Some of Astro Sheet Metal’s customers never see the inside of our shop. They place an order, get a delivery, and move on to the next job. That is understandable, as the goal should be for the material to show up right and on time. 

But occasionally a customer asks: what actually happens between when I place the order and when the truck pulls up? It’s a fair question. Custom fabrication isn’t magic, but it does involve a set of processes, decisions, and people that most customers do not necessarily see.  What happens inside the shop has a direct bearing on whether the order that arrives is right or wrong, on time or late, clean or damaged.

Here’s a look at what a typical day in Astro’s Grand Prairie shop actually looks like.

The Day Begins With Preparation

Our shop foreman arrives ahead of our staff to prepare for the day.  Customer needs and job specifications are considered so each job can be assigned to the fabrication team best suited for it.  Lights and machines are turned on, and a couple of guys arrive early to throw out trash and straighten things up, so that our team can begin working as soon as the day begins.  Our installation teams arrive to get materials and tools loaded up into the company trucks for the day’s installation assignments.  And with a plan in place, our fabricators get to work.  Sometimes customers are planning to pick up expedited brake metals my mid-morning, so there is no time to waste.  The day’s work gets sequenced so that time-critical orders run first, not last.

For a shop producing a high volume of concurrent orders for customers who have their own crews and schedules depending on the material, that kind of intentional sequencing isn’t optional — it’s what keeps the dominoes from falling.

Before anything gets cut, the order has to have all of the information and drawings that the shop needs.  Our estimating and project management teams process incoming orders from phone calls, emails, and web site inquiries and translate them into fabrication-ready work orders. All information gets filled in before the order ever hits the shop floor. 

This translation step is where a lot of wrong orders get prevented. When an order comes in with a dimension that doesn’t make sense for the described condition, someone picks up the phone and asks the customer a question before the metal gets cut. It takes a few minutes. It also saves a reorder.

Because we deal with several construction trades, our project managers are well versed in the pertinent lingo of glazing, waterproofing, and drywall trades, among others.  When a glazing contractor calls, for example, our project managers know the difference between a sill pan and a head flashing.  That industry fluency doesn’t come from a training manual. It comes from years of processing orders for the same kinds of customers on the same kinds of jobs.

The Fabrication Floor: Brake Presses, Shears, and Skilled Hands

The heart of the shop is the fabrication floor — laser cutting, shears, brake presses, welding stations, and the people who run them.  At Astro, we pride ourselves on cross training our employees.  Rather than one guy standing at a shear for eight hours, our fabricators work in teams and take most orders from start to finish through our shop.  Because of this cross-training, we are never at a standstill because the shear operator called in sick, for example.  It also gives our fabricators a well-rounded education in many facets of metal fabrication.  Of course, some of our people are more geared toward welding difficult assemblies or forming complicated profiles, but in general, our guys move around the shop throughout the work day. 

Astro’s fabrication team includes people who have been running brake presses for decades. That experience is central to the quality of the work we produce.  The difference between a piece that comes out right on the first bend and one that requires setup adjustments shows up in both accuracy and throughput.

Quality Check: Before It Leaves the Floor

Every order gets checked for accuracy before a customer is called or before the order ships out.  Besides a basic count, the parts are dimensionally inspected, and our quality control people make sure that the finish is on the correct side.  Pieces are also visually inspected to make sure they are cosmetically in excellent shape.  In our line of work, a scratched part is trash!

While we would love to say we are perfect, the truth is that no fabrication operation bats a thousand. However, if we can catch problems before they leave the building, then fixing them becomes a minor problem for us and avoids an issue altogether for our customers.  We know that there is nothing worse than getting all the way to a job site and jockeying for the freight elevator, only to get to the right floor and find that the metal you ordered is not built correctly.  We believe that our customers deserve better than that. 

Anyone who has driven through Dallas Fort Worth International Airport lately knows that DFW is in the middle of a major transformation.

The airport’s DFW Forward capital improvement program has grown to approximately $12 billion, with work extending across terminals, roadways, parking facilities, airfield systems and customer spaces. In June 2026, DFW opened nine new and rebuilt gates in Terminal C as part of a complete reconstruction of the airport’s busiest terminal. Meanwhile, construction continues on Terminal F, an approximately $4 billion project planned to ultimately provide 31 gates, expanded international capabilities and a direct walking connection to Terminal D.

