Meet Ray. He is PEER Chain’s machinist and CNC operator who has decades of experience specializing in boring industrial sprockets.

In addition to traditional commercial sprocket offerings, announces it now can custom bore any size sprocket that has an existing keyway and deliver them within days of an order placement. 

That sounds like an easy task, but Ray is repurposing inventory that already have existing keyways and set screws. This is a challenging machining process because of the existing keyway. 

“The boring bar loves 100% material,” he said. “When boring a bigger hole in an existing sprocket, you have to drill through the existing keyway, and when you get through, the carbide is hit with a baseball bat-like crack,” said Ray. “You don’t want that because it could undermine the bore’s dimension. The carbide starts screaming and yelling at you until it finally hits material on the other side of the keyway. Our process takes the ‘baseball bat’ out of the game.” 

PEER Chain provides a wide range of finished bore and plain . Finished bore sprockets are machined to American National Standards Institute (ANSI) specification tolerances with one keyway aligned to the center of a sprocket tooth and with two set screws. One set screw is centered on the keyway and the other at 90 degrees. 

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Ray is mentoring other skill-driven employees on the boring lathe so they can quickly help customers with their immediate needs. “Often it’s our customers’ customers who need the sprocket yesterday, so when we can turn the project around for them in a day or two, it’s very satisfying,” he said. “If we didn’t have these sprockets already in-house, it could be up to a 20-week delay.” 

PEER Chain, which is ISO 2001 certified, purchased the lathe to re-bore sprockets to reduce slow moving inventory, said PEER President Drew Beadle. “We were able to bring Ray into our family fold, leveraging his experience to offer customers customized sprockets with no minimum order requirements. If they want a single sprocket with a certain imperial measure boring, we will produce it.” 

Beadle said PEER has no limitations on customization of the finished size bore. 

“For our customers, it’s all about speed to market,” Beadle commented. 

About PEER Chain 

In 1969, was spun off into independence. In 2025, celebrating its 56^th anniversary, the four-generation family is a leading industrial chain and sprocket provider. The family holds many of the same values as their grandfather and founder Nate Spungen. Not all the same values because keeping up with the times helps PEER Chain continue to focus on the WOW for their employees and customers. It’s deep inventory stocks of all the major chains with and without attachments as well as popular sprockets is a key for not experiencing the supply chain issues that many companies did during the pandemic. PEER is committed to ship chains and sprockets when a customer needs them. Solutions begin with your phone call to PEER at +1 847.250.9249 or via the array of cloud possibilities.

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The leadership transition for the four-generation, family-owned chain and sprocket company, has been planned for several years. “We have been increasing Drew’s responsibilities, preparing and promoting him for the past four years,” said Glenn Spungen, outgoing president and board member of PEER Chain. “While Drew takes over day-to-day operation, the Spungens will take on different strategic roles.” Spungen and his brother Danny, vice president strategic marketing, along with cousins Charles and Jeffrey Spungen, will make up the board of directors for the company as they have done in the past. 

“Our vision is to become a world-class company with a heart,” said Beadle. “PEER will continue to be a trusted, reliable partner in the power transmission industry. We aim to expand our power transmission product offerings beyond chains and sprockets. What differentiates us from competitors is that we collaborate with companies on their customized applications. PEER will continue its engineering and digital technology expertise to further enhance our role as a committed partner with our customers.” 

Beadle said the company has incorporated more engineering prowess, which is one of his personal strengths.  

Leadership at a Young Age 

Beadle’s leadership skills began as a young teenager. He was voted Senior Patrol Leader by Boy Scout Troop 120 in Solon, Iowa, a farming community of 5,000 located midway between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. He quickly learned to lead 30 rambunctious boys by using skills taught to him by the troop’s adult leaders and his Scout predecessor. By the age of 15, he had earned Eagle Scout. 

Beadle has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Iowa. Prior to PEER Chain, Beadle led the design and manufacturing team in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He has been with PEER Chain for five years. 

PEER’s chains and sprockets are found on many Fortune 100 agricultural and manufacturing machines. “Our products meet and exceed the heavy demands and expectations of those companies. We take that same level of engineering quality and precision to all partner companies, our OEMs and distributors,” said Beadle. 

