Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - 22

arine Tops Unlimited Inc. has been
providing custom fabrication for
Wisconsin boats for just shy of 40
years. Kyle Van Damme, who with his
father owns the company in Omro,
west of Oshkosh, has for the vast
majority of those years done fabrication the old-fashioned
way-designing and measuring by hand, not by computer.
In the " old days, " fabricators would measure
and build boat tops by hand. Now
computers and sophisticated software
do the measuring, and often the cutting
as well. Photo: Marine Tops Unlimited Inc.
22 Marine Fabricator | July/August 2021
But Van Damme is now among the
" new breed " of fabricators who have
embraced the tech world, convinced that
even with what could be a steep learning
curve, the effi ciency and precision of the
digital world is where the future lies.
" When we started thinking about it, we
had more questions than answers, " Van
Damme says. " Our thought process was
simply that someday this will make us
faster. And it would allow repeatability; if
we had to work on a certain boat again,
to replace something that was broken or
worn out, we'd already have the CAD
cut fi le ready to go. Kind of like, 'press
play and let's start cutting.' "
Many of the manufacturers that make
the hardware and software for today's
fabricators wouldn't necessarily call
theirs a nascent industry-many have
been around for decades. But they're
seeing a recognition among more and
more fabricators that they better get on
board before the ship sails (so to speak).
The future is here, even though there
may be some bumps along the road.
What are the best tools?
The biggest question, of course, when a
fabricator is considering the leap to digital
is what are the best tools to use? While the
number of choices may be relatively small,

Marine Fabricator July/August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Marine Fabricator July/August 2021

Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - Cover1
Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - Cover2
Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - 1
Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - 2
Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - 3
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Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - Cover3
Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - Cover4
Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - Expo Attendee Brochure 1
Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - Expo Attendee Brochure 2
Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - Expo Attendee Brochure 3
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Marine Fabricator July/August 2021 - Expo Attendee Brochure 6
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