Steel Plate Fabricators

About Steel Plate Fabricators

Steel Plate Fabricators operates from a 140,000-square-foot facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the intersection of Interstates 40 and 75. The company traces its roots to 1921, when A.J. Russell and his wife Lucinda started A.J. Russell & Son in an outbuilding of their Lonsdale home. Their son Calvin and his wife Helen incorporated the business as Knoxville Sheet Metal Works in the 1940s. In 1964, their son David and his wife Merle shifted the focus to heavier fabrication and adopted the Steel Plate Fabricators name. The fourth generation, Mike and Anna Russell, acquired the company in 2007, continuing it as a family-owned operation. The shop provides custom metal fabrication, structural steel work, CNC cutting, machining, and assembly for both one-off components and large-scale production runs. Core processes include laser and waterjet cutting, bevel plasma and oxyfuel cutting, braking, forming, shearing, rolling, sawing, welding (in-house and on-site), blasting, painting, powder coating, and reverse engineering. Machining capabilities cover lathes, vertical and horizontal mills, grinders, and press repairs. The facility houses twelve overhead cranes up to 30 tons, 32 weld cells, two robotic welding cells, and equipment such as a Trumpf 12 kW fiber laser, Cincinnati 600-ton and 350-ton press brakes, a Flex CNC gantry mill, Mazak and Haas machining centers, and a G&L horizontal boring mill. A stock program and on-site services extend support nationwide. Customers span energy and utilities, biomedical and high-tech, agriculture, transportation (automotive, rail, marine), food and beverage, heavy industry (mining, oil and gas), construction, and government agencies. The company produces structural assemblies, machine components, turnkey assemblies, beam weldments, prototypes, nuclear waste containers, tanks, HVAC ductwork, staircases, railings, and ornamental steel products. Steel Plate Fabricators emphasizes quality and dependability, citing 95 percent on-time shipment rates and a central location that enables one- to two-day ground transport to most of the contiguous United States. In-house CAD and 3D imaging support 90 percent of projects, and the firm highlights its 300-plus years of combined workforce experience as a differentiator.

Equipment

• Trumpf 12kW 5060 Fiber Laser with 20' Twin Pallet
• 3 CO2 Trumpf Lasers
• Cincinnati 600 Ton – 24' Long Press Brake
• Cincinnati 350 Ton – 14' Long Press Brake
• Messer Oxyfuel & Bevel Plasmas up to 40' Long
• Hydmech Vertical 30° Mitering Automatic Saw
• Hydmech Horizontal Automatic Saw
• Timesaver with Twin Belts & Rotary Brushes
• 32 Weld Cells with Multiple Processing Types
• 2 PerformArc 750s Robotic Welding Cells
• Multiple Plate & Structural Rolls
• Flex CNC G-20-06 Gantry Mill: XYZ 240"/72"/24"
• Mazak QuickTurn 250MSY Lathe: 36.50" Length / 13.78" Diameter
• Haas VF6 Vertical Milling Center XYZ: 64"/30"/30"
• Haas VF2SS Vertical Milling Center XYZ: 30"/16"/20"
• G&L Manual Horizontal Boring Mill: 144" Length x 72" Vertical
• Haas TM1 Tool Room Mill XYZ: 30"/12"/16"
• GHM-30 Hydraulic Tapping Flex Arm
• A32 Pneumatic Tapping Flex Arm
• Bridgeport CNC Lathe
• MSC Manual Knee Mill
• Cincinnati Horizontal Knee Mill
• Multiple 3D Printers
• Grieve Heat Treat Oven

Company details

Location

Knoxville, Tennessee

Company type

Manufacturer

Employees

55+

Founded

1921

Ownership

Family-owned

CAGE code

OAPD5

Export compliance

SAM Registered, CAGE code OAPD5

Production volume

Prototype to large-scale production runs

Listed under

• Metal Stamping in Tennessee
• Powder Coating in Tennessee
• Structural Steel in Tennessee
• Welding in Tennessee
• Metal Fabrication & Machining in Tennessee

Frequently asked questions

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