Important for the Company’s Future 

Danny Spungen said the move was important for the future stability of the company. “In order to grow PEER, the Spungens need to spend more time networking, building strong relationships at a different level for expansion and continuing to build the financial resilience of the company.” Glenn Spungen said, “PEER is growing and breaking sales records. We must always have an eye toward the future. The transition to Drew is an excellent strategic move going forward.” 

Beadle’s small town agricultural and engineering backgrounds bring added knowledge to PEER. “My humble brag is that I have an exceptional skill of looking at things and figuring out how things work – taking apart and putting things back like brand new,” said Beadle. “I also grew up in the digital world and can bring the organization into that digital era of manufacturing while continuing to resource locally.” 

Board Director Charles Spungen said customers will find confidence in Beadle’s expertise and knowledge. “Buyers buy hundreds of different manufacturing parts and equipment, so they have to rely on suppliers for their expertise,” he said. “If I were a chain buyer and I had Drew able to explain everything, I’d have 100% confidence on what he is recommending. You can find people who understand the commodity of an item based on price, but do they know if the implementation is going to work? Can they trust the product? That’s what people want to know.” 

“Beadle understands the industry as well as anybody,” said Jeff Spungen. “He knows what makes an implementation of our product successful for a customer. He’s smart, detail-oriented and has encyclopedic knowledge of our company and will lead the team well.” 

The PEER team has embraced Beadle’s new leadership role. That, he says, inspires him greatly to lead in this next level of growth. He says that the Spungens run a healthy business with a great reputation. “There’s so much passion and community here. Customers feel like family,” he says. “Growing PEER will not be a fast merit badge, but a continuous effort to forge beyond where we are today.” 

About PEER Chain 

is the family-owned and personally managed leading industrial chain provider celebrating its 55^th anniversary year. Established in 1969, the fourth Spungen generation of leaders manage their company with the same family attitude toward customers and employees originated by their grandfather and founder Nate Spungen. PEER Chain continues to focus on deep inventory stocks of all the major chains with and without attachments as well as popular sprockets. Because of this, PEER did not experience the supply chain issues that many companies did during the pandemic years. PEER is committed to ship chains and sprockets when a customer needs them. To determine if PEER’s power transmission solutions will fulfill your application needs, call +1 847.250.9249. 

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Let’s give a big round of applause to our creative winners of the booth contest at the Supply Summit and Showcase in Little Rock, AR. Taking the first-place spot is Muir Omni Graphics, impressing attendees with their captivating music-themed booth, complete with a surprise appearance by, “guest celebrity” Steven Tyler.

And a big congratulations to PEER Chain for securing second place with their ingenious puzzle booth, which featured a tree with real $50 and $100 bills.

The creative minds at PEER Chain sponsored a March Madness booth during the Supply Summit & Showcase in Sandestin, FL. Contestants threw chains and sprockets into a non-regulation basketball hoop for the chance to pick the NCAA team that would advance to the final four and win it all.  

Seven finalists all chose the University of Connecticut and after a drawing to determine the lucky winner, Scott Knaack from Prince Manufacturing brought home bragging rights and $500 in cash! 

Thank you to PEER Chain for making this year’s Showcase a great success. They have set the bar very high! We are issuing a exhibitor challenge for next year’s Showcase at the Little Rock Marriot April 3-5. Do you have what it takes to top their creativity?

Kevin Shrout has been named national sales manager of PEER Chain. He brings 29 years of distribution experience to the role.

PEER President Glenn Spungen said Shrout’s “depth of knowledge in distribution will be a big benefit to the largest sector of our business. Plus, being no stranger to the needs of OEMs and MROs, he brings a superb balance and perspective to the national sales manager position.”

PEER President Glenn Spungen said Shrout’s “depth of knowledge in distribution will be a big benefit to the largest sector of our business. Plus, being no stranger to the needs of OEMs and MROs, he brings a superb balance and perspective to the national sales manager position.”

Shrout comes to PEER Chain from MSC Industrial Supply and McNichols Company. At both firms, he was responsible for the P&L, hiring and leading sales teams throughout the Midwest.

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