From GSMW to GSM
South Bend, Indiana 1923. H. P. Axelberg, the son of a Norwegian immigrant, saw opportunity with the growth of Studebaker Organization and the University of Notre Dame. With the goal of serving the industrial sheet metal needs of the thriving community he opened General Sheet Metal Works on South Main Street, designing and building paint booths, dust collectors, and air handling systems for the Studebaker automotive plants. Soon, GSMW was building ventilation systems and metal roofing for the University of Notre Dame. Responsiveness to customer needs for metal fabrications led to the company replacing the gold leaf on the University’s iconic Golden Dome.
Municipal construction projects sustained the company through the Great Depression. By the 1940’s and with the United States’ entry into World War II, GSMW took on numerous projects for Studebaker, as assembly lines were reconfigured to produce equipment for the war effort.
After the war, residential construction and products boomed, creating new metal fabrication opportunities. In response, a separate five-man manufacturing division provided metal component parts for manufacturers of finished products. Opportunities increased, while demand for sheet metal contracting declined. Soon, metal fabrication became GSMW’s primary focus. As the principal supplier to Wheel Horse Products, a South Bend company enjoying tremendous success with its line of garden tractors, GSMW added to its fabricating capabilities, resulting in new customers and enabling GSMW to enter new markets while continuously diversifying its fabrication skills and offerings.
Customer demand led to the building of a new, dedicated facility in Tomah, Wisconsin, to simplify a major customer’s logistics. By 2010, the company’s rapid response in producing mounting infrastructure for the secondary energy market, most notably in utility grade solar, led to a significant expansion of its stamping, welding and assembly capacities to help its customer scale their operation.
Today, as General Stamping & Metalworks, our brand new 190,000 square foot factory and leading edge fabrication equipment are just the next step in our evolution, one based on 95 years of experience and a reputation for delivering on time, at the right price, exactly what our customers want.
Today, as General Stamping & Metalworks, we have evolved to become one of North America’s leading providers of stampings and fabricated metal parts to progressive OEM’s worldwide. GSM is considered a strategic partner and trusted provider by leading manufacturers in a wide range of industries.
GSM can support your company every stage of the product life cycle, from prototyping through production, to service parts that keep their reputation for quality and reliability intact.
If your project requires professional engineering support, unparalleled responsiveness, flexibility and a fully integrated supply chain, talk with us. Our mission is to protect your brand through collaborative engineering and supply chain security, while enabling you to scale your operations.
