“When your name is Smith, you work with metal, and at Rigid-Tex®, we make metal better!” – Richard S. “Stainless” Smith (RSS), founder Rigid-Tex® Corp (circa 1945)
RSS is the first exclusively stainless steel salesman in the country, living in Syracuse, NY, to be close to one of the most prolific users, Brown-Lipe & Chapin. While making sales calls in New York City for Republic Steel Corporation, he espies a fancy sterling silver cigarette case decorated with an engraved geometrical pattern in the window at Brooks Bros. He convinces Mr. Brooks to loan him the case to study – he has an idea!
While making another routine sales call on Roehlen Engraving in Rochester, NY, RSS meets with VP Ray Kerrigan. Kerrigan insists that “Roehlen can make a roll set that would emboss stainless steel to almost any desired design.” Great news: his idea has merit. Encouraged, he sets off to present his idea first to his employer, Republic Steel, then on to Ryerson, US Steel, Wyckoff Drawn Steel and Allegheny for help to bring texture to the world of stainless steel.
The potential partners and investors all decline to offer any financial support for his idea. RSS resigns from Republic Steel and proceeds to file a patent application with former colleague, Robert Lynch, entitled “Decorating Metallic Surfaces.” It is the ninth birthday of his eldest son, Richard S. “Sky” Smith, Jr. (standing in the photo, left, along with younger sister, Sally and brother, Dave, in RSS’s lap), who was born underneath the “sky”-rockets of Independence Day. Unannounced to them, Sky would return to this yet-to-be-formed company and take the helm 34 years later.
Ray Kerrigan is right: a pattern can be rolled into stainless steel! The first strip of Rigid-tex® stainless steel is produced in the pattern designated as 1WL or 1 Wavy Line.
Rigid-tex® Corporation is certified in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. RSS purchases the first five shares for $500,000. This represents the original capitalization of Rigid-tex® Corporation. His wife, Katherine, his brother, Morse, and his mother-in-law, Elizabeth R. Wyckoff, round out the first shareholders and Rigid-tex® Corporation is officially born with its temporary headquarters at 1314 Oliver Building, Pittsburgh, PA.
RSS buys the first 8″ rolling mill of its kind for $1,200. After the purchase, RSS and Roehlen experiment with this new mill and the 1WL pattern for 5 long months. In January 1941, they find success and a complete set of samples are sent to the Bureau of Aeronautics for testing. This 8″ mill is still in use today!
Patent number 2,277,725 for “Decorative Metallic Surfaces” is awarded and filed, stating, “This invention relates to the art of forming, finishing and decorating metallic surfaces, and more particularly to the finishing and decorating of stainless steel surfaces”. The patent combines with a promised purchase order from aircraft manufacturer, Curtiss-Wright, to enable RSS to pursue financing and search for a manufacturing plant to install the new 8″ rolling mill and hopefully go into production.
Hugh L. Perry is hired on a “no compensation basis” as the first employee. He believes in RSS and his idea so much so that he invests $3,300 in Rigid-tex® stock and agrees to serve as Secretary and Treasurer, and does so until 1946, when he felt the company was on solid footing.
The first production order is received from Curtiss-Wright for 350 tons of Rigid-tex® ALCLAD sheets. Although the order is re-dated for 11/17/43, because Rigid-Tex® has yet to secure a property and a mill to manufacture, the order represents a huge coup for RSS and his manufacturing company
Not surprisingly, RSS chooses Buffalo, NY to begin the Rigid-tex® adventure. The company takes possession of 658 Ohio Street from the Defense Plant Corporation. Buffalo is an aircraft hotbed with both Curtiss-Wright and Bell Aircraft within a few miles of the new Rigid-tex® location. RSS hires Catherine Galleciez as his Executive Secretary. Catherine also serves on the Board of Directors as Secretary of the Corporation from 1946 until 1979, when she retired.
RSS successfully rolls test sheets with the newest pattern, 6WL®, indicating that it is 6x larger than his original 1WL pattern. The deeper pattern design significantly increases the strength to weight ratio. The successful rolling on the new, larger mill provide 36″ wide sheets in 6WL®, giving RSS the opportunity to approach other aircraft manufacturers and new markets.
