Custom metal fabrication, laser-cutting, CNC machining, metal forming, water jet cutting—these are just a few of the valuable services Impact Fab has come to provide over the years.
Established in 1994 in a family garage with the intention of saving engineers from the hassle of dealing with subpar parts, project delays, and cost overruns, the company has since evolved into one respected for its dedication to its customers, hard work, and the highest standards.
Considered a go-to source for savvy engineers for more than 30 years, Impact Fab consistently produces superior products that not only meet requirements but embrace the core principle of respect—respect for the team, vendors, the community, and a profound regard for its clients—and continually elevate excellence, agility, and curiosity.
Whether for single parts or production runs, with the support of cutting-edge machinery, knowledgeable engineers, and talented craftspeople, Impact Fab helps clients boost team productivity, create successful products, and stick to production schedules.
“We celebrated our 30-year anniversary last year and we’re still excited,” President Ross Haan tells us. “Our father was a fabricator for pretty much his whole life, working in the metals industry. At home, we had a welder, a little drill press, and a torch, and he started making stuff in the garage.”
The next thing you know, he says, three more people were showing up to work every day at the house, and his parents realized that there was a business opportunity to be had. They rented their first space and set up shop; the rest can only be called success.
“They followed the American dream, as people say—entrepreneurs and business owners—and I’m grateful the bug has been caught by myself and both my brothers, who are now in the business as well,” says Haan.
With the second generation of the family now running the business, Impact Fab has continued to grow over the years while maintaining an organic focus, particularly on customer service. “We always strive to focus on helping solve the problems our customers are facing,” Haan says. “It’s been our ‘secret sauce’ of getting to know our customers well, where their pain points are, and then figuring out other equipment or processes and how we can speak life into what they’re experiencing. That’s been a steady march forward of plant, equipment, and capacity expansions, and every year there’s a new challenge and opportunity.”
One of the aspects the people at Impact Fab love the most is the partnerships the company gets to create. “We look to be an extension of our customers,” says Haan, and this includes being open to working with the client’s team on projects. “I’m very happy to go to their facility to review projects on their floor and help understand what some of the pain points might be when bringing that design to manufacturing.”
Although talent development and retention continue to be a challenge industry-wide, Haan has recently seen a revival of workers being interested in the skilled trades. This means young people looking for solid jobs with good pay and benefits are coming back to the field after years of staying away from manufacturing.
“We’ve seen a revival here,” he says. “It’s been exciting to work with local schools and help them understand that there are wonderful opportunities in manufacturing, particularly in metals and fabrication, and help retain and develop that talent.”
This excitement has resulted in partnering with local schools and offering tours to a wide range of students to show them what the facility offers. “We do get dirty. We’re working with our hands, and we’re building things,” Haan says. “But it’s a neat environment and we say, ‘if you’re somebody who wants to learn and enjoys working with their hands more than sitting behind a desk, come on down.’”
Impact Fab also boasts a strong local tech center. Every semester, the company takes on a welding student to join the team, working alongside the journeymen fabricators to understand the trade and learn how to apply their skills in the actual work environment. “It’s a great partnership, and oftentimes some of those young people will join our team when we hire them full-time after they graduate.”
While the industry is still largely male-dominated, the company has seen a promising uptick of women in engineering roles, helping to balance the team and bringing a different perspective.
The upcoming year also presents a unique set of issues—along with opportunities—ushered in by the new government and its talk of tariffs, Haan adds, which has bolstered the current reshoring movement. “I see 2025 as being an interesting year for numerous reasons, particularly because uncertainty always creates a lot of opportunities and challenges,” he says. “We’re optimistic that the year has some good things happening,” and that the team will be able to capitalize on the capabilities they have built up over the past year. “We’re primed and ready to answer many of those challenges [clients are] experiencing.”
One of the biggest challenges facing Impact Fab is ensuring that everybody knows their next move and is being efficient and productive with their time. “How do we make sure we’re maximizing everybody’s time and efforts for the value they’re providing?” Haan asks.
The answer, he believes, is a great deal of coordination and communication across departments—one of the key aspects Impact Fab is focused on for the upcoming years. Additionally, Industry 4.0 technology will help streamline different processes and communication to ensure everybody understands what’s going on and when the work needs to be done. “This keeps us from having to sit on inventory for too long, and allows us to streamline and get from order to delivery much faster.”
Speeding up concept-to-delivery also results in a “very competitive” advantage to building within the United States by removing the wait for freight, transit, and other inconveniences. “You can come up with concepts, and then you get your parts in a very streamlined fashion,” says Haan. “That’s one of the value-adds for us.”
When it comes to what’s truly important, however, Haan stresses that partnerships—having a robust vendor network—have been among the company’s greatest successes. “We focus on what we do well, and make sure we can help our customers any way they need it. But a lot of times, that means it might not be just us; it might be a vendor who we work with or another partnership that we have that we can bring to the table.”
This supportive mindset has allowed Impact Fab to approach tasks with an “abundance mentality,” he adds. Because there are many great opportunities out there, Haan doesn’t have to steal work or a customer from another company; instead, the team works together with those companies that may offer different skill sets. “We partner together and take up that partnership instead of a competitive relationship.”
In short, teamwork—both with employees and other companies in the industry—is a matter of prime importance for Impact Fab in all areas of its operations.
“One of the things we love about the size we are is we’re big enough to make things happen, but still small enough that as a team, we review projects together,” says Haan. “When a new opportunity presents itself, we’re still going straight to the guys on the floor who will be building it and working it. It’s not just me on the front-end making commitments; as a team, we’re reviewing and looking at the pitfalls ahead of time, addressing what challenges there could be and how we can overcome them.”
When it comes to working with the customer, that teamwork is paramount. “Our people are what make the difference,” stresses Haan. “At the end of the day, there are a lot of laser-cutting machines and there are a lot of welding machines. It’s the people behind them who have the creativity and the excellence that make the business excel. That’s what we’re so grateful for and proud of—our team and the people who are making it happen.”
