Wolf Metals integral to creating units to sanitize PPE

On a Thursday morning in March, when much of the country was being told to shelter in place due to the effects of COVID-19, Mike Wolf, plant manager for the small, family owned, custom sheet metal company Wolf Metals, attended a meeting at the Ohio technology and research organization, Battelle, to discuss a possible project. By that afternoon, Wolf and his crew watched as the company delivered the first two shipping containers that Wolf Metals would modify and transform into Battelle’s Sanitizing Critical Care Decontamination System (CCDS) units to disinfect personal protective equipment, including N95 masks for health care workers.
By the following Monday, Wolf Metals had fabricated four units.
“It is a testament to my guys, the guys who work for us and knowing the importance of what these machines were being made for,” Wolf said. “We worked straight through the weekend to deliver the first four units.”
Wolf Metals began in 1974 when brothers Mike and Jim Wolf began working out of Mike’s garage on nights and weekends. When the demand outgrew their space and time, the brothers started Wolf Metals.
Since its beginnings, Wolf Metals grew with Jim Wolf’s sons, Mike and Pat, joining their father at the company. Both sons went through the apprenticeship program at SMART Sheet Metal Local 24 in Dayton, Ohio, and credit the education and training they received with their continued success.
Since the initial meeting with Battelle, Wolf Metals has produced several additional CCDS units. Local 24 Business Manager Rodney French, credited the local union’s partnership with Wolf Metals and noted that “this is the kind of work sheet metal workers were built to do as we stand on the leading edge of the response to this deadly pandemic.”  French added that, “no matter what the consequences, the men and women of this organization will stand ready to serve our local communities through thick and thin.”