Gary Knudson looks to position and reinvent his roll forming machine manufacturer for the next era in a booming construction market
It’s a story written throughout the American history: An inventor’s garage or basement is the incubator for a successful business. So it was with Colorado’s Knudson Manufacturing, a 60-year-old company (as of 2017), based on an idea of how to better use metal in construction. In their case, it was all about what was to become world-leading steel framing roll forming machinery.
Metal buildings had been around many decades when Arthur Knudson came up with an innovative way of doing things in 1957. Sheet metal for buildings had mostly been fashioned into roofs, gutters and other components at a central location and then transported and assembled at the construction site. Knudson thought it would be more efficient to locate that process on-site. At his home in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Knudson created a portable machine that would do just that. The company focus later shifted into steel framing, democratizing fabrication of metal stud and track, framing assembly, as well as computer integration of roll forming and design platforms.
As of 2023, Knudson is a part of Scottsdale Construction Systems, with its industry-leading roll formers KFS Framemaker, KFD Framemaker, and KSE now a part of larger offering of Scottsdale’s steel framing roll forming machinery.
Read the full US Manufacturing Report article featuring the industry leader in roll forming steel framing machines.
