The Fabricator’s Know-how Summit brings attendees past the showroom and onto the store ground. The July 21-22 occasion in Euclid, Ohio, highlights the most recent fabrication know-how by demonstrations and excursions of regional manufacturing services. Phuchit / iStock / Getty Pictures Plus
The Fabricator’s Know-how Summit affords extra boots-on-the-ground publicity than any FMA-sponsored occasion outdoors of FABTECH itself.
This yr’s gathering, being hosted on the Lincoln Electrical Americas Welding constructing in Euclid, Ohio, July 21-22, options the most recent in fabrication know-how on show at each showrooms and fabricators round Euclid. Attendees can view firsthand how streamlined operations enhance effectivity and acquire insights on how they’ll do the identical for themselves.
“When guests tour the Becoming a member of Metals facility, they will see a contemporary sheet steel manufacturing operation centered on effectivity, precision, and steady enchancment,” mentioned Maroun Moussallem, president of Becoming a member of Metals, one of many companies that attendees will tour in the course of the summit.
“We’ll stroll them by our whole manufacturing course of—from laser chopping and CNC machining to forming, welding, and remaining fabrication. They will have the chance to see our latest know-how in motion, together with our not too long ago put in 10-kW Mitsubishi fiber laser.”
Along with beneficial data gained at Lincoln Electrical’s services and on prime of the Becoming a member of Metals tour, attendees can go to a various array of native producers and job outlets, together with:
- Ventrac, an tools producer Orrville, Ohio. The corporate designs and builds tractors and out of doors upkeep attachments utilized by landscapers, municipalities, golf programs, and different clients.
- Flextur, an Amish-owned and operated enterprise in Dalton, Ohio, that started in 1978 constructing horse-drawn farm tools and now makes welding and workstation merchandise and fixture ideas whereas doing contract steel manufacturing.
- Midlake Merchandise & Manufacturing, a contract producer in Louisville, Ohio, that makes a speciality of precision sheet steel parts, weldments, and assemblies. Its capabilities embody laser chopping, forming, welding, powder coating, and mechanical meeting.
- American Engineering & Metalworking, a fabrication store in North Canton, Ohio, that provides engineering, machining, laser chopping, laser welding, CNC forming and stamping, welding, robotic welding, powder coating, and ending.
- MUM Industries, the mum or dad firm to industrial product producers Integra Enclosures, StrongBox, and EMF in Mentor, Ohio.
Jeff Wealthy, president of Midlake Merchandise & Manufacturing, mentioned that whereas individuals will acquire one thing from seeing the part-picking and sorting know-how and different equipment on the firm’s Louisville plant, what he enjoys most about plant excursions is simply assembly fellow fabricators.
“Selfishly, I at all times study a lot from the those who come to our facility, extra so than what they’re going to most likely study,” Wealthy mentioned. “I don’t take a look at different fabricators as rivals. I simply suppose we’re all type of in it collectively. And I simply at all times study an terrible lot from everyone else. That’s what I’m enthusiastic about.”
And naturally, the know-how on show ought to generate plenty of buzz amongst these guests.
“Know-how is advancing sooner than ever, and it is easy for corporations to fall behind if they don’t seem to be actively studying,” Moussallem mentioned. “Occasions like this give enterprise leaders, engineers, and producers the chance to see real-world functions of latest know-how as a substitute of simply studying about them.
“Facility excursions additionally encourage conversations between corporations. Folks can trade concepts, focus on challenges, and study from one another’s successes and errors. Usually, a single concept gained throughout a tour can result in important enhancements in productiveness, high quality, or profitability.”
Throughout The Fabricator’s Know-how Summit in 2024, attendees toured Nu-Means Industries, Inc., within the Chicago-area.
The Fabricator Podcast
Kirk McCauley, proprietor of American Engineering and Metalworking (AEM) in North Canton, Ohio, joined The Fabricator Podcast in 2025 to share his journey from the instrument and die world to working a contemporary, full-service steel fabrication store.