Projects of this scale are impressive because of their size. But they are also worth examining in detail.

Modern airport terminals depend on hundreds of architectural elements that most travelers will never consciously notice. Metal wall panels, column covers, ceiling systems, trim, equipment screens, corner guards, copings and other custom-fabricated components help transform an enormous structure into a finished public space.

For a busy glazing or waterproofing subcontractor, a brake metal shop drawing can feel like an unnecessary piece of paper to sign off on and move past. But the shop drawing review is actually one of the most valuable checkpoints in the entire fabrication process. It’s the last moment before metal gets cut and bent, when an error can be caught at zero cost rather than being discovered on the job site at full cost.

The good news is that brake metal shop drawings aren’t complicated once you understand what you’re looking at. Here’s a practical guide to reading them, knowing what to verify, and understanding what to push back on before you put your stamp on it.

What a Brake Metal Shop Drawing Is Telling You

At its core, a brake metal shop drawing is the fabricator’s interpretation of what you ordered, translated into fabrication-ready information. It shows the dimensions of every leg, the angle of every bend, the gauge of the material, the finish, and the orientation.

Think of it like a recipe written back to you by the chef before they cook the meal. It’s their way of saying: “Here’s what we understood you to want.  Does this match what you actually need?” The shop drawing review is your opportunity to confirm that the recipe is right before anything goes into the oven.

When a shop drawing comes back from the fabricator, it’s not a formality. It’s a question waiting for your answer.

The Key Elements to Check

Dimensions:  Every single one. Confirm that each dimension matches what your field condition requires. A transposed digit or a misread dimension from the original order needs to be caught here, not when the bundle arrives on site.

For pieces that will be installed against existing conditions, make sure the dimensions on the drawing reflect the actual field measurements, not the design drawings. If your field condition differs from what the architect drew, the shop drawing should reflect the field, not the paper.

Bend angles. Most brake metal profiles involve 90-degree bends, but not all of them. When a profile such as a sloped sill flashing or a profile fitting a non-plumb surface, the bend angle matters and needs to be verified on the drawing. A bend that’s drawn at 85 degrees when the condition requires 80 degrees is going to create a gap that is visible and potentially a water management problem.

Gauge. Confirm that the gauge of metal or metal thickness shown on the drawing matches the gauge you specified and the gauge that is needed for your application.  If the project specifications call out a minimum gauge, verify that the drawing meets it. If gauge was not explicitly specified on the original order and the drawing defaults to something lighter than you might expect, it is worth a conversation before fabrication starts.

North Texas heat affects almost every part of a commercial building, including the architectural metalwork.

According to the National Weather Service, Dallas-Fort Worth averages approximately 20 days at or above 100 degrees each year. Normal afternoon highs reach about 96 degrees in July and August, and the region’s official record high is 113 degrees.

Those are air temperatures measured under controlled conditions. Metal panels, copings, flashings and other components exposed to direct sunlight can become substantially hotter than the surrounding air. The Metal Construction Association notes that a dark, low-gloss panel facing the summer sun can approach a surface temperature of 200 degrees under certain conditions.

That does not mean metal is a poor choice for Texas buildings. Aluminum, steel and other architectural metals are valued for their durability, corrosion resistance, strength and design flexibility. It does mean that exterior metalwork needs to be designed, fabricated and installed with temperature changes in mind.

Healthcare construction is active across North Texas, and the projects range from enormous medical campuses to neighborhood hospitals, medical office buildings, specialty clinics, and renovations inside operating facilities.

The most visible example is the new Dallas pediatric campus being developed by Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center. The $5 billion campus is under construction in the Southwestern Medical District and is expected to open in 2031. Current plans include approximately 4.9 million square feet of construction, a nearly 2-million-square-foot hospital, 552 inpatient beds, 114 emergency-department rooms, and a 96-room outpatient facility.

At the same time, smaller facilities are being built throughout the region. A new Baylor Scott & White hospital planned for Buckner Terrace in Dallas will include inpatient beds, emergency-department beds and imaging services in approximately 21,700 square feet. Another Baylor Scott & White project near Champions Circle in Fort Worth includes similar services within an approximately 18,250-square-foot facility.

