowa Manufacturing Co., which had also recently begun doing business. Jimmy Bell traveled throughout Iowa selling Iowa Manufacturing’s crushing equipment as its first sales representative. When Jimmy Bell set up his business in 1923, road building was still in its infancy. Most roads were built with horse-drawn scrapers and paved with crushed stone. As more sophisticated construction methods were conceived, the construction equipment industry developed the machines and tools required to handle the ever-changing demands.

In the early 1990’s the company began modifying crushing plants, adding cross conveyors, blending gates, taking requests from customers, and even building a few portable plants from scratch. 1997 marked the beginning of JWB Manufacturing with a new facility in Cedar Rapids dedicated to building custom crushing plants.

2014 marked a number of changes for the company when long-time employee Scott Cummings purchased the business. The two Cedar Rapids locations were consolidated into the new 178,000 ft² facility, bringing the manufacturing and sales teams together. With the new facility and ownership, James W Bell Co., Inc. became JW Bell LLC. The company continues to broaden its horizons even more and began reworking heavy equipment of all types with blasting and painting as well.