Still awaiting the “OK” to proceed with the Curtiss-Wright purchase order, a company named Hoover Co. of North Canton, Ohio asks if RSS can process a lead zinc bi-metal by cold forging the two metals together. RSS takes the job and begins to roll on the new 37″ rolling mill with blank rolls. No one knew what all of this metal was for, and it wasn’t even textured, but “you don’t break into war production with a new product.” Hoover Co. came to Rigid-tex® through a close personal friend of RSS, Reginald V. Williams (RVW). RVW saved the day and Hoover is the first paying customer – 3 1/2 years after formation! Mr. Williams went on to serve on the Rigid-tex® board from 1946 until 1966.
Right on the heels of the Hoover order, RSS processes the first textured order for Consolidated-Vultee, Inc. out of Texas on the new 37″ mill. The order is for 72 sheets of 6WL® Alclad aluminum, .020″ thick and 36″ wide by 144″ long. Consolidated-Vultee manufactured B-24 Bombers and C-87 Cargo Planes in their bomber plant on their 563-acre property in Dallas-Fort Worth.
The employees attend the first annual family picnic in Angola, NY. “Baseball! And Poker and Beer!” reads the RSS diary entry. Rigidized® Metals has upheld the tradition of an annual picnic for over 80 years.
Pattern ACC4i has a pattern depth of over 1/4″ deep – the deepest Rigid-tex® pattern to date. The first order is for the US Army’s Signal Corps for vehicular radio encasements to ensure the radios are safe from sudden shocks and rough handling. Mounted on the back of Jeeps or installed inside tanks, Rigid-tex® keeps the radio parts out of harm’s way.
Hoover is ordering at a rate of 50,000 square feet each month and we still do not know what Hoover is making! Rigid-tex® is employing 22 women and 8 men as WWII is still raging. And RSS feels comfortable enough to finally give his first employee, Hugh Perry, his first paycheck, and to even take a paycheck himself – just over 4 years after formation!
War time is over, but the relationships RSS built during the war will help to ensure success. After a great deal of testing and development, a new pattern is introduced. Blending a perfect amount of beauty and utility, RSS launches pattern 5WL® and the word “beautility”. The first large application of pattern 5WL® is for trolley car seat backs produced by Heyword-Wakefield Company for trolleys constructed by St. Louis Car Company.
After two years of producing the lead-zinc bi-metal for Hoover Co., Rigid-tex® receives a Certificate of Achievement from the US Navy. RSS finally finds out that the metal we have been supplying to Hoover Co. has been used to make proximity fuses for the US Navy. This is what saved his fledgling company at the starting gate.
In development since 1947, Robert Bingham, of the Charles Peckat Company, perfected the design for the 1949 Ford Comet Skyshield, utilizing pattern 5WL® for the sun visor. It represents the largest order in the brief history of Rigid-tex®. Bingham chose Rigid-tex® because “the added stiffness, coupled with beauty, makes possible a vibrationless visor, even at high speeds.”
Planes, trains and automobiles – from the galleys of Eastern Airlines, to the snack car on the B&O Railroad, 5WL® is everywhere!
Rigid-tex® pattern 1CS is selected for outer covering of the cab on the Berliet T-100, named the Largest Truck in the World.
With the development of new deep textured patterns, the appeal for Rigidized® Metals grew, and soon we were breaking into new markets everywhere. The attractiveness of our subtler patterns drew the attention of architectural markets, and before long our textures were appearing in elevators, restrooms, on the interior and exteriors of buildings, on appliances, and in homes. Textured metal was hot – and still is – and designed to last, making it even more attractive.
In the 1950s, a new architectural concept, the ‘curtain wall’, in which a building ‘wears’ an exterior curtain of glass and metal, was introduced. Richard S. Smith believed the entire world was a market for Rigidized® Metals, and thus the first application of a Rigidized® Metals curtain wall was on the 13-story IBM Building in Pittsburgh, PA, with textured window panels in diamond-shaped grid units. Then, in 1960, Rigidized® Metals clad the 53-story Union Carbide Building in New York City. The architectural world took notice, and we haven’t looked back since.
As our patterns gained popularity across the board, color began to make a splash in all markets we served. Rigidized® Metals rose to the occasion and in 195x introduced color to our ever evolving catalogue. From powder coating and highlighting, to solid color options, the design possibilities with Rigidized® Metals were essentially endless.
In 1957 we officially introduced our pattern 1RL, designed by renowned industrial engineer Raymond Loewy. The pattern has immense architectural appeal and is available in countless color and perforation varieties.
