Page 30 - MetalForming-Dec-2018-issue

FABRICATION
Advanced Bending
Delivers Digital Displays
A new bending system ensures a bright future for this vertically integrated OEM.
Manufacturing
Resources Inter-
national (MRI),
in Alpharetta, GA, is
among a vanishing breed
of OEMs that do not sub-
contract anything. Not a
thing. “Instead, we’re a
totally vertically integrated
company,” says founder
and CEO Bill Dunn. MRI (www.mri-inc.net)
designs, engineers and
fabricates BoldVu high- performance outdoor dig-
ital displays found in and
around urban settings
such as bus shelters, shop-
ping centers and school
campuses and sold under
the LG brand as a result of
a 2014 joint-venture agree-
ment with the electronics
giant. The displays rely
greatly on advanced fabricating equip- ment, notably the Multibend Center by RAS Systems, LLC (www.ras-sys- tems.com) in Peachtree City, GA.
But the MRI story really begins near- ly three decades and a couple of com- panies ago, when Dunn, an electrical engineer, after spending 13 years devel- oping displays for defense contractor Loral Corp., formed Avionic Displays
and 70 percent of the free world’s military aircraft.” Though ADC no longer exists, Dunn continues as owner of APC while over- seeing the growth of MRI.
“We have about 40,000 large-format outdoor dis- plays worldwide,” he says, “and we’re producing nearly 8000/yr.”
Inside MRI
MRI resources are extensive, with the com- pany housed in two build- ings, the first being 28,000 sq. ft. and the second accounting for 137,000 sq. ft. MRI’s second building is undergoing an 80,000- sq.-ft. expansion. When completed by the end of Q1 2019, MRI will total
nearly 245,000 sq. ft. of space for its 200-plus employees, one-third of which are degreed engineers involved with design, production and process engi- neering. APC occupies an additional 48,000-sq.-ft. facility for a staff of 100- plus, with approximately one-third of those being degreed engineers as well.
“We’re doing it all—the design, analysis, simulation, production, and
BY JOE JANCSURAK, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
28 MetalForming/December 2018
www.metalformingmagazine.com
An MRI display in a San Francisco bus shelter. MRI’s BoldVu displays are ubiquitous in the urban landscape. Media advertising generates revenue used to offset the cost of maintaining street furniture fixtures, such as bus shelters.
Corp. (ADC) in 1991. “We brought full- color, active-matrix, LED technology to the cockpits of military aircraft for the first time,” says Dunn, whose suc- cess with ADC led him to form Ameri- can Panel Corp. (APC), said to be the largest design and manufacturing cen- ter for aircraft displays, both commer- cial and military. “APC displays are on every Boeing, a lot of Airbus planes