The FABRICATOR asked longtime FMA members to look back on their time in the metal fabricating industry. Getty Images

Every metal fabricator has a different story. What led them to get started in the field, what technologies helped them to produce parts more efficiently, and what enabled them to maintain a successful business over many years—all of their responses are unique to the individual sharing the tale.

That’s why The FABRICATOR reached out to six fabricators to hear their stories. The 50th anniversary of this publication is not about us, but about those covered in the magazine—the actual people responsible for creating parts, assemblies, and end products out of sheet metal, plate, and tubing.

If you’d like to share your memories on getting started, technology that changed the game in your shop, or your most challenging moments in the metal fabricating business, let us know. We’ll share them in upcoming issues during our anniversary celebration this year.

Thanks to Atlas Precision Sheet Metal Solutions, Minneapolis; Eskay Metal Fabricating, Buffalo, N.Y.; Precision Engineering, Uxbridge, Mass.; Estes Design and Manufacturing, Indianapolis; Industrial Machine and Engineering Co., Monett, Mo.; and KCP Metal Fabrications, Chicago, for participating.

Mark Engel, president, Atlas Precision Sheet Metal Solutions, Fabricators & Manufacturers Association (FMA) member since 1987: I was recruited to be the president in 1998. I’m a mechanical engineer by degree, so I kind of get the equipment and understand how all this stuff works, but I had not been directly involved with sourcing, integrating production, and everything associated with metal fabricating. I had to learn it from the ground up.

A lot of the people I compete with, they’ve been in the business their whole life. They’re second or third generation. They’ve run press brakes and punches as they’ve come up through the shop. They swept the shop as a kid. I came in as the president, so I have to learn to run sheet metal. So how do you do that? I was at Donaldson for 19 years and what a great background that was. But I had to go outside and learn metal fabricating. There’s no book on it.

Dan Conner, general manager, Industrial Machine and Engineering Co., FMA member since 1990: My dad had a radiator repair and garage business while I was growing up, so I spent a lot of time there not only working on cars with him, but observing. During World War II, he worked for the military on the Douglas aircraft and in R&D. It was unbelievable what he could do. People would bring in things to be welded up. They weren’t big things, but little pieces, and he would work to make something. It was kind of amazing. That got me interested in going into engineering. That’s the way I went.

I actually started school but quit after a year and a half. Then I got an apprenticeship in Kansas City, Mo., as a tool- and diemaker. Then I went back to school and got a couple of engineering degrees … I had a couple of jobs in Kansas City and St. Louis and also worked for Daisy Manufacturing making BB guns. Then a friend’s dad offered me a job in Monett, where I had grown up. I guess he was aware of what I had done and where I’d worked. So I signed a five-year contract and worked with him, learning all about the fabrication business, being a part of management and making things happen. After that first contract, I jumped out of the business and started my own.

Conrad Pioli, president/COO, KCP Metal Fabrications, FMA member since 1993: I met my wife in high school. Her father owned a metal fabricating company and he asked me to come down there. He said that he wanted me to do some grinding.

That was in the early ’70s. That’s where I started with my father-in-law. I worked for him for seven years until about 1982. That’s when I went on my own with my wife [Karin], and we started our own business.

I jokingly say that I don’t work well for other people, so this was the only way that it was going to work if we were to be successful.

We basically borrowed money from family, bought three machines at an auction, and rented 1,000 square feet. That’s where we started.

Ron Estes, vice president of operations, Estes Design and Manufacturing, FMA member since 1995: Our business was started in 1976 by my brother. The opportunity to start the business came about when his employer moved their operations out of town, but was in search of a fabricator to continue the production work. Considering that they were willing to sell their fabricating equipment to him at a discount rather than move it and they were willing to start placing production orders with him immediately, it created a perfect opportunity for a business startup.

Liora Stone, president/CEO, Precision Engineering Inc., FMA member since 1995: In 1988 my husband [Peter] and I were just starting out together, each working in our separate professions. He was a vocational school graduate, trained as a certified welder, and was working for a small metal fabrication company. I was a graduate of Syracuse University and was working full-time as a registered nurse at a local hospital.