These projects differ dramatically in scale, but they share many of the same architectural priorities: durability, maintainability, efficient movement, clear wayfinding and a finished environment that feels professional and welcoming.

Architectural metals can help meet those objectives in areas ranging from public lobbies to service corridors.

Let’s face it:  construction projects do not always go according to plan. A framing sub finishes ahead of schedule and suddenly the glazing crew is on site three days earlier than anyone expected. A measurement gets called in wrong and the replacement pieces need to be there by Thursday. A GC calls at 8 a.m. with a punch list item that needs to be closed out before the owner walkthrough on Friday afternoon.

In the world of commercial construction, schedule compression isn’t the exception; it’s a regular feature of the job. And when the schedule compresses around a brake metal need, the question isn’t whether it can be done on a normal timeline. The question is whether it can be done fast.

What “Rush” Actually Means in Brake Metal Fabrication

Rush means different things in different contexts. In architectural metals, a rush brake metal order typically means one of a few scenarios:

Same-day or next-day turnaround. The most compressed version.  You need pieces today or first thing tomorrow. This is achievable for straightforward profiles in standard materials when a fabricator has the capacity and the right material in stock. It’s not always achievable for complex profiles, specialty finishes, or unusual gauges that require material to be ordered in.

Two-to-three-day turnaround. The most common rush scenario. A job that was tracking fine hits a snag, the schedule gets pushed up, and you need material that would normally take a week in three days instead. For a well-equipped fabricator running efficiently, this is a realistic target for most standard brake metal scopes.

End-of-week delivery on a Monday order. Not always thought of as “rush,” but when a shop is busy, even a standard four-or-five-day turnaround requires the order to move to the front of the queue. That’s a form of rush service whether it’s labeled that way or not.

The common thread in all of these is that something about the normal sequence has to give.  Sometimes the fabricator works the job into a tighter window, runs it around other orders in the queue, or sources material differently. That takes capacity, flexibility, and a relationship where the fabricator is willing to prioritize your work.

What Makes a Rush Order Possible — or Not

Not every fabricator can accommodate every rush request, and understanding why helps you have more productive conversations when time is short.

Material availability. The biggest variable in any rush scenario is whether the right material is in stock. If the fabricator has the gauge and finish you need on the floor, a rush order is much more achievable. If the material needs to be ordered in, the timeline is dictated by the material supplier, not the fabricator.

This is one of the practical advantages of working with a fabricator who maintains a meaningful inventory of common materials. Shops that run lean on inventory are shops that are more dependent on their supply chain when a rush comes in.

Shop capacity at that moment. A rush order that comes in on a Monday morning when the shop has some breathing room is a different conversation from the same order on a Thursday afternoon when the floor is maxed out with work in progress. Fabricators who are honest about their capacity, and who will be honest with you up front about how quickly they can execute the order for you, are the ones worth building a relationship with.

Profile complexity. A simple angle or channel can be run quickly on a brake press with minimal setup. A complex custom profile with multiple bends, tight tolerances, and a specific finish requires more setup time and leaves less room for error under schedule pressure.

The strength of the relationship. This is the one that rarely gets mentioned but matters most. A fabricator who knows your business, has processed dozens of your orders, and understands how you operate is more likely to prioritize your rush request than one who’s never heard of you before you called in a panic. The glazing contractors and GCs who consistently get accommodated on rush orders are the ones who’ve built relationships with their fabricators over time, not the ones who only call when they are in trouble.

How to Give Yourself the Best Shot at a Rush Turnaround

When you need brake metal fast, a few things can meaningfully improve your odds:

Call, don’t email. When time is short, a phone call gets a faster response and allows for a real-time conversation about what is achievable. An email to a busy shop might not get seen for hours.

Have your order ready to go. The faster you can get complete, accurate information to the fabricator (dimensions, gauge, finish, and quantity), the faster they can get your order into production. A rush order that requires three rounds of back-and-forth to clarify the details isn’t actually moving as fast as it looks.

Be honest about your drop-dead date. Tell the fabricator your actual hard deadline, not an earlier one you’ve padded to give yourself cushion. If the fabricator knows the real constraint, they can tell you honestly whether they can hit it and plan accordingly. If they’re working to an artificial deadline, everyone’s effort is pointed at the wrong target.

