S&K Steel Inc.

S&K Steel Inc.

S&K Steel is your first stop for Clamps and fillers, Crane rail bars, crane stops, signal foundations, compromise joint bars, portable stops, splice bars, tight fit bars, full toe slice bars, rail clips, timber spacer bars, forged u-bars, and Freight car wheel stops.

Our History

For over 23 years S&K has been a stocking manufacturer with an extensive inventory of Rail Accessories. This inventory of Compromise Bars, Clips, Plates, and Fasteners has allowed S&K to ship 80% of its orders within a 48 hour window. S&K’s standard product inventory is available through a large network of distributors throughout North America.

S&K also manufacturers a wide variety of specials or custom designed products; specials that may simply be a small change to a standard product or a whole new custom part for a special application.

Meeting Increased Demand

Increased demand for rail accessories made of a tough micro alloy put S&K Steel, Inc., on a fast track for growth in the United States and abroad.

The 23-year-old business is expanding into a 9,200-square foot building near its 12,500 square-foot facility at 850 Mandoline and it is adding workers. The new building will house shipping, inventory and research and product development for a wide range of businesses, including railroads, metro transit systems, mines and sports arenas with retractable domes.

Customers and Capabilities

S&K’s major customers sell rail to Washington Metro, Atlanta MARTA, Amtrak, Chicago Transit Authority, and railroads all over the world, particularly North and South America.

Last year S&K filled a $248,000 order for joint bars needed for an iron ore mine in Liberia. Another $500,000 shipment went to Chile.

Using steel trucked from a Pennsylvania plant owned by ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company, S&K employees finish the raw material to customers’ specifications. They turn a couple hundred tons of steel every month into clips, fasteners and joint bars that hold rail together, and end stops that prevent large objects from falling off gantry cranes as they are hoisted.

S&K takes steel and drills holes cold with CNC machines. There are no stress defects that can grow over time. Industry research helps. S&K products tested well at the Transportation Technology Center, which is a subsidiary of the American Association of Railroads in Pueblo, Colo.

“The thing that makes us happy is our products came in with the least internal resistance,” Paisley said. “Railroad bars crack at 3 percent per year. We’re trying to cut that down.”

Customers have taken note and are cheering for the little engineering feats that could create more U.S. jobs.

Tami Crittendon of Warren manages S&K shop logistics. She went to Chicago recently with a delivery for the transit authority’s subway system.

“They just praised American-made bars from Detroit,” Crittendon said. “It made me proud.”