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call him when they have a project that requires
bending steel—they call Globe Iron Construction Company of Norfolk, VA.
Founded 80 years ago by licensed civil engineer
Sol Mednick, the AISC certified company is a profitable steel fabricator and
steel product sales operation. Still family-owned by Mednick’s descendants,
the plant he launched from his one-car garage now encompasses over 365,000
square-foot of facility and multi-million dollar sales figures. “We’re probably
one of the largest single facilities on the east coast south of New Jersey, if
not the largest,” notes Larry Reece, director of external affairs at the
company.
Reece says that while other steel facilities may have lots of small
facilities spread out geographically, his company has all its facets under one
roof. Its facilities include a fabrication plant, a complete steel product
warehouse, a blast cleaning/painting shop, and a delivery fleet, in addition
to office operations space on-site.
Among the 175 employees of Globe Iron
Construction are engineers and structural steel detailers who take the
customers’ design or line drawings and convert them into shop and erection
drawings. The shop drawings are handed to the equipment operators in the
company’s fabrication plant. These operators then utilize state-of-the-art
machinery to cut, bend, roll, or do other operations that transform steel
plates or other formats of steel into custom shapes and designs ordered by the
customer. Eventually, the company uses subcontractors to install the
fabricated pieces at the customers’ locations. So the process is perhaps not
as simple as Superman made it look all these years.
Rather than just bending steel any which way,
Globe Iron Construction must meet particular design specs for 30 to 40
different major products annually. And accuracy is the factor that makes the
steel pieces fit together perfectly (think 3D jigsaw puzzle). The result is
quality products that enhance customer retention in a tight marketplace, says
Reece.
That’s one reason Globe Iron Construction has
invested $3 million in equipment upgrades and new machinery over the past
three years. “You have to stay with the newest technology in our business,”
says Reece. “It’s our job to stay innovative in the market. We have to
constantly be looking for new ways and new equipment to keep us on the cutting
edge. We have to keep up with the market and the equipment because our
competitors have the same, or hopefully not better, equipment.”
Some recent equipment purchases include a
Peddinghaus drill line and Peddinghaus angle master, a shot blast machine for
cleaning steel, and a Koike burner 3100 gas/plasma CNC cutting machine for
cutting steel plate. A common denominator among most of the new purchases and
upgrades is automation. “Some of our older equipment was not computer
operated,” explains Reece. “The new equipment allows us to do a better job
with more accuracy and quickness, and less machine operators. That helps us
save money, be more productive and have a higher quality of work. With better
productivity we can be more competitive in our bids.”
And while automation leads to less machine operators in a work area, the
company retains those employees by moving them to other jobs in the plant.
That helps the company fight employee turnover obstacles it faces because of
its location. “We’re constantly trying to hire people because we have a lot of
competition that gets us for our employees,” says Reece. “So we’re glad to
have those people available for other tasks.” The company trains employees in
welding, fitting and other crafts. But because it’s located in the same
geographic region as area shipyards, employee turnover happens when a newly
trained craftsman follows a higher dollar elsewhere.
These craftsmen and other experts at Globe Iron
Construction help build products many of us see or utilize regularly. Projects
include industrial structures, office buildings, educational facilities,
hospitals, shopping centers, government and military facilities, airports,
aircraft hangars, power plants, bridges, amphitheaters, convention centers,
arenas, water treatment plants and more. Some specific projects include steel
fabrication and erection for the Virginia Air and Space Museum and the
Nauticus Maritime Museum/Center in Norfolk, VA, the National Aquarium in
Baltimore, MD, Strathmore Concert Hall in MD, the American Indian Museum in
Washington, DC, and many more. Globe Iron Construction even provided
reinforcement structural and miscellaneous steel for the framing in the
structure known as Wedge 1 of the Pentagon, the wing that later was hit by a
hijacked airplane during the 9/11 tragedy.
These days Globe Iron Construction mostly
serves customers in the eastern US, but it will serve other states and export
steel products. The company’s steel warehouse sales division and steel service
center stocks over 5,000 tons of new domestic steel plates, shapes and sheets,
which it sells to the local market as is or processed to their specs.
Because of its expertise and commitment to quality improvements, the company
continues to emulate its founder’s reputation for innovative and
cost-effective steel designs. Sol Mednick’s company philosophy was “Be ethical
and fair. Treat customers well. And whatever we do, do it right.” Though the
wording has varied throughout the company’s history, its meaning remains
constant and adhered to today.
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