HANCOCK COUNTY — Brandon Reeve watched the long robotic arm use its vacuum-powered grippers to grab a sheet of metal from a stack and swing it around to a folding machine.
There, the robot used the surfaces to bend the metal at just the right angles in just the right places before setting it atop a stack of finished pieces. Those pieces would go on to line the edges of building roofs.
“It can work all night long,” said Reeve, president and owner of Applied Fabricators, Inc., as the robot started a new piece.
A lot has changed at the company since his parents, Bob and Julie Reeve, started the sheet metal manufacturing business almost 40 years ago with just three employees.
And even more change is on the horizon as the company rolls out a new product and prepares to more than double the size of its facility.
Applied Fabricators’ 12,000-square foot headquarters at 7185 W. County Road 200N is getting ready for an 18,000-square foot expansion to make room for more equipment, personnel and product.
Reeve expects the addition to occur within two years and said it could start as soon as this spring or summer. As of late, the company has been adding one or two employees a year, and he expects the expansion to allow for that pace to continue. It currently employs 18.
One of the things driving Applied Fabricators’ growth is its latest product, which was inspired by a customer’s desire for a new wall panel. Nine designs later, the T9 Single Skin Rainscreen Panel System was born. The panels are tapered, allowing them to be flush as they overlap on the wall of a building to protect it from the elements. The product underwent rigorous water, wind and pressure tests, Reeve said.
Applied Fabricators entered into partnerships with two companies to represent the new system throughout the country. One is St. Louis-based Mays, Maune, McWard, Inc., a provider of architectural building products, which will represent the system in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and southern Illinois.
The other is Minnesota-based T. Fin Building Solutions, a manufacturers’ representative firm providing design assistance and product consultation, which will represent the system in several states in the upper Midwest.
“Our first goal is always to represent the best and most innovative products on the market,” said Tim Finley, principal at T. Fin Building Solutions, in a news release.
The T9 Single Skin Rainscreen Panel System adds to Applied Fabricators’ repertoire of other products, which include roof edge and metal for cold storage construction and food processing plants, along with metal for around windows, on storefronts and commercial roofing.
“We’re pretty diverse for a small company,” Reeve said. “We got a lot of different industries we cater to.”
Reeve’s parents started Applied Fabricators in 1984 in Carmel before moving it to Indianapolis. It moved to Hancock County in 2015.
“The goal and hope is we’re here forever,” Reeve said.
Jeff Bostic, vice president of sales for Applied Fabricators, said their product may be cold, but their way of doing business isn’t.
“Relationships are key,” Bostic said.
Reeve agreed.
“At the end of the day, we fabricate metal, but it’s the people we deal with,” Reeve said.
