SCOPE-DEFINED METAL FABRICATION WINS PROJECTS

What do Albright Office Park, CA, National Museum of the Marine Corps, VA, Nordstroms, FL, Hilton Garden Inn, Washington DC share? These, and many other high profile metal fabrication projects throughout North America and Internationally, embody the proven advantages of SAF experience, expertise, and equipment. SAF Metal Fabrication manufactures parts for some of the most recognized global brands by managing project scope for a myriad of standard and custom services under one roof to meet customer expectations.

NEWS FLASH: While famous projects attract attention, it is the everyday commercial metal fabrication customer that keeps the lights on at SAF Metal Fabrication facilities. Two week shear and bend, along with scope-defined work with realistic production goals keep customers coming back. “It is tempting to talk about huge sexy projects, but the small jobs play to SAF’s strategic competencies,” according to SAF Co-CEO, Penn McClatchey.

By designing the company’s administrative, CAD, fabrication, finishing, quality control and shipping processes to meet the needs of small fabrication projects, SAF has set the stage for exceeding expectations for all customer jobs, large, medium and small. Penn continues, “This is where our IT system and strategic scheduling really set us apart.” Frank Buchholz, SAF General Manager, reinforces the message, stating unequivocally, “I know of no other company in our industry with the infrastructure or planning system we have for administering both large and small fabrication jobs.”

At SAF, project management includes a single point of responsibility for metal, CAD, fabrication and/or finishing services. Jobs are completed and delivered on schedule, eliminating customer involvement with the logistics and hassle of multiple vendors. Large and small project expectations are more easily managed.

SAF customer service begins with a review of plans and specifications. An SAF fabricating professional is assigned to each project. This ensures customer production expectations are met at every step. The team includes SAF CAD experts, architectural part designers/engineers, and craftspersons.

SAF Metal Fabrication customers come primarily from the architectural building industry, comprised of  glaziers, subcontractors, architects, design/build contractors, owners, and distributors. However, as SAF Metal Fabrication has grown, so have customers from a wide spectrum of non-architectural industries requiring parts fabrication & finishing.
Colorado-based J.R. Butler, Inc. is a curtainwall company specializing in engineering the exterior glass “skin” on buildings, and is an SAF Metal Fabrication customer geographically close to SAF West facilities. Their expertise includes glass and fenestration engineers, designers, and planners who guide architects through the application process for storefronts, curtain walls and a variety of related architectural components. “SAF earned its status as a quality and trusted vendor,” according to Brian Sweet of J.R. Butler, “by consistently under promising and over delivering on the level of service they provide for finished fabricated projects.” Over the years J.R. Butler has relied more and more on SAF to provide high quality, complex CAD design and fabrication for projects that custom brake metal, column covers, spandrel, and building envelope panels. “We’ll be getting SAF involved in other projects as they come in, like custom HVAC covers.”

CUSTOM METAL FABRICATION CAPABILITIES

SAF sheet & plate metal specialties include fabricating from most popular metals, including ACM, aluminum, stainless and galvanized steel, bronze & copper alloys, and zinc.

SAF Metal Fabricating capabilities are replicated in each of its facilities, currently in GA and CA, with equipment and skilled personnel performing: Forming – with press brake sizes up to 175 tons and 20′ length, blanking & shearing, CNC routing, cutting, punching, notching, drilling, countersinking, plate rolling, specialized welding, complex miter cuts. Workers are trained in assembly, joining and attaching operations. Finished parts are QC’d before custom packaging that can include roll wrapping, protective padding, boxing and crating.

Long time SAF customer, New England-based Lockheed Window Corp has taken full advantage of SAF metal fabrication services. Lockheed Window specializes in commercial window, door and glass installations for renovations and new construction. SAF fabrication projects for them include flashing, column covers, partitions, 90 degree corner panels, and building cladding. “Turnaround is generally not an issue if we do all of our project planning right. Still, SAF comes through for us in emergencies,” says John Kroll, Senior Project Manager at Lockheed Window. Fabrication volume per job varies with completed parts shipped to the building site or Lockheed’s 100K sq ft facility.