Understand that a rush job may carry a premium. Expediting an order ahead of work that was already in the queue has costs:  shop time, overtime in some cases, and the opportunity cost of other customers’ orders being pushed back. Most fabricators charge a premium for rush work, and that is fair. Factor it into your cost conversation with the GC if the schedule compression wasn’t your fault.

Astro’s Approach to Rush Orders

Astro Sheet Metal serves glazing, drywall, and waterproofing subcontractors, as well as millwork contractors and general contractors across the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin markets.  Rush brake metals orders are a regular part of our business, and we see them every single day.   Our Grand Prairie shop carries a large inventory of commonly used materials specifically to improve our ability to respond quickly when a job schedule shifts.

We’re not going to promise that we can turn every order around overnight regardless of complexity.  That is not honest, and it doesn’t serve anyone well. What we can promise is a straight answer about what is achievable for your specific order, and our best effort to hit the date that matters to you.

If you’ve got a brake metal need that is time-sensitive, give us a call at 972-438-1110, and let’s talk through what you’ve got.

Astro Sheet Metal Co., Inc. has been fabricating custom architectural metals in Grand Prairie, Texas since 1967. We serve glazing contractors, curtainwall subcontractors, general contractors, architects, and property owners across the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin markets.

There’s an important question that sometimes does not come up in a competitive bid process.  Nonetheless, it is worth asking:  Who are you actually dealing with?

In the architectural metals industry, the answer to that question varies more than you might expect. Some fabricators are divisions of large national companies, with ownership that is several layers removed from the shop floor and the customer. Some have changed hands multiple times as private equity groups have cycled through the space. And a few are still owned and operated by the same family that started them.

Astro Sheet Metal falls into that last category. We’ve been at it since 1967, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, under family ownership, through every market cycle the last six decades have thrown at us. That is not something we take for granted, and it is not something we think is irrelevant to the people who do business with us.

How It Started

Astro Sheet Metal was founded in 1967 by two men, Mr. James Mizell and Mr. John W. Paxton.  These men believed that producing quality metalwork and treating customers honestly were not complicated ideas:  They were just the way you ran a business. The company started small, in a small shop with a dirt floor and no electricity, and over time Astro built its reputation one job at a time in a market that was itself just beginning to grow into what the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has become today.

The early years were about establishing the basics: a shop that could fabricate accurately, a team that showed up when they said they would, and a standard of work that customers could rely on. Those basics haven’t changed. Nearly everything else has.

What Four Generations Looks Like in Practice

One of the most common scheduling mistakes on commercial construction projects is treating the architectural metals scope as something that can be compressed at the back end. The logic usually goes something like this: the structural work is running a little behind, so the schedule gets pushed, and somewhere in the squeeze, the assumption forms that the metals contractor can make up time.

Sometimes they can, but more often than not, they cannot, because custom architectural metal fabrication has a real sequence with real time requirements for each step.  That sequence doesn’t bend much, regardless of what the master schedule says.

Understanding how the timeline actually works helps GCs build schedules that reflect reality instead of optimism. Here’s a realistic walk-through of the major phases, from approved submittal to installed metal.

Phase 1: Shop Drawings — Two to Four Weeks

Every general contractor has a story about a subcontractor or supplier who looked great on paper and then created problems in the field. In the architectural metals world, those problems tend to show up at the worst possible time; When the building envelope is being closed, when the interior finish-out is in progress, or when there is no room left in the schedule to absorb a redo.

The good news is that most fabrication problems are predictable. A fabricator who’s going to have accuracy issues, communication problems, or scheduling failures usually gives signals early, if you know what to look for. Here is a practical framework for evaluating a custom metal fabricator before you commit.

Start With Scope Fit, Not Price

The first question isn’t, “How much?” Instead, ask:  “Can they actually do this job?”

Custom architectural metals is a broad category. Some fabricators specialize in structural steel, while others focus on ornamental work. Some are set up for high-volume brake metal production, while others are better suited for complex one-off assemblies. A shop that does excellent work on one type of project may not be the right fit for another.

Before you go deep on pricing, make sure the fabricator has relevant experience with your specific scope. If your project involves custom aluminum panel systems with tight tolerances and a demanding finish spec, ask to see examples of comparable work:  Not just photos of nice-looking metal, but projects of similar complexity and scale. If your scope is primarily brake metal for a glazing sub, ask whether that is a core part of their business or an occasional add-on.

