Since its founding in 1988 as a stamping job shop, the Kooima Co.'s equipment and services have evolved to meet the changing demands of its customers—always with the goal of providing them with one-stop shopping for all their primary metal fabricating needs.

The Ottenweller Company Inc. is a heavy sheet fabricator that produces fabrications and assemblies for construction and agricultural equipment manufacturers and heavy-duty truck builders. The family-owned business employs 150 and operates from a 120,000-square-foot facility in Fort Wayne, Ind.

The Jos. L. Meyer GmbH shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, built its first wooden sailing ship in 1795. Today the six-generation, family-owned shipbuilding company designs and builds large metal cruise liners, gas tankers, and ferryboats. These floating behemoths can be as large as 162.5 by 975 feet (50 by 300 meters), and 162.5 ft. (50 m) high.

Schwenkbiegemachinen, or swing bending machines, have been in use for more than 200 years. European manufacturers began to power them with electrical or hydraulic power after World War II, when an enormous amount of sheet metal was used in the reconstruction of Europe.

For the company that broke the world record for building the tallest freestanding structure with a 320-foot scaffolding (the Statue of Liberty restoration project in 1984, see Sidebarat bottom of page)designing and constructing the scaffolding for the Washington Monument restoration project was just a natural next step.

Software continues to evolve to better serve its users, and during recent times, sheet metal fabricators have been trying to get the most out of their systems. Such things as nesting, ERP, communications networks, and CAD/CAM are all making bounds to do more and take better advantage of technology advancements.