Article printed in the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter - 6/18/08

Rusch Machine and Design makes equipment used around the world
By: Charlie Mathews - Herald Times Reporter

Chris Rusch's brainpower and technical know-how has helped produce everything from flying cars to exhaust pipes to custom motorcycles.

"I have a unique ability to design and make stuff, and I believe our products are the best in the world," he said in his office at Rusch Machine & Design (RMD) on Columbus Street in the city's industrial park.

RMD makes metal fabricating equipment, including tube bending machines, pipe notchers and welding positioners.

The company's marketing slogan is "Get Bent," and that's what happens to pieces of aluminum, brass, steel, copper and titanium when customers use RMD machines.

Rusch and his 18 employees make about 1,000 machines annually and sell them to customers worldwide through Baileigh Industrial.

"He is so creative, it's unreal … from an engineering standpoint, he's ahead of his time," said Stephan Nordstrom, owner of Baileigh, a master distributor of equipment made by RMD and other manufacturing facilities overseas and across the U.S.

Earlier this month, Rusch applied for another patent for an even more sophisticated "rotary draw tube bender."

In describing the background of his invention, Rusch said, "Many buildings, construction sites, manufacturing plants and machine shops require or use a significant quantity of bent tubes, pipes and rods to produce such items as hand rails, scaffolding or fabricated metal products."

What helps distinguish RMD equipment from its handful of American and European competitors, Rusch said, is his company's ability to help create end products — like exhaust tubes — with very fine tolerances, easily, quickly and inexpensively.

Those are qualities that attracted Jesse James when the "Monster Garage" Discovery Channel TV star supervised production of a flying car.

RMD equipment was used in 2004 by James' nine-man team to help transform a $100,000 Panoz Esperante sports car into a vehicle capable of flight.

The car's interior was torn out to make room for a roll cage, and 36-foot wings were mounted, aided by RMD machines.

The founder of motorcycle builder West Coast Choppers taxied the flying car onto a runway, started the propeller engine installed in the trunk, and after hitting 80 mph, guided the car off the ground for about 100 yards.

That was a rather exotic and unusual use of RMD equipment. Most applications are more mundane.

Many RMD machines are used in the farming and agriculture industry to make gates and fences, and in the boating industry, Rusch said.

"Our machines also can be found in small mom-and-pop welding shops … anybody that makes their own products," he said.

Started in his garage

Rusch was building a Lamborghini sports car from scratch when he created his own tube-bending machine.

Ten years ago, Rusch and his wife, Tracy, took the leap of faith to start their garage-based business of designing and creating machines for other fabricators.

They occupied city-owned business incubator space in Two Rivers for several years before moving to Columbus Street in 2004, where they lease about 18,000 square feet in a facility owned by Metal Ware. Loans from the city have aided Rusch's expansion.

"We try to hire a mix of skilled CNC machine operators, as well as highly-skilled assembly people," Rusch said. "I'm grateful for everybody that works here."

On Friday, three of his employees helped explain the machine production process.

In step one, Shane Powalisz uses saws to cut 12-to-20-foot stock pieces of metal into different specified length pieces. "To be off by an eighth of an inch would be way too much," he said.

In step two, Kevin Buchholz, who is a CNC lathe operator, uses blueprint patterns to make pieces of the end machine to tolerances of thousandths of an inch.

Assemblers, like Jason Wagner, take the pieces and create the finished product.

"As long as this is done in a timely fashion to Chris' liking, then I have the freedom to find a faster, more efficient way to assemble the item," Wagner said.

Before shipment, Wagner puts every machine through a series of tests to assure proper operation of the electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and other components.

'Ideas upstairs'

Rusch said RMD equipment rarely malfunctions, "and when it does, 99 percent of the time we can find a fix over the phone with the customer."

If a part is required, it will be sent via overnight delivery to reduce down time of the machine, which can range in price from $2,000 to $20,000, or may be leased, for a monthly fee.

Rusch said he's constantly looking for ways to streamline assembly and production methods of the equipment, and to further enhance the machines themselves.

Tracy Rusch, RMD's vice president and secretary, said the best part of co-owning RMD is providing employment. She has confidence in the man she's known for 22 years and who is the father of their two sons, Dylan, 16, and Dayne, 13.

"He is very intelligent, and stores all his ideas upstairs," she said. "He's always thinking about what can be made out of something."