Scope fit matters because a fabricator working outside their wheelhouse is a fabricator who’s more likely to make mistakes, miss deadlines, and struggle with problem-solving when field conditions get complicated.

Ask About Their Shop, Not Just Their Portfolio

A fabricator’s portfolio tells you what they’ve done. A conversation about their shop tells you what they’re capable of doing for you right now.  A few things worth asking:

What equipment do you run? Brake presses, shears, lasers, welding machines, etc – the specific machinery matters for certain types of work. A shop with a well-maintained, capable equipment lineup is a different thing from a shop that’s been limping along on aging equipment and manual workarounds.

What’s your current capacity? In a busy market, a fabricator who’s already running at full capacity is a fabricator who may not be able to prioritize your project when a scheduling conflict arises. You want to know that your work will get the attention it needs, and that it will not just be squeezed in between jobs that were there first.

Do you fabricate in-house or do you outsource? Some shops broker work out to other fabricators. That’s not automatically a problem, but it adds a layer of distance between your project and the people making the decisions, and it can create accountability gaps when something goes wrong.

Evaluate Their Communication Before You See Their Work

Here’s something that experienced GCs know but first-timers often learn the hard way: the quality of a fabricator’s communication before the contract is signed is usually a preview of what you’ll get during the project.

Does the estimator ask smart questions about your scope, or do they just take the number and disappear? Do they turn around questions promptly, or does it take days to get a response? When you ask about lead times, do you get a specific answer or a vague range? Do they flag potential issues with the design proactively, or do you only hear about problems after they’ve become expensive?

A fabricator who communicates well during the bid process is one who’s likely to tell you early when a material arrives late, when a shop drawing review reveals a field condition issue, or when a schedule change is going to affect your delivery. That kind of proactive communication is worth real money on a job.  It can mean the difference between managing a problem and being surprised by one.

Check References From Similar Projects

References are only useful if they’re relevant. A glowing reference from a residential developer doesn’t tell you much about how a fabricator performs on a complex commercial interior. Ask specifically for references from GCs who hired this fabricator for scopes similar to yours, with similar material, similar complexity, and similar schedule pressure.

When you call those references, ask a few targeted questions: Did the material come in accurately the first time? Did they hit their delivery dates? When problems came up, how did the fabricator handle them? Would you use them again?

That last question is the most telling one. A fabricator who creates problems but solves them gracefully will still get a “yes.” A fabricator who creates problems and points fingers will not.

Don’t Evaluate Price in a Vacuum

Price matters  –  no one is pretending otherwise. But the lowest bid on a fabrication scope is only the lowest price if everything goes right. When you account for the cost of an inaccurate order, a missed delivery, a submittal that has to be revised three times, or a field condition that wasn’t caught until installation day, the economics look different.

A useful mental model: think of the fabrication bid not as the cost of the metal, but as the cost of the metal plus the risk you’re taking on. A fabricator with a strong track record, solid communication, and a process built around accuracy is a fabricator who’s taking risk off your plate. One without those qualities is a fabricator who’s transferring risk onto you, and you are absorbing it whether the bid number reflects it or not.

What to Expect From Astro

Astro Sheet Metal has been fabricating custom architectural metals for general contractors in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin markets since 1967. The work ranges from fabrication-only scopes such as brake metal, custom shapes, and sheet metal components, all the way to full turnkey packages where Astro handles shop drawings, fabrication, delivery, and installation.

If you’re evaluating fabricators for an upcoming project and want to understand what Astro brings to the table, we are glad to have that conversation. Reach out at astrosheetmetal.com/contact.

Astro Sheet Metal Co., Inc. has been fabricating custom architectural metals in Grand Prairie, Texas since 1967. We serve glazing contractors, curtainwall subcontractors, general contractors, architects, and property owners across the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin markets.

Metal corner guards and wall guards are among the more straightforward products in the architectural metals world…until they’re not. For a standard application in a standard space, an off-the-shelf product from a Division 10 supplier does the job reliably and cost-effectively. But commercial construction is full of conditions that aren’t standard, and the gap between a catalog product and the specific needs of the job is where custom fabrication earns its place.

Understanding when to specify standard and when to go custom, and what the tradeoffs look like in each direction, is the kind of practical knowledge that saves time, budget, and frustration on projects where the details matter.