Recognizing that this was the perfect time in our lives to try our hand at entrepreneurship, we set out to start our own welding and fabrication business, and we ended up purchasing the company where Peter worked, scraping together our savings and borrowing the rest from family and a bank to buy a few pieces of equipment and some customer accounts.

In a small rented garage, Peter ran the day-to-day operations, and I continued to work full-time in nursing, doing the administrative paperwork, human resources, and payroll in my off hours. We hired our first employee within a month, another vocational school graduate, trained in welding and metal fabricating, and we were ready to roll. Actually that first hire, John Martinelli, is still our “right-hand man,” 31 years later, and is now our plant and production manager.

Back then we manufactured mostly large industrial fabrications and added a microscopic welding division, which we eventually decided to close.

Five years later, I transitioned to a full-time role at Precision Engineering and we built our own manufacturing facility in Uxbridge, Mass. We laugh now at how we thought that we would never fill that 8,000- sq.-ft. space, but with the purchase of a used punch press, we were on our way to becoming a sheet metal fabricator.

Today—two building additions and a second manufacturing facility later—we are an AS9100-certified and ITAR-registered advanced metalworking contract manufacturer, specializing in difficult-to-source custom fabricated metal products and serving Fortune 500 companies around the world.

“When it was ready, we announced to our little world that we’ve implemented automation, and starting Jan. 1, 2009, we’re open seven days a week. And I’m really happy to say we have had 10 consecutive years of seven-days-a-week operation without interruption since then.” —Mark Engel, Atlas Manufacturing

Jeff Subra, president, Eskay Metal Fabricating, FMA member since 1996: I’ve owned this company since 1987. I used to be a banker who was commuting about an hour and 15 minutes to another, larger town in New York. I was branch manager with a lot of tool and die companies as customers. As I called on these small businesses to see what their financial needs were, I was fascinated by what I saw.

I had one particular customer who was retiring from his precision tool and die company and was in the process of selling the business to his daughter. I was increasingly intrigued by his operation every time I called on the business.

One day he came into the bank and said, “Jeff, I’ve been watching you. I see your enthusiasm and how you go about life. What do you want to do next in life?” I said, “I’ll probably own my own business.” He said, “Well, let’s talk.”

My interest was growing in manufacturing, and I started looking at metal fabricating businesses, not necessarily tool and die. My customer became my mentor during this time and was actually my first lender. Ironically I didn’t borrow from the bank.

Engel: I would say automation is probably one of the biggest changes in the business. We decided to change the business by eliminating the shearing of sheets and instead processing full 5- by 10-foot sheets automatically. We were going to do that with a TRUMPF TruPunch 5000 punching machine with full automation and a 39-shelf STOPA tower. It was going to feed the punch and never stop.

So we acquired that right before Thanksgiving in 2008. We didn’t really have any work for it at the time, but we were committed. We decided to dig the foundations for the tower and send everybody home for the holiday.

When it was ready, we announced to our little world that we’ve implemented automation, and starting Jan. 1, 2009, we’re open seven days a week. And I’m really happy to say we have had 10 consecutive years of seven-day-a-week operation without interruption since then.

It was really remarkable how that transformed the business, and that one punch system would have done the work of 20 turrets, based on our run rate, our setup, and all that sort of stuff we had at the time.

And the march continues. We continue to implement the best-in-class technology. We have migrated over to Bystronic press brakes. We went from one to five just in the last six months. We also have a fiber laser and panel benders from Salvagnini, of which I’m a big fan.

“Over the years we’ve added various capabilities that have been pivotal to our growth and success. As we added and then upgraded each new piece of equipment, we focused on the newest technology and added automation and robotics whenever possible. Then we trained our employees to operate in these new environments, giving them new skills and giving our customers added value.” —Liora Stone, Precision Engineering

Conner: Well, just thinking back the way we started in 1982, all of our bookkeeping was by paper and all of our drawings were by paper. Within the first five years of CNC making its debut, we knew we had to get into it.

So actually seeing how the computers have affected the accounting, the bookkeeping, and also the machine control, it’s hard to imagine in the last 30 years how much that’s changed things.

Pioli: The biggest change in the business has been the technology. The changes come rather quickly, especially when compared to the single-station punching machines or kick presses I used to have. Press brakes really didn’t have any controllers on them. For instance, you had to use square blades to set up the gauges. Today virtually all the machines have advanced controllers on them.

