Precision Grinding, Inc. DBA PGI Steel (PGI) – one of many companies that represent Birmingham’s strength in manufacturing – will celebrate 50 years in business with a new moniker.

PGI will celebrate its 50-year anniversary next year and to celebrate will change its name to PGI Steel and debut a new logo, said CEO Miles Cunningham. He said the name change reflects the fact that steel is PGI’s top revenue driver and helps clarify that the company does more than just grinding.

The company, which employs 90, ships to about 45 states annually and does extensive work in the Birmingham region, including on the recently completed Interstate 20/59 bridge project, where it has become a leader in the metro’s robust manufacturing industry.

And the custom steel processing company is now officially recognized as a company that does its work at the highest level. PGI received its ISO 9001:2015 certification this month, the highest level of certification in manufacturing.

“To get this certification, we had to fully implement a quality management system,” said Lee Higginbotham, business operations manager at PGI. “In order to do that, we looked at every process and every procedure from the time materials come in the door to how we process it to the invoice leaving the door. Once you get ISO-certified, you have the stamp of being among the elite and being a company that does manufacturing at the highest level.”

Recently, PGI was commissioned to manufacture custom steel base plates for the production of machines that produce N-95 respirator masks for COVID-19. Because it is a single source solution for custom steel plates and custom steel parts, this allows the company to turn jobs around swiftly, Cunningham said.

“Very few people can react and process custom steel parts as quickly as we can,” he said. “We can process things in days quite often, while others take a significantly long period of time. Not as many have the ability to react and process as quickly as we can do it and with outstanding quality and dependability.”

Mark Brown, vice president of business retention and expansion at the Birmingham Business Alliance, said PGI represents the best of manufacturing in Birmingham.

“PGI is a foundational center for excellence because of what the company does nationally,” Brown said. “Birmingham has such a strong location quotient of manufacturers, and companies with expertise like PGI have really put Birmingham on the map.”