Trilogy Machinery’s Processes and People Ensure Your Success

SUPPLIER PROFILE

Family-owned Trilogy Machinery, Inc. of Belcamp, Md., has positioned itself as a pacesetter on the forefront of ideas and solutions for the metal fabrication industry. As a leader in the metal fabrication machinery industry, the company is the exclusive distributor and importer for brands from around the world, including Sunrise Ironworkers, SweBend Bending Rolls, Lemas Plate Bending Rolls, Synergy Bending Rolls, and BSP Tube Punching Machines.

Trilogy Machinery formed in 2009, when Allan and Ben Flamholz took their combined 50 years in the industry to create a new distribution company. Trilogy Machinery was founded on bringing together the highest regard for Service, Support and Technical Knowledge.

Trilogy’s founders have roots in the metal industry dating back to 1930, when the great-grandfather of Vice President Ben Flamholz, began a metal business in Baltimore, Md. Building on this experience and legacy, Trilogy Machinery occupies a 50,000-square-foot facility in Belcamp, which features more than 3,000 square feet of office space and a 5,000-square-foot showroom. Trilogy Machinery offers demonstrations on their entire line of machinery, including SweBend CNC plate and angle rolls, Sunrise CNC Ironworkers and Systems, refurbished Roundo Bending Rolls and more.

“We work to ensure our customers, dealers and suppliers understand that we are a business who wants to be there from the beginning to the end and all points in between,” Flamholz said. “To be their solution for a wide range of metal fabricating machines. We put systems, processes and people in place to be an honest, decent company.”

Flamholz said that from the beginning, Trilogy Machinery has developed a strong infrastructure to support the sales of metal fabrication machinery. “Not only do we have a wide variety of machines in stock in Maryland, we stock all the parts, the blades, the switches, the valves, motors, and relays as well,” Flamholz said. “We have dedicated parts personnel for the brands that we have, as well as six factory-trained technicians, who travel the country to offer service and support on those brands.”

Due to the strong relationships Trilogy Machinery has formed over the years with its suppliers, the company has trained its staff, administrative assistants and parts personnel to understand and provide the correct level of service and support for the machines.

Added Flamholz, “I think, especially recently, a lot of distributors are only resellers, and they send fabricators back to the machine’s manufacturer to get service and support. We have really tried to keep all of that in-house so you can make one call to Trilogy for parts, service and support for the lifetime of the machine.”

Trilogy Machinery is an all-encompassing company that not only sells a machine but also provides parts, service, and documentation including hydraulic and electrical schematics, CAD drawings, parts manuals and more. The company also keeps detailed records for every machine it has sold.

“We also have the documentation for 15,000 Roundo machines that were sold over a 40-year span,” Flamholz said. “And we have been able to service and support those machines as well. We have customers that have machines that are 20 or 30 years old that still rely on us for parts, service and support.”

Fully Stocked Industry Leading Solutions

Trilogy Machinery offers several core metal fabrication machinery brands, which present fabricators with a variety of solutions to choose from to meet their application needs. The company competes on three different levels: price points (entry level); features (moderately priced larger machines); and custom-designed machines that meet exacting specifications, resulting in highly accurate machines with top-quality components.

The primary lines Trilogy Machinery carries include Sunrise, SweBend, Lemas, Synergy and BSP Tube Punching.

• Sunrise’s products include: ironworkers, including models with CNC; punching machines; horizontal bending machines; angle, plate and channel processing lines. Trilogy Machinery typically stocks anywhere from 50-to-60 different models in Maryland and distributes them across the country with a network of dealers or direct to consumers. The machines come with a best-in-class three-year warranty. Trilogy Machinery is the exclusive U.S. distributor of Sunrise machinery.
• SweBend’s products include: angle and plate bending rolls including models with CNC, specialty machines include flanging, a variety of tube bending machines, straightening and flattening machines. SweBend is produced in southern Sweden; Trilogy Machinery is the exclusive North American distributor for SweBend.
• Lemas’ products include: a plate and angle bending line. The company produces three-roll and four-roll plate bending rolls; the largest machine is 10 feet, and the smallest machine is two feet. Lemas is a Taiwanese company and has been distributing in the United States since 2001; Trilogy Machinery is the exclusive North American distributor for Lemas.
• Synergy’s products include: Three-roll and four-roll double pinch plate bending rolls. Synergy products are made in Turkey; Trilogy Machinery is the exclusive North American distributor for Synergy.
• BSP Tube Punching Machines: These high precision tube and profile punching machines use a mandrel, which goes inside the tube or pipe and expands to fill the void inside to punch the exterior without crushing the walls. BSP’s products are made in Italy; Trilogy Machinery is the new exclusive North American distributor of these machines.