What Off-the-Shelf Gets Right

Let’s start with the honest case for standard products, because it’s a real one.

Off-the-shelf corner guards and wall guards from established Division 10 manufacturers are well-engineered for the applications they’re designed to handle. They come in standard heights, standard gauges, standard profiles, and a range of standard finishes. They are available through distribution channels with predictable lead times. They’ve been installed in thousands of buildings and their performance characteristics are well understood.

For the vast majority of straight corridor applications in hospitals, schools, office buildings, and retail spaces, a standard product may be the right answer. The geometry is straightforward, the dimensions work, the finish matches the spec, and the installation is routine.

The economics are also straightforward. Standard products are priced for volume production and often cost less than custom fabricated parts for the same linear footage. When the application is truly standard, and when the delivery date coincides with the need date, there is no reason to pay a fabrication premium for something a catalog product handles well.

Where Standard Products Hit Their Limits

The challenge is that commercial spaces are not always designed around standard product dimensions. And when the design deviates from what the catalog offers, the options narrow quickly.

Unusual heights. Standard corner guards typically come in fixed heights (48, 60, and 96 inch heights are common).  When the design calls for a guard that runs floor-to-ceiling in a space with a 10-foot, 11-foot, or 12-foot ceiling, the catalog options either fall short or require field splicing that compromises both appearance and performance. Custom fabrication produces a single piece cut to the exact height the space requires.

Non-standard profiles. The corner guard profiles offered by most manufacturers are designed for typical 90-degree inside and outside corners. Spaces with non-standard angles (i.e., obtuse corners in lobbies, angled corridors, and curved walls) require profiles that simply do not exist in a catalog. A custom fabricator can produce a guard that matches the exact geometry of the space.

Finish matching. This is one of the most common reasons interior designers and architects turn to custom fabrication. Standard products come in standard finishes such as brushed stainless steel or anodized aluminum.  When the design intent calls for a specific paint color, a custom powder coat, or a finish that needs to match an adjacent material exactly, standard products can’t deliver. A custom fabricator works from the actual finish specification.

Gauge and impact resistance. Standard corner guards are engineered for typical impact loads. In environments with heavy equipment, such as loading docks, manufacturing facilities, and hospital service corridors, the impact demands may exceed what a standard gauge product is rated for. Custom fabrication allows the gauge to be specified to match the actual performance requirement.

Integration with other custom elements. When a space includes other custom metal elements like reception desk cladding, panel systems, or ceiling features, standard corner guards can look like they belong in a different building. Custom fabrication allows the corner guards to be coordinated with the other metalwork in the space, using the same material, the same finish, and the same design language.

The Cost Conversation

The honest answer on cost is that custom fabrication often costs more than standard products on a per-unit or per-linear-foot basis. That’s a real tradeoff and it belongs in the specification conversation.

However, the total cost of getting the look correct is worth consideration.  For example, a standard product that requires field modification to fit a non-standard condition consumes installation labor and often produces a result that looks like exactly what it is: a product that didn’t quite fit. The cost of that labor, combined with a result that falls short of the design intent, can make custom fabrication the better economic choice even when the unit price is higher.

The calculation is straightforward: compare the cost of the standard product plus any field modification against the cost of custom fabrication that installs cleanly and looks right. For straightforward standard applications, standard wins. For the conditions described above, custom often does.

What to Bring to the Custom Fabrication Conversation

If a project has corner guard or wall guard conditions that look like candidates for custom fabrication, contact a customer fabricator with a profile sketch, the heights of each piece, quantities, the finish, and the gauge requirement if known.  With this information, a custom fabricator can put together a quotation for you.  For complex or unusual conditions, a photo of the field condition is worth more than a long verbal description.

Astro Sheet Metal fabricates custom metal corner guards, wall guards, and related Division 10 products for contractors and designers throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin markets. If you’ve got a project with conditions that don’t fit neatly into a catalog, we’re glad to take a look and tell you what’s achievable. Reach out at 972-438-1110 or at astrosheetmetal.com/contact.

Astro Sheet Metal Co., Inc. has been fabricating custom architectural metals in Grand Prairie, Texas since 1967. We serve architects, interior designers, general contractors, and specialty contractors across the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin markets.