Northern Manufacturing has fabricated stainless steel in Oak Harbor, Ohio since 1951. Today that means a 160,000 square foot indoor facility, 160+ craftsmen, 60+ AWS-certified welders, and an ISO 9001:2015 certified quality system building custom equipment for water treatment, food processing, chemical, and power customers.
The work is the story. Engineering companies bring us the fabrications other shops turn down: specialty alloys, tight tolerances, oversized assemblies. Everything from laser cutting and forming through certified welding, pickling, and passivation happens under one roof.
Our History
We started as a small sheet metal shop and grew by reinvesting in capability, decade after decade. Here is the short version. Two of these milestones have their own stories worth reading: the VersaGage and the Ice Skeeter.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1951 | Founded as a sheet metal fabrication shop in Oak Harbor, Ohio |
| 1975 | J.D. Smith purchases the company: 8 employees, $250,000 in revenue |
| 1982 | US Department of Defense CAP Award for Excellent Quality Assurance |
| 1990 | Quintin Smith invents the VersaGage measuring instrument, instrumental in earning Ford Q1 certification |
| 1997 | 3D CAD modeling adopted across engineering |
| 1998 | Laser welding services added |
| 2015 | Hybrid laser welding combines laser and arc for faster, more precise joints |
| 2019 | Tyson Smith and Haley Lonero acquire the company, continuing the family legacy |
| 2026 | Indoor facility expands to 160,000 sq ft; ASME U stamp (Certificate #63199) and PP stamp (Certificate #63198) authorized |
Our Facility
Our 160,000 square foot facility in Oak Harbor, Ohio is purpose-built for stainless steel fabrication:
- Dedicated stainless-only production space, a separate ~40,000 sq ft room for stainless work that keeps carbon steel contamination off corrosion-critical assemblies
- 55-foot pickling and passivation booth running in-house chemical treatment per ASTM A380 and A967, large enough for full assemblies
- Laser cutting bay with flat, tube, and 5-axis laser cutting for complex geometries in stainless plate, sheet, and tube
- Robotic welding cells for production runs with bead-to-bead consistency
- Heavy forming equipment, press brakes and plate rolls rated for stainless thicknesses
Everything from raw plate to finished, passivated components is produced under one roof. No transportation between vendors, shorter lead times, and an unbroken chain of custody on material traceability.
Have a stainless project on your desk? Send the drawing to our engineering team.
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Our Team
Our workforce is the competitive advantage. Northern employs over 60 AWS-certified welders with experience across the full range of stainless and specialty alloy grades, qualified per ASME BPVC Section IX and AWS D1.6 for stainless structural and process applications.
Beyond welding, the team includes engineers who work with customers on design-for-manufacturability, quality inspectors trained in NDE methods (RT, UT, MT, PT), and production planners who manage complex multi-stage fabrication sequences. A Certified Welding Inspector is on staff, and welder training runs in our own weld school.
How We Work
Four commitments show up on every job, whether it is a single prototype or a production run:
Quality Management
An ISO 9001:2015 certified quality management system governs every process, from incoming material verification through final inspection and documentation.
Customer Collaboration
We review drawings with your engineering team before fabrication starts. Catching a fabrication challenge at the design stage prevents costly changes downstream.
Prototype to Production
The same welding procedures, inspection protocols, and quality standards apply at quantity one and at quantity one thousand.
Engineering Support
We give input on material selection, weld joint design, forming feasibility, and tolerance achievability. Fabrication engineers, not just fabrication vendors.
Want to see where the work happens? Browse the project gallery, read about the training program that builds our welders, or see open roles if you would rather hold the torch yourself.