About Us

Rychtik Welding and Manufacturing was founded in 1963 by Jerome C. Rychtik in Grafton, Wisconsin. For over 50 years, they have gained a sterling reputation for superior quality metal working at reasonable costs.

Now, in their second generation of family ownership and management, Rychtik Welding and Manufacturing has become a one stop shop for all of your fabricated and welded metal needs.

During the past 10 years, the company has significantly expanded their business by reinvesting heavily in state-of-the-art machine tools, capital equipment and a skilled workforce.

Currently housed in over 30,000 square feet of factory space, Rychtik Welding and Manufacturing can efficiently process your metals through shearing, forming, bending, plasma and torch cutting, punching, machining and production welding.

Our History

While attending UW Milwaukee for accounting and business law, Brian Rychtik knew that something wasn’t quite right. After working in his father’s company weld shop as young as 13 years old, pushing pencils and books around didn’t quite have the same appeal. “I liked building things and working with my hands,” recalls Brian, “I realized accounting wasn’t for me.”

Since Brian came on staff full-time in 1986, a few things have changed. For one, they bought their current building (818 Beech Street, Grafton) in 1989 (7,000 sq. ft.) and after several additions throughout the years, they currently house over 30,000 square feet in factory floor space. As far as employees go, there were typically about 4-6 during the mid 70’s whereas now they have 18 employees on staff. In fact, Brian’s mom, Norma, actually was solicited to go to work in the weld shop when things really picked up in the mid to late 90’s.

When Brian’s father, Jerry started the business in 1963, he had been working second shift at Telsmith doing metal fabrication. However, after having done some independent part-time work and supported by some self-employed genes in the Rychtik family, he saw an opportunity to branch out and started the business by Five Corners in Cedarburg near the current Newman Chevrolet dealership.

After four years serving in the Navy, Jerry’s other son, Greg joined the company in 1995, bringing some insight regarding technology that was first coming onto the market and a perspective in automated machinery that he had gained from the service.

In terms of offerings as a welding and manufacturing company, Rychtik can do just about anything with metal - from shearing, forming, plasma and torch burning to machining and production welding. “People might think that we are just a small weld shop, but we do have manufacturing capabilities,” says Brian, “We can do virtually 90% of what is possible in terms of fabrication and welding.” In terms of diversification versus being specialized in one particular area, Greg sees it as a good thing: “No doubt, the more diversified we are, the better off we are.”

Speaking of diversification, one of Rychtik’s many services is on-site welding. Sometimes Rychtik is known to do a job well into the evening hours in order to help keep production lines running. As the economy has down-turned, Rychtik has thrived through many repair jobs including doing jobs as small as welding repairs on snow blowers, bicycles, lawn furniture, and athletic equipment.

Some other companies that Rychtik has worked with include Honda, Caterpillar/Bucyrus, Falk/Rexnord and locally with Pace Industries and Carlson Tool. Some jobs have included putting together 150 outdoor steel and stainless steel railings for large condominium projects as well as manufacturing 1,000 aluminum boards for a lift gate company. Rychtik has also done some small jobs for the Busch and Shea major league baseball stadiums.

As terms of deriving value from his work, Brian reflects, “I take great pride in seeing something that I built 20 years ago still standing.”