Estes: Certainly the workforce has changed dramatically over the years that we’ve been in business, from baby boomers to Gen Xers to millennials to Gen Zers. It requires a much different formula now to maintain a productive, challenged staff.

People are not motivated by the same things. Lifetime employment with the same company is seldom an objective of the employee, and compensation plans, work schedules, and vacation policies have all been adjusted to meet these changing needs. Staffing strategies that were effective 25 years ago are simply not as effective now, and we really need to be dialed in to the changing needs of the workforce.

Stone: First of all, manufacturing is much more global in nature these days. We communicate with and ship to far-reaching areas of the world, every day, without a second thought, and we also compete more directly with fabricators around the world.

Additionally, there is a great deal more front office work these days. Even just 10 years ago, we—and our customers and suppliers—didn’t have to deal with the compliance documentation that is part of doing business today. Today’s manufacturing is much like health care—document, document, document.

Finally, the barriers to entry are much higher today. For example, ISO certification is now a fundamental ticket to play on the playground. We’ve invested heavily in certifications and registrations, such as AS9100, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ITAR, and JCP, which have helped us to become a better company, and we continue to invest in developing ourselves to better serve our customers, currently adding ISO 27001.

Subra: It’s the internet. We use stainless steel as our primary material, and early on we created our first website. We fabricated for industrial and commercial sectors but were unexpectedly invited into the residential market. Very quickly we were one of the top two or three for searches of “stainless steel countertops” in the search engines. Now it seems everybody uses the term “stainless steel” as a keyword. It can be totally unrelated to our metal fabrication industry, diluting the value of those keywords a bit.

“The biggest change in the business has been the technology. The changes come rather quickly, especially when compared to the single-station punching machines or kick presses I used to have. Press brakes really didn’t have any controllers on them.” —Conrad Pioli, KCP Metal Fabrications

The internet offered us national and international sales outlets that we didn’t previously have. For us, the technology has been great. It’s really opened up and expanded our world.

Engel: In terms of punching equipment, we have a stand-alone TruPunch 2020 that we’ll use for prototypes or small-lot production.

Conner: We still have the shear that I went down to Tulsa to pick up not long after we started. I bought it and brought it back on a trailer. I got so concerned pulling onto I-44, because the loop going up to the highway was so slanted that I was afraid that it was going to tip over my trailer.

We still have it. We don’t use it all that much anymore. We just use full-sized sheets on the laser now, but we still use it every once in a while.

Pioli: It’s a kick press. We used it for a few things. I would say that in the last 10 years that it’s been pretty much pushed to the side, but before that, we used it a lot for radiusing, special countersinking dies, and some special notching dies. It’s still on the floor.

Estes: We have a few ancillary machines (lathe, metal rolls, riveters, and drill presses) that were built in the 1950s or before. They are still performing well. Our oldest machine that’s in regular use is an Amada RG model press brake that’s been in regular production since 1985.

Stone: That first Amada Pega punch press, purchased when we built our building in 1993, is probably one of the oldest pieces of equipment still being used. We keep it in an area of the shop that we like to call the “museum.” We mainly use it for prototyping or other specific jobs. It’s a CNC machine and still performs well, but unlike all our newer equipment, it has no automation.

Subra: This was a very old company when I bought it. They were using rotary grinding machines and were very manually driven. We still have an older press brake from those days but have upgraded it with a CNC backgauge. As a custom shop, we have multiple specialty punches and dies that are used for bends and rolls on that press brake. It’s still a key piece of equipment for us.

“Computers and the internet have really changed things. It’s kind of amazing when you think back to how we started. I like to say I once worked eight hours a day, seven days a week, in the shop. I also spent eight hours a day, seven days a week, in the office doing paperwork. I also spent eight hours a day, seven days per week, running around trying to talk to potential customers.” —Dan Conner, Industrial Machine and Engineering Co.

Engel: I have to say it’s the best-in-class equipment that we buy. We buy expensive equipment because it’s worth it. I mean, you can buy a turret punch for let’s say $100,000, but you also can buy a fully automated punching machine for more than a $1 million.

