(ABC4 NEWS – BLUFFDALE, UT) Have you ever had an idea for a product? In this Utah Success Stories feature, I got to work with a company that turns ideas into reality.
Full disclosure, TV stories are about good stories and pretty pictures. My videographer, Ed Wilets, and I got excited to see the cool sparks of lasers and welding of metal in this story.
I visited with Dave Arbon, President of Fiber Nation Laser and Fabrication; “Growing up I loved welding. I loved working with metal. The team we have here. They are in the same boat.”
Dave walked me around his plant and showed off some of his team’s work; “These are in the food grade industry. These come in as a flat sheet. We work them until it is a finished product including all the bending and welding.”
Any time I get a chance, I like to participate with the companies I profile. I was thrilled when Dave said; “Doug, if you had an idea. Crazy idea. You bring it into us. We’ll draw it up. we will cut it, we’ll bend it, we’ll weld it, we’ll finish it. We can do a project from A to B and have it completed finished, or we can have it half way done where you can finish it as your own product.”
Challenge on!
Dave continued; “I imagine you would like to get your hands dirty and make some parts.”
Heck yes. I put on gloves and safety glasses and got to work.
We met with his computer design team and came up with an idea. Out to shop we went. I got to load a piece of aluminum onto one really big laser machine. They had already loaded the program, so I just had to push some buttons. Sparks galore! But to clear, they had someone that really knew what they were doing to help with adjustments and quality control.
Tweaks, buffing, more tweaks and working a bunch of cool machines and I now had the finished product…a beautiful lightweight laser cut sign for Utah Success Stories!
What’s something people might not know about Fiber Nation? Dave answered with a smile; “We do a lot of components for vehicles. We went to the SEMA show in Las Vegas with 14 vehicles we did parts for.”
When you do this kind of creative work for companies, accolades are bound to follow. Dave told me that Fiber Nation supplied parts to five different companies in Utah that were nominated and awarded Utah Best of State.
What Dave didn’t mention is that Fiber Nation, won 2020 Best of State for Production & Manufacturing of Transportation Equipment.
With another Utah Success Story, and a new sign, I’m Doug Jessop, ABC4 News.
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