SBA Assists Iowa Metal Spinners Rapid Growth 


Cedar Falls, IA ... While many companies lamented a down economy in 2000-2003, Iowa Metal Spinners (IMS) was busy becoming one of the top successes in the nation in the metal spinning industry. The big growth started in 2000 with the move to the new 110,000 square foot facility in the Cedar Falls Industrial Park. Facilitated with a $2.5 million development projected funded in part with a SBA guaranteed debenture (code-named "504") through Black Hawk Economic Development Corporation (BHED) and partnered with Community National Bank in Waterloo, the new facility made room for equipment and personnel needed to handle the rapidly growing orders. 

Metal spinning is a cost effective way to create round hollow metal material used to house air conditioning equipment and outdoor lighting fixtures. The process uses specially designed metal spinning lathes to produce high quality products rapidly and far less expensively than can be accomplished with large metal stamping machines. The introduction of CNC controllers to the metal spinning industry in the past few years has allowed the consistent manufacture of products within the most demanding tolerances. IMS currently has 6 CNC spinning lathes and 15 manually controlled spinning lathes. The vast majority of metal spinning at IMS is done with aluminum alloys and IMS spins more than one millions pounds of aluminum per year. To lesser extents, IMS also spins brass, copper, and galvanized hot/cold rolled steel.

IMS started in 1980 as a small metal spinning company with 3 employees, including Kevin Harberts, and annual sales of $60,000. Kevin arrived at the company with 6 years of spinning experience at another company where he started through a high school work/study program. He purchased the company in 1996 from former owner Max Jordan and the same year arranged a 504 project to purchase new equipment. IMS now employs 65 full-time employees supporting $6.5 million in sales. He plans to add ten new positions this year.

IMS’ production growth has so far been kept completely internal and Kevin acknowledges he would like to keep all of his future production in house but price competition will eventually force changes in the industry. IMS currently obtains its raw material from steel service centers in Minneapolis and Chicago and domestic steel prices have nearly quadrupled since the beginning of the year. Kevin hopes that increased production will soon allow the company to fill orders directly from steel mills to eliminate the middleman. Also, the company is pursuing an agreement with a Chinese producer to import a limited amount of finished product to ensure the company’s bids remain competitive.

Kevin credits the help of the SBA-backed 504 program at BHED Corporation for IMS’ success. "We couldn’t have done it without the (504 project) help from Black Hawk," he said.