That’s not a price that you normally associate with punching technology, but when you are punching at 1,600 hits per minute and tapping at six revolutions a second, doing up forms, and basically creating lots of opportunity that you weren’t able to previously, that’s a differentiator.

Conner: Computers and the internet have really changed things. It’s kind of amazing when you think back to how we started. I like to say I once worked eight hours a day, seven days a week, in the shop. I also spent eight hours a day, seven days a week, in the office doing paperwork. I also spent eight hours a day, seven days per week, running around trying to talk to potential customers. But now nobody wants to talk to you face to face. It’s all over the phone or email.

Sometimes it’s good when you’re able to get someone to come down or able to visit someone. You get to see what they’re up to, and you certainly are able to understand what their real requirements are.

Pioli: In general, the lasers are probably the biggest technology. Probably in the beginning it was the ability to cut with the laser, and then the advanced controllers for your press brakes emerged. Now it has to be robotics. That’s probably the next wave that you’re going to see given the fact that you can’t find skilled labor.

Estes: Easily the addition of an automated storage and retrieval system has had the greatest effect on our business. It serves four automated machines, two Salvagnini punching and shearing machines, a fiber laser, and a panel bender with robotic load and unload. The automated storage and retrieval system has eliminated a great amount of material handling. It has significantly reduced setup times, and it allows us to run these machines 24 hours a day with a lean operating staff.

Stone: Over the years we’ve added various capabilities that have been pivotal to our growth and success. As we added and then upgraded each new piece of equipment, we focused on the newest technology and added automation and robotics whenever possible. Then we trained our employees to operate in these new environments, giving them new skills and giving our customers added value.

First were the automated punch press machines, followed by the powder coating system, then laser cutting machines, and more recently robotic welding. With a cutting range of 0.12 in. 1 in., and with 3D forming at the punch operation, our automated laser/punch machines give us great flexibility in meeting a wide variety of customer needs.

In-house powder coating allows us to be a “one-stop” shop for our customers. Recently we upgraded the powder coating system to one that is not only more automated but also reclaims and recycles nearly 100% of what was once waste powder.

Subra: When I bought this company, it was functioning with old technology. It didn’t have any type of CNC or high-tech equipment. When we bought our first CNC punch, that investment changed our world. In fact, it wasn’t too many years later that we traded it in and bought a larger one due to the impact it was having.

“So we’re not a laser company. We’re a punching company. But we can do a lot of fancy stuff. Obviously being custom, 3D parametric modeling software has been important. The two go hand in hand, right? So that allows us to work at a very high precision level, both with layouts and with fabricating the end product. That’s been huge for us.” —Jeff Subra, Eskay Metal Fabricating

Obviously being custom, 3D parametric modeling software has been important. The two go hand in hand. That allows us to work at a very high precision level, both with design layouts and with fabricating the end product.

Engel: That’s a tough question because if you’re highly leveraged in this business and there’s a little bit of a downturn or a customer gets acquired or something, you can’t be in a position where you really have a huge amount of debt. So what would I do differently? I would probably find better sources of capital where I could grow the business faster, and perhaps those sources of capital could be equity partners. Maybe merging with someone? I’m not sure.

Debt is a huge constraint in our business. I’ve got a lot of opportunity, and we are so busy right now. We can’t bring the equipment in fast enough. We’re jammed to the walls with work.

Conner: What I would try to do is be more aware of our customers, what they do, and the volumes of business they represent. That information certainly influences what you do.

For example, what we’ve seen over the last few years is that major companies are shipping their production overseas. So we’re shipping parts overseas now. Some of these companies have changed their locations, and we keep shipping farther and farther away. We used to have all of our business in Kansas City, but now we ship parts to places like Portugal and the Philippines.

Pioli: It’s much different today than back when we started. Looking back, we would have implemented changes in the way we communicate with the next generation. Relationships are built differently now, and you have to change the way you build them.

It helps to work at those relationships. We have one customer that was with my father and became our customer when we bought out my father’s company in 2000. We also have a couple of customers that have been with us since 1982, when we started.

Estes: I would have pursued more automation sooner. We’re highly automated now, but we’ve experienced periods, including now, when the labor market has hampered both top-line and bottom-line growth. Automation, though expensive, helps us to maintain a more consistent level of output with a core group of talented people. We’re not so vulnerable to swings in the labor market and our ability to hire workers.

