How one California metal fabricator has survived Silicon Valley

Plate that doesn’t require a large amount of holemaking is often processed on the shop’s ALLtra high-definition plasma cutting table. The plasma system piercing a 2-in. hot-rolled steel plate is shown.

Ever since the Santa Clara Valley morphed into Silicon Valley in the late 20th century and into the 21st century, Master Metal Products has had a front row seat on Emory Street to watch the evolution. Needless to say, a lot has changed over the last 50 years.

The company began in 1931 as a metal fabricating service provider to local businesses, relying on manual equipment like hand-operated punch presses. A businessman and mechanical engineer purchased the company from the founders in 1966 and introduced some of the first numerical-controlled production equipment in Northern California. That commitment to investing in new fabricating technology and in employee skills development helped it to change with its customer base—the cannery industry in the 1960s, the nuclear industry in the 1970s, the defense industry in the 1980s, and the transportation and mining industries in the ensuing years.

You’ll notice no mention of the computer industry in a discussion of Master Metal Products’ history. That’s pretty amazing given the region’s connection to the device that has come to dominate our lives. Eric Friederichs joined the company in 1971 and witnessed how it overwhelmed the local metal fabricating industry.

As the computing grew in the 1980s, shops just like Master Metal Products started chasing the sheet metal work that came with fabricating computer chassis and rack systems. They all bought the latest punching machines and press brakes and grew with this burgeoning sector, at least until the accountants for these computer companies started to find their voices. The people charged with watching the numbers saw that manufacturing these computer devices overseas could result in dramatic cost savings when compared to using domestic manufacturing companies. These fab shops learned what “offshoring” meant to the average small, domestic manufacturing company when all of that sheet metal work began to disappear.

During that time, the owner of Master Metal Products focused on what it had always done, serving those customers needing its heavy fabricating capabilities. Friederichs never forgot that lesson, and it served him well as he worked his way through almost every position in the shop—journeyman painter, machine operator, welder, machine programmer, estimator, manager of business operations, and production supervisor. In 2006 he purchased the company, becoming its president.

Today the company employs 20 people in its 38,000-sq.-ft. shop. It specializes in hot-rolled steel, aluminum, stainless steel, abrasion-resistant and specialty plate, quick turnaround on jobs, and even inventorying parts for longtime customers. Friederichs said customers know what Master Metal Products can offer, and it’s one of the reasons that they stick with his shop and don’t always go looking for a cheaper price in the outlying areas of the Santa Clara Valley.

“We have one customer that produces buses. It likes to have at least three suppliers for each part that goes into the bus, in case their suppliers can’t produce a part. They can’t afford to shut down the production line,” Friederichs said. “I have two particular parts for their buses that I’m the only fabricator for. I’m the only one that can produce them. They’ve tried everywhere to get somebody to make them, but those other companies can’t figure out how to make them.”

A combination of well-maintained equipment and dedicated shop floor workers ensures that Metal Master Products keeps that competitive edge.

How It’s Done

Friederichs remembers life as a fabricator in the 1970s. Everything was done by hand or on a shear. There was nothing to program. Then burning machines with seven or eight torches on them emerged. They were pantograph-type machines, for which a template was created out of Plexiglas and the torch tried to follow that template with the other torches mirroring the movement. Of course, the advancements at that time came with their own struggles. It was hard to keep all of the torches lit. When one backfired, it threw everything out of whack.

“But we did it. We made it work,” he said.

Master Metal Products, San Jose, Calif., has operated as a heavy fab shop for its entire existence. It’s commitment to working with plate helped it survive the 1980s when a lot of the sheet metal fabrication work in the Santa Clara Valley went overseas. Photos courtesy of Master Metal Products.

The template era of machine tools was soon replaced with the tape era. Someone had to type code on a tape, which was then fed into the machine. The machine then followed the movements governed by the code. If multiple parts were going to be fabricated with the same tooling setup, the cards had to be taped together to run the multiple jobs. It was better than templates, but nothing like the promise that computers held.

