About KARD Welding

KARD Welding was established in 1983 by Ken Osterloh as a small weld shop. The first couple of years, he fabricated and installed upper couplers in semi trailers. During this time, he called on area machine tool builders and asked for a chance to fabricate machine tool bases. Those pleas for a chance to show that he could handle the welding needs of area businesses began to pay off. Ken soon had more work than he could handle by himself and was faced with the need to hire an employee, something Ken hadn’t considered when he was setting up shop. As jobs continued to roll in, it wasn’t long before Ken was hiring more employees. Ken’s strategy was to buy the largest fabricating equipment he could afford. The first major piece of equipment was a 750 ton Cincinnati Press Brake. The second was a ½ x 12’ Cincinnati shear. The third was a 30 ton crane, and this strategy continues today. Diversification had been a goal of Ken’s since going into business, with the underlying idea being that if one phase of business is down, another would pick up the slack. After depending on semi trailer repair welding for several years, Ken shifted the emphasis to heavy metal fabrication. KARD was fabricating heavy machinery bases up to 60,000 pounds for local companies.

In 1988, Ken diversified again by starting up Eqypt Structural Steel. Egypt Structural Steel was developed to work with small to medium sized structural steel fabricators. Egypt is strictly an extension to other fabricators shops and takes parts that have cambering and a lot of holes that can be drilled more efficiently at Egypt. Fabricators furnish material for Egypt to cut, drill, cope, camber, weld and finally ship to the jobsite. The first major equipment purchased for Egypt Structural Steel was a Peddinghaus 40” wide 6 spindle drill line with a 40” Garu Cold Saw and a Cambco Cambering Machine that would do a W 40 x 397 pound.

In 1990, Ken diversified again with KARD Bridge Products. The first thing required was to become American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) certified. KARD immediately prepared to test for AISC Category III, including the Sophisticated Paint endorsement. KARD Bridge was started to handle all steel for local and state bridge projects. KARD specializes in rolled beam bridges, plate girder bridges, expansion joints and finger joints. KARD now works in all states bordering Ohio along with several other states such as North Dakota, Alabama, Connecticut and Virginia.

KARD Welding Inc.’s policy is to direct all activities to ensure that all products meet or exceed the appropriate specifications set forth within the contract documents. KARD Welding adopted the AISC Quality Certification Program and aggressively strives to not just meet but exceed the requirements.

Every employee of this organization is committed to this end and takes pride in their work. Constant reviews of the quality goals ensure our customers receive the finest steel fabrications available. Not only KARD Welding, but the entire steel construction business benefits from this dedication to quality work.

Since its inception, KARD Welding has been involved in serving the industry with quality weldments. Then Egypt Structural Steel Processing was added as a marketing arm to provide fabricated columns and beams to the building industry, and finally KARD Bridge Products began marketing items for highways and bridges. All fabricating is done by KARD Welding as the parent company.

Because of KARD's commitment to the quality of what leaves our facility, we have been qualified as a supplier to many states. These include: Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Minnesota.

Maintaining the quality of our work is our primary objective.

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