The Sword of Hope, the 30 foot tall Crusader Sword, is placed on the White House lawn and Dwight D. Eisenhower kicks off the 1958 Cancer Crusade. The “Twin Serpents” handle is Rigidized® Metals aluminum pattern 1RL, and the blade is pattern 5WL®. The sword was then flown to the North Pole and was planted to symbolize the American Cancer Society’s continuing fight against cancer.
Richard S. Smith believed the entire world was a market for Rigidized® Metals, so, fittingly, in 1962, Rigidized® Metals’ revealed pattern 1UN, specifically designed for the Unisphere for the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows in Queens, NY. Pattern 1UN in stainless steel makes up all of the continents on the structure, and, thanks to the deep texture of our metal, has needed minimal maintenance to remain a popular visual statement of innovation and creativity today.
As the company continued to evolve, so did our brand. In 1964, our logo was updated, and our company name went from Rigid-tex® Metals, to Rigidized Metals Corporation® – a name chosen to be inclusive of the many additional markets we now serve.
As we continued to evolve, leadership was transferred to Richard S. “Stainless” Smith’s son, Richard “Sky” Smith, Jr., in 1972.
In celebration of our nation’s Bicentennial, “Stainless” Smith placed the celebrated cigarette case into a rocket-shaped time capsule, made out of Rigidized® metal, to be unearthed at a future date.
In the 1980s, another design overhaul was completed, and our logo was updated, once again, to what it is today, while Rigid-tex® has been re-branded to represent our still continuously growing industrial and transportation markets.
Rigidized® Metals entered the world of fabrication when our products were discovered by Siemens and customized for their Automated Mail Tray Conveyor Systems. Our popular 5WL® and 6WL® patterns were chosen for this application because the texture of the patterns allows items to move more quickly and smoothly over their surface, saving time and resources. Our ability to customize our products opened the door for limitless fabrication possibilities.
On January 1, 2000, Sky’s son, Richard “Rick” Smith, III, takes the reins as President and CEO of Rigidized Metals Corporation®.
Under Rick’s leadership, Rigidized® Metals’ fabrication capabilities reached new, limitless heights, offering customers countless opportunities to take projects from concept to completion. With the addition of an entire building’s worth of fabrication equipment, and a bolstering sales and engineering team to work together and develop complete systems, our former world of simple cutting and hanging has turned into one of complete product development to suit any designer’s needs.
In the early 2000s, with Rick at the helm, Rigidized® Metals became heavily involved in the local community. We began collaborating with local universities, students, artists, and designers to encourage them to imagine their visions in metal – and then worked with them to make it a reality.
Rigidized® Metals acquired Contrarian Metal Resources launching us into a whole new world of exteriors with an entirely new lineup of microtextures, capabilities, and offerings for the architectural community.
As a third generation family-owned business, we, at Rigidized® Metals, continue to look forward. From world-leading products and community involvement to sustainability, evolving technology, and social and economic impact, we strive to always move forward, with our customers as our priority.
At the end of the day, our story would not exist without the ideas of one man, whose family – both by blood, and chosen – has continued his legacy. At Rigidized® Metals, everyone is family.
Residing at 658 Ohio Street in Buffalo, NY since 1943, we have remained loyal to our Buffalo roots, expanding our home base and staff throughout the decades to accommodate the plethora of growing ideas and activities Rigidized® Metals has come to adopt and share with our local community. Generations have shared in the growth of the Rigidized® family, and with those generations, ideas have flourished. Today, our staff has grown to accommodate more than three plant expansions, new role development, and nationwide sales coverage.
Since 1940, Rigidized Metals Corporation® has led the world in the development and production of deep-textured, three dimensional engineered metal surfaces used in architectural, industrial and transportation applications. Rigidized® Metals products are known for their attractive, economical and functional appeal. The Rigidized® Metals deep-texturing process adds strength, impact resistance and the ability to hide scratches. It also allows for down-gauging, resulting in lighter, longer lasting products and reduced maintenance costs.
Rigidized® Metals engineered surfaces are available in a wide palette of textures giving the kind of rich surface variation few materials can provide.
We furnish our proprietary Rigidized® Metals engineered surfaces to Service Centers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) of countless products around the world. Our patterns include the popular 5WL®, 6WL®, 6SL®, 6HC, 2WL®, RTP® and XTP.