Smith Ironworks Slashes Man Hours in Half

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Smith Ironworks uncovered the hidden potential of the PeddiBot-1200 in 2021 when they were faced with a shortage of joists. A staple of steel construction, joists play a critical role in supporting the concentrated loads of a building. Without main member support, heavy constructions cannot be completed. Kelli and Blake combined their knowledge of structural steel fabrication and came up with a solution to their shortage crisis - castellated beams to replace joists.

I took over the company we only had about 12 employees. It was around the '08 '09 recession and since then it's been about building it back to what it was, and now we're bigger than we ever have been. We have 55 employees now and we've grown in sales from 12 million dollars to 34 million in sales. Our annual tonnage has evolved I think this past year we were a little over 7,500 tons our goal is to keep increasing. We're looking about 8 to 8,500 tons this year.

The aspect about Peddinghaus that impresses me the most is the simplicity of the machines. That allows everyday people to operate them and it's also helped our people evolve from one position to another. I think it's shown them that they have a higher capacity than what some of them thought they might. They can operate a robot, not just weld or fit.

So with our purchase of the PeddiBot, we had gotten a lot of work with heavy moment connections. We had maybe one or two good fitters in the shop, we couldn't just solely rely on those guys so we knew we had to make a decision. The PeddiBot has just been lights out since we got it. We now route the shop if it has any kind of bevel or any kind of moment it goes directly to the PeddiBot.

The first project we ran on the PeddiBot was was 100 Talcott, a project in Boston. It was a mezzanine inside of an existing warehouse and I think there were over 80 moment connections and double plates, bevel plates. The man hours we allocated for that job we cut in half with the PeddiBot. Most impressively we have done some castellated beams for a warehouse. That has a lot that allowed us to replace joist in that project and speed up the schedule of the project.

So before we had purchased the saw, the PeddiWriter, and the drill, we had a 13-step process to get a piece in and a piece out. With Peddinghaus' help with the setup, we now have taken that 13-step process to a 6-step process. So our man hours have gone down, but our profitability has gone up. The saw/PeddiWriter/drill combination is the standout machine in our shop. It allows us to produce twice the steel that we even ever imagined that we would be able to. With the new process and with time and operator experience, we're now producing anywhere from 8 to 1,000 tons a month

I guess one thing to know about Smith Ironworks is we aren't too big and we aren't too small, so we can do anything our customers would like for us to do. And we're approachable, you can call us anytime and you're welcome to see the shop anytime!