A computing revolution of its own occurred at Metal Master Products when it purchased its first W.A. Whitney 647C punch/plasma combination machine more than 40 years ago. (MegaFab purchased Whitney in 2004. MegaFab is known as Piranha today.) The CNC 40-ton, single-station machine, with a 48-in. throat, is still in operation today. The original control panel was the size of a refrigerator, according to Friederichs, but since then has been updated three times over the equipment’s lifespan.

About 10 years later Master Metal Products bought a 50-ton, single-station punching machine. It’s also still in operation today.

“Whitney built battleships. The framework and the guides are built to last forever,” Friederichs said. “The things that wear out are the drive screws, the motors, and things like that.”

About 25 years ago the fab shop upgraded its punching and cutting capabilities with a Whitney 3500. That lasted five years before the fabricator decided it needed machinery that could handle heavier plate. As a result, the company upgraded to Whitney’s 3700 model, a 55-ton punch/plasma combination machine with automatic tool changer, a 42-station library for punch tooling, and a 400-amp Hypertherm plasma torch for cutting.

Friederichs said the 3700 punch/plasma combo is a workhorse for his company. They throw everything from thin-gauge aluminum to 1-in. hot-rolled or stainless steel at it.

For working with older machines, good maintenance helps to keep them punching and cutting. Friederichs credits his lead maintenance technician, who also happens to be the operator on the Whitney 3700.

“He keeps on top of the maintenance schedule for each machine—all three of our press brakes, the welding robot, the shear, the ALLtra plasma cutting table, and the saws. All of it. Whatever needs to be done on that schedule, he takes care of it,” Friederichs said.

“Actually that’s kind of our secret,” he continued. “I appreciate everybody that works here. They are all phenomenal.”

The equipment is put to the test frequently. For example, Master Metal Products regularly processes abrasion-resistant plate for a mining customer that is in constant need of repaired equipment. The shop keeps various plate thicknesses in stock to cut and fabricate what they might need to keep the nearby mining operations running.

A large majority of the plate processed at Master Metal Products, such as these Corten fabrications, is punched and plasma-cut on its W.A.Whitney 3700SST machine.

“We have great customer service,” Friederichs said. “Our ability to turn around customer jobs as quickly as they need them is in large part because of the equipment we run.”

It’s Not All Punching

Master Metal Products has added newer pieces of technology to the mix as well over the years.

An ALLtra plasma cutting table with a 400-amp, high-definition power source gives the fabricator the ability to cut 2-in. plate with a high-quality edge. The machine’s bed is large enough to accommodate two 60- by 240-in. plates, allowing the torch to cut one section while parts and the skeleton are removed from the other side of the table. (The company generally keeps 96- by 240-in. master plates in inventory to make expedited jobs possible.) Perhaps the biggest advantage to using this modern cutting equipment is that it can be programmed offline, allowing the operators on the shop floor to call up the job, according to the drawing number on the traveler, and get to work making the part.

The press brakes from Cincinnati Incorporated all have automated features such as ram depth adjustment and backgauge placement, which are enacted when jobs are called up. For new work, the operator only needs to input dimensions and related information about the material, and the bending job can commence shortly thereafter.

A CNC tube bender from Horn Machine Tools has given Master Metal Products the ability to produce tube parts that others in the immediate area have a hard time replicating.

“We have to keep our quality and our customer service up,” Friederichs said. “Without the customer, there is no business.”

Future Challenges

Like many of his peers in the rest of the U.S., Friederichs said one of his main concerns is just finding the right folks to work in his shop. Right now he’s in a good place because he hasn’t had any turnover in five years. Before that he hired three employees from other, nearby fabricating operations.

Even with the stable workforce, he typically hires three or four college-aged kids each summer if they are interested in metal fabricating and welding. If those individuals want to become certified, Friederichs will pay for that. It’s his way of paying it forward.

“I think it’s important to get people interested in this industry because it’s not going to go away. They are always going to be building things out of metal. They aren’t going to start building buses out of plastic,” Friederichs said.

Invest in reliable fabricating technology. Stay focused on what the company does well. Do what you can to meet all of your customers’ expectations. Keep employees happy and motivated. Invest in the younger generation of potential fabricators when you can. Master Metal Products doesn’t make its mission too complex. Maybe that’s why it’s been able to survive in a community that has undergone tremendous change over the past several decades.

Slide Show | 5 Images