Other glazing companies routinely face very tight deadlines, or “Compressed schedules,” as Fred Harter, Director of Sacramento Operations at Royal Glass calls them.  Royal Glass is an established Glass and Glazing Contractor with three California locations specializing in office buildings, medical facilities, retail, stadiums & sports complexes, and education facilities. Their typical project includes custom fabrication and finishing of curtainwall & storefront components, panels, and column covers. For Harter, where “fast track may apply to many architectural building projects, in California it is warp speed. ”Over the years SAF Fabrication has earned Royal Glass preferred vendor status by reliably meeting sometimes impossible deadlines. “We’ve used SAF Fabrication to augment our own capabilities. SAF can be our single resource for CAD, aluminum sheet, ACM, fabrications, anodizing, paint finishing, and for select offerings as-needed.” Harter recalls Netflix as one of Royal Glass’ premier projects where SAF fabricated and finished the exterior building’s panel system comprised of 95,000 square feet of aluminum sheet to specification in a compressed schedule of 5 months “thanks to a great team effort between the Royal Glass Project Manager and the SAF West Project Manager.”

FROM PARTS FABRICATING TO POST FINISHING

Having state-of-the-art, environmentally-friendly metal finishing operations at each SAF facility saves resources, time, and costs associated with fabricated parts destined for a construction job site. Custom color matching is especially important for architectural building products. SAF matches color in post paint operations. “No architect wants a standard color,” according to Lockheed’s Kroll, “90% of our work is for schools, where we furnish and install windows, skylights, greenhouses, and curtain walls. SAF has also proven to be a valuable resource for fabricated brake metal and custom finishing.”
SAF metal finishing specializes in pretreatments and coatings that are designed for the harshest environments. Finishing services include: painting (computerized, custom-color matching for PVDF coatings), powder coating, standard anodizing, 2-step anodizing, directional brushing, and color dye anodizing.

FOR SAF PAST IS FUTURE

Celebrating its 70th year in business this year, SAF (Southern Aluminum Finishing Co.) has always looked forward, evolving from its core competency as metals distributor and aluminum finisher to a wider variety of fabrication needs, especially those for the architectural building trades.

SAF opened the SAF Metal Fabrication division in 2003, and it now contributes substantially to overall corporate growth. Fabrication customers take advantage of SAF’s mill-direct, and panel distributor status. They save time, money with CAD, fabrication, finishing and shipping from a single resource. For fast turnarounds, a huge inventory of SAF aluminum coil, aluminum extrusions, aluminum sheet, plate, and panels are readily available for custom forming and finishing as needed.
Penn encourages SAF Metal Fabrication plant visits, currently at the company’s state-of-the-art California and Georgia fabrication facilities.  “We welcome site visitors so they can experience first-hand the facilities, equipment and skilled metal craftsman who bring our metal fabrication projects to life.”

For More Information Contact:
Penn McClatchey, Co-CEO
SAF Southern Aluminum Finishing Co., Inc.
1401 Blairs Bridge Rd | Lithia Springs, GA 30122-3210 USA
Email: pmm@saf.com
www.saf.com
Phone: 770-942-1207×801, or 800-241-7429

SAF Fabrication Capabilities 2 minute introductory slide animation – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=221uqQDBWp0

Fabrication Capabilities Images: https://www.saf.com/fabricating/saf-fabrication-capabilities/

John Kroll, Senior Project Manager
Lockheed Window Corp
925 South Main St, Pascoag, RI 02859

Brian Sweet, Project Manager
J.R. Butler – Commercial glass and fenestration
2488 W 2nd Avenue, Denver, CO 80223

Fred Harter, Director of Sacramento Operations
Royal Glass Company 
11343 Sunrise Park Drive, Rancho Cordova CA 95742