Stone: Over the past 10 years, we have made a concerted effort to invest in added certifications, new technologies, and specific employee skills to help us better serve customers in diverse industry sectors. In retrospect, we should have concentrated on diversification and more intensive marketing much earlier. For too long we found ourselves primarily serving one sector and riding its economic wave.

“We’re highly automated now, but we’ve experienced periods, including now, when the labor market has hampered both top-line and bottom-line growth. Automation, though expensive, helps us to maintain a more consistent level of output with a core group of talented people.” —Ron Estes, Estes Design and Manufacturing

Subra: I would have diversified into other markets much sooner. That’s the one thing as a young owner that I was not seeing early on. We were heavily committed to one customer and over a period of time, it became clear that we greatly differed on business ethics. That was the catalyst for our diversification, and thankfully it was the right decision.

We’re trying to determine what the next step is via acquisition or expansion through new construction. In fact, if we build a new building, we will have a fully integrated factory because after 20 years doing this, I know enough about the equipment suppliers, the integration, and the requirements to feel comfortable making that investment with greenfield construction.

There’s a lot of opportunity. I don’t see any slowdown anywhere. We have the opposite challenge: We’re trying to figure out how to get our work done.

Conner: There certainly seems to be a niche for the metal fabricating services that we provide, and with the variety of our customers and the different markets, we seem to be fairly busy.

Of course, we’re making a lot more panels and boxes for electronic controls than we did 20 years ago. That’s a lot of different shapes of those boxes now. There still is the need from a lot of people for the metal components, and we build to the customer’s specifications.

Conrad Pioli: We look forward to continuing the business. We have two daughters and one of their significant others learning the business and starting to pick up things. We don’t plan on going anywhere as we prepare for the next generation.

Karin Pioli: We are working to put that generation into place and getting them prepared for the future.

We have one daughter that got a degree in landscape architecture, which clearly doesn’t apply to metal, but she is spatial and can read drawings. So that’s the direction she is heading. Another daughter is going to school to learn accounting to support the role that I play with the company. My daughter’s boyfriend has been learning the business basically from the ground up, learning to operate the machines and making the parts.

Estes: We’ll continue to invest in technology. There are still opportunities to find differentiators that separate you from your competition, and we’ll continue to try to search those out.

And we’ll continue to invest in lean. It’s a matter of survival to maintain a culture of continuous improvement where everybody in the organization is looking to identify and eliminate waste. We rely heavily on accountability tools to help us keep our eyes on the key metrics that define success for our organization.

Stone: I believe we’re on a stable course for robust growth—in revenue, in profits, and as a maturing company with strong bench strength and solid process controls. We’ll continue to add new skills, certifications, and capabilities as customer needs evolve and new technologies develop.

Subra: The internet has been a really strong sales tool for us. I see us continuing to expand our usage of the internet to share our capabilities with the world. We have shipped custom fabrications to Hawaii and Japan, and I’m thinking, “How did these people find us?” The answer is obviously the web.

Even though there is tremendous competition because of the internet today, we still want to be known for high precision and high quality—the top of the pyramid. We shy away from quoting with 10 or 20 other companies. We want to be among the one or two specialty firms quoting on something that’s difficult and technically challenging.

The FABRICATOR is North America’s leading magazine for the metal forming and fabricating industry. The magazine delivers the news, technical articles, and case histories that enable fabricators to do their jobs more efficiently. The FABRICATOR has served the industry since 1970.

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STAMPING Journal is the only industrial publication dedicated solely to serving the needs of the metal stamping market. Since 1989 the publication has been dedicated to covering the cutting-edge technologies, industry trends, best practices, and news that help stamping professionals run their businesses more efficiently.

The Additive Report focuses on the use of additive manufacturing technology in the real world of manufacturing. Today’s manufacturers are using 3D printing technology to create tools and fixtures, and some are even using AM for high-volume production work. Their stories will be covered here.

FMA Communications ha introducido al mercado la edición en Español de la revista The FABRICATOR. Esta versión consiste del mismo tipo de artículos técnicos y sección de lanzamientos de nuevos productos que actualmente presentan el personal de primera categoría de FABRICATOR en Inglés.