What do the Panama Canal, the Kennedy Space Center and the famous practice-field tower once used by Alabama head football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant have in common? They all included metal fabrication components created by Alabama Metal Industries Corp., or AMICO.

Forged out of Birmingham’s steel-producing heyday, AMICO has been manufacturing metal components since 1939. These components are then used worldwide in a variety of ways, from the construction of buildings and houses, to floorboards for trucks and trains, to the creation of such smaller items as utility carts and picnic tables.

“Our products are used in a lot of diverse applications,” says Dean O’Donald, vice president and general manager of AMICO US. “Many of them are in people’s everyday lives, they just don’t know it. But they benefit from them.”