NEW ULM — Brent Donner gets excited when he talks about how his business moved into a brand new shop in an industrial park, at 24 Somsen Street, that is four times the size of its prior home.

On top of that, the company made the move to the 36,000 square foot building right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The move to the new shop took two years and plenty of planning.

In 2008, Donner and David Dewald began a business in a 9,800 square foot shop behind Kwik Trip on the south end of New Ulm.

While the U.S. steel market is forecast to remain undersupply into the new year, DLC (Donner Laser Cutting) Manufacturing & Fabrication continues to thrive with four laser steel cutters and a press brake hard at work with the intricacies of sheet metal cutting and bending.

“We were so busy before COVID-19 hit,” Donner said. “Most everybody slowed down but we were able to continue without losing any accounts.”

Much of what DLC does involves making whatever parts are needed for Bobcat Equipment & Attachments.

Bobcat is owned by Doosan company, a global leader in construction equipment, power and water solutions, engines and engineering.

Bobcat has been well-known for some time for its skid-steer loaders.

“We have no shortage of material,” Donner said.

Established in 2007 to optimize laser and plasma materials processing, Donner believes in servicing equipment and business relations yielding higher speed and feed rates, educated operators, and improved operational costs.

The company offers a wide range of industrial services including cutting machine optimization, operator training and consulting.

Professional competencies include laser cutting equipment diagnosis and repair, optimization, equipment maintenance program development and servicing.

Donner’s advice for machine operation is to keep it clean inside and out by paying attention to details and using common sense.

In the early 1990s, Donner studied non-destructive testing and metallurgy at Ridgewater College in Hutchinson. He studied how metals react when heated, cut, and formed.

Working as a blaster at Hutchinson Manufacturing, he was operating a blasting system when an accident happened and a hose shot coal diamond powder at his left leg at several hundred pounds per square inch.

Donner was in the hospital for eight hours.

The next day, he returned to work. His bosses knew he couldn’t operate a blaster, so they gave him a fabrication job. He saw a 1953 punch/plasma machine nobody else could operate, and he operated it.

Donner succeeded with the old machine by experimentation and asking the right questions of the right people. Donner was soon writing his own programs.

He said he grew to love the work of lifting parts up, gaining muscle, and being paid for it.

Tim Fischer, laser lead at DLC, worked in construction and as a motor vehicle mechanic before coming to DLC. Fischer said Donner taught him the intricate details of how to cut metal with lasers.

Brothers Brandon and Dustin Hillesheim operate machines too, learning the trade from the ground up.

Brandon Hillesheim worked as cook before coming to DLC.

A month and a half after he was hired, Brandon was driving fork trucks, loading material onto a solid-state laser and downloading programs. Besides machinery operator work, he soon handled shipping and receiving.

Dustin Hillesheim worked at a heating, ventilation and air conditioning company for four months before coming to DLC in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at a blasting and finishing firm.

Dustin was impressed with how clean the DLC shop was when he walked in. He credited Brent Donner for taking the time to teach him the right way to do things.

Soon, he learned to program the press brake, read a print, program machines and figure out the bending sequence.