SIDNEY — Shaffer Metal Fab is a contract manufacturer capable of providing sheet metal fabrications, machined components and powder coating per customer specifications.
The sales volume increased significantly in 2018, 21 percent year over year, and we have now shown increased sales volume in each of the last four years,” said Skip Murray, sales manager. “Much of this increase came from the core industries that Shaffer serves including lighting, recreational vehicles, furniture, store fixturing and food service equipment. The bulk of our growth comes from existing accounts while we strategically target new accounts in some of the better performing manufacturing verticals. One vertical we began to explore in 2017 was automated material handling and that really paid off in Q4.”
His report continues:
We continue to leverage our ISO 9001 quality certification which has allowed us to target a few specific customers bound by internal company requirements to only procure material from quality certified suppliers. We have been officially certified for three years.
Capital investments continued primarily with the addition of a brand new state of the art Mitsubishi Fiber Optic laser system. It runs 2-3 times faster than the laser it replaced and it has an automated loading system capable of holding 33,000 lbs. of material. This purchase gives us the ability to take on even more capacity since we can run it on off hours lights out without an operator. We now have seven CNC machine centers which provides us the ability to efficiently produce complex parts and differentiates us from much of our competition. We will continue to invest in this area of our business as demand continues to increase.
Shaffer’s powder coat operation continues to provide more and more finished products to our customers, especially those looking for one-stop shop capabilities beyond fabrication and
machining. The powder coat system is state of the art and is performed in an environmentally enclosed room to control temperature, humidity and cleanliness. Powder is applied with an eight gun automatic Nordson spray booth capable of handling long runs with uniform consistency while manual guns are used for shorter runs. Finishes are available in a wide range of colors, glosses and textures.
Shaffer’s greatest asset is the knowledge and experience of our dedicated employees. And the challenge endures to find additional qualified individuals as we grow the business. As for the 2018 calendar year, we plan on focusing the majority of our service efforts on growing our core account base while we continue to seek out new logical business opportunities.
