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Angelo Bonarrigo was a prime example of the American dream. He came to this country a young man in search of opportunity and ended up producing a lucrative fabrication business, Magnus Hi-Tech Industries.

Bonarrigo, who passed away in 1997, was only 23-years old when he arrived in the states with his young wife, Angela. The pair came here from a tiny Italian farming village so remote it had only one phone. Calls would come into a small store and than a worker would run off through the village find the desired party.

After he arrived in New York from Italy, Bonarrigo had his share of troubled times. His son Frank said that while his father was out looking for work as a mechanic, a major automobile company turned him down. No Italians.

He did eventually find steady work as a helper in a sheet metal company, and less than a decade later he had founded his own company in Long Island. His primary business at the time was in producing metal work for mainframe computers. However, the nature of his business changed in the early 1980s, so Bonarrigo decided to shift his business plans accordingly.

“My dad saw this change coming and he moved toward Department of Defense work,” said is son Frank Bonarrigo, who took over the reins of the company when his dad left this world.

Bonarrigo established Magnus Hi-tech Industries in Melbourne in 1984 after being awarded a great deal of work from several Department of Defense contractors based in the area. By 1990, he consolidated the New York location into the Brevard’s office. Frank Bonarrigo said his father liked to remain one step ahead, and was not afraid of change when it came to running his business. No longer does the company work with just metal, they have added plastic, rubber, and a host of other materials to their fabrication list.

“He learned to change with the times,” Frank Bonarrigo said. “He was always investing in newer technologies to bring us forward.”

Frank Bonarrigo has carried on his father’s business philosophy by continuing to invest in new, state-of-the-art machines. The company’s newest crown jewel of acquisitions is their coordinate measuring machine. This giant is able to take precision dimensional measurements to ensure re-production accuracy. When Bonarrigo purchased it for about a quarter-of-a-million dollars, he said at the time he and NASA were the only two to own them on the East Coast of Florida.

“We wanted to be ahead of everyone else,” said Raymond Ringleb, the vice president of sales and marketing at Magnus. “It (the machine) gives our customers a more efficient product. It sets us apart from our competition.”

Another step Frank Bonarrigo has taken toward the future of the fabrication industry in the incorporation of a computerized 3-D modeling technique. This technique has equaled big savings in time and money.

“We’re always looking for ways to innovate,” said Frank Bonarrigo.

Magnus Hi-tech currently manufactures its products from two buildings totaling about 30,000 square-feet. However, a third building now being constructed, will tack on another 14,000 square-feet of workspace adjacent to the existing buildings.

Lockheed Martin, one of their contractors, at no cost, provided design plans for the new building and existing structures layout to Magnus. Lockheed sent a team of experts known as “Black Belts” to advise Magnus on the most productive work design for their buildings.

“They incorporated their vision into our existing plan and we came up with a hybrid plan,” Ringleb said. “We’re very excited about it.”

Ringleb said he estimates the new design will increase productivity by 30 percent. The new building should be finished by first quarter 2007.

Bonarrigo takes great pride in the business his father founded so long ago. With each new machine and idea, he sees a way to improve the items he creates. He looks with pride at smooth slabs of metal stacked in his shop awaiting attention because he knows that his company will shape the shapeless into intricate fittings for a myriad of objects.

“To you guys it’s just metal, but to us it defines what we do,” Bonarrigo said.

For more information please visit www.magnushitech.com