Dawson Doors, a fabricator in a small town in western New York, has developed a global presence in the high-end enclosure and door fabrication markets. By closely collaborating with customers, the unique fabrication company has continued to grow.

Arin Inc. has evolved from a steel rule blanking house to a modern metal fabricator capable of producing precision, laser cut blanks. Bu workers can see history every day--a tool room for steel rule die remains, as do the mechanical presses. A tour of Arin's shop is a walk through time, a gallery showing what metal fabrication talent has produced over the decades.

The roll forming industry is not as straight forward as it used to be. Customers demand more sophisticated shapes and quicker turnarounds. Johnson Bros. Metal Forming, Berkeley, Ill., has rolled with the changes over the past 25 years and now sees an exciting future serving the solar equipment industry.

More lasers or punch presses may enable a shop to cut more parts, but those parts still must be loaded, unloaded, and transported to downstream operations. In these cases, automation can help increase green-light-on time and help a shop produce more parts in less time.

Tube finishing doesn't have to be a manual operation. Centerless grinding can efficiently finish straight tube, and now planetary grinding machines can aid the finishing of tubes of various shapes,including previously bent workpieces.

Crow Corp. had trouble finding the right person for the job, so company management took a bold step—and outsourced the hiring process. Today, the Houston-area fabricator is feeling the benefits.

Sometimes the new guy has some good ideas. Giese Manufacturing, Dubuque, Iowa, learned that when they had a recent hire take over purchasing requirements.

Metal fabricators still consider tradeshows to be an important part of their marketing efforts, but are they really doing enough to attract customers at these events? A few tips can help them maximize their sales efforts at tradeshows.

Columnist Gerald Davis walks the fabricator through a 3-D modeling process to learn how to work with a file that has broken elements.