Flamholz pointed out the variety, differences and capabilities in the brands. For example, Lemas offers more entry-level, smaller capacity machines, which do not feature CNC. On the other hand, SweBend has a variety of options, and can be highly customized.

With Lemas, “We wanted a well-made entry-level machine for the average job shop that only needs to roll a few times a week,” Flamholz said. “It has a quick delivery and is typically in stock, or you might have to wait only a few weeks for it.”

On the other hand, SweBend is a custom designed machine built to meet exacting specifications, so the build time is longer but results in highly accurate machines with quality components. Trilogy typically stocks both CNC plate and angle rolls, as well as those without CNC from SweBend for customers looking for quick delivery.

Synergy machines are positioned in the middle of the range of machine options. They are well made, offer a basic CNC component, as well as a wider range of capacities. Synergy’s delivery times are still a few months, and Trilogy Machinery does have some of those machines in stock.

Supply Chain Satisfaction

As a distributor, importer and service provider of metal fabrication brands from around the world, Trilogy Machinery has experienced frustrations with the supply chain just like everyone else. Flamholz said one of the biggest supply chain hiccups was with ocean freight and ocean shipping, where the pandemic took out of commission ships that were due for overhauling or refurbishment. This added a couple of weeks to transit times from overseas because ships weren’t available. And containers were not available. “The U.S. was not exporting a lot of containers out of the country, especially during COVID,” Flamholz said. “So, the containers were fewer and further apart — it was hard to find a shipping container to fill up.”

Another bottleneck was the rush on computer components. Suppliers and manufacturers of these components couldn’t keep up with demand. Trilogy Machinery was quoted up to 12 months lead time on servo motors, drivers and computer components.

“We are very lucky because the suppliers that we have had a nice inventory pre-COVID, so we really didn’t experience delays of more than a few weeks for any of our lines because they were able to keep up with production,” Flamholz said. What’s more, Trilogy Machinery was able to alleviate most of the delays other manufacturers were experiencing due to the overlap of the supply the company had on hand, in addition to the new components they were ordering.

“Now, we are pretty much back,” Flamholz said. “There are things that still take a while to manufacture, but again, because we are buying future inventory, the current demand is being fulfilled.”

Trilogy Machinery’s leadership has positioned the company to respond to changes in the industry such as supply chain constraints, as well as the drive by customers to get things done faster, and who demand answers quicker. Companies want to connect with a supplier that will be a partner for the long haul. “What is separating Trilogy from another importer/distributor is the fact that we are there to support them,” Flamholz said. “We are not there to push customers into a machine that might fit what they are looking for. When a customer or potential customer comes to us with an idea of a part they want produced, we are able to sit down with our knowledge of our products and design a machine that provides a solution for what they are looking for.”

Flamholz said the more time-honored business traditions and approaches are coming back into play as customers seek true collaborations with their suppliers. “And we have seen this with some of our recent orders — quite large orders — where the customer is telling us it is because of the relationship that Trilogy established with them, because of the solutions we were able to provide to them.”

Trilogy Machinery Continues to Lead the Way

Regarding the future, Trilogy Machinery plans to expand the range of the product lines the company sells. “We have new systems that Sunrise is developing to process different types of structural steel,” Flamholz said. “We are taking designs and principles that have been successful on certain models from Sunrise and applying that to new models.”

The same goes for the SweBend line. “We are really focusing on the success we have had and using that as a strategy to gain new customers that may not be as familiar with our offerings by reaching into new markets.”

New markets and new applications include the use of ironworkers by artisans and craftsmen. Small shops are making high end, custom furniture, processes which took off during the pandemic. A manufacturer in Baltimore is utilizing reclaimed wood and fallen trees from around Baltimore to make furniture. “They have a couple of our machines where they are integrating wood and metal components,” Flamholz said. “It has been really successful for them. A customer doesn’t have to spend a lot of money to get a machine. It is a niche market and some of the applications and uses are really interesting.”

Metal has found its way into a wide range of industries and continues to be a highly sought-after material. For instance, construction techniques are integrating metal not only for safety, rigidity and support but also for compelling and unique exterior designs for buildings and structures.

Flamholz added that aerospace and automobile industry customers are also looking for solutions with the company’s machinery. “For us, it is really about continuing the evolution of our brands, and to continue to evolve to what the customers demand,” Flamholz said.

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