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Today's Featured Biography

Jimmy Cherry

Jimmy Cherry.



I started my career in the filtration industry at the beginning of the containment development known as bag-in/bag-out filtration products at Flanders filters in early 1974 when there were only 50 employees. At Flanders I started as a project engineer, communicating with customers and preparing project submittal drawings by hand.

As one of the few engineers in this field and during the evolution of such a new line of nuclear grade filtration equipment I learned early no components could be bought right off the shelf yet almost everything had to be designed and tested by us to develop a system using nuclear filtration guidelines.



In 1979 now having 75 employees, I came to realize I was one of two other engineers who had expanded into not only new product design and development but research and development as well. After being involved in trade shows and communicating with customers all over the world, I later realized there were only a few engineers in the world that were capable of designs and configuring complicated systems for pharmaceutical, hospital, military biological test facilities, nuclear facilities, animal research, and the micro-electronics industry. I knew there would be a great demand for products such as these in the future.



In 1989 with Flanders employees up to 500, I had matured into a solid research and development position as the lead engineer for equipment design for the world’s largest air filtration supplier. The shows got bigger along with the projects. Nuclear, biological and test facilities were popping up all over the world. I developed Hepa housings, in-place test housings and isolation dampers which were being manufactured by our new metal shop now with 200 employees.



Having a great advantage over other engineers as being one of the innovators of all the equipment being sold all over the word, I left Flanders and started my own business in 1994 called (MCF) Metal Craft Air filtration. I purchased a 15 thousand square foot facility, hired a sales person, two welders and a secretary.



After being in business for 2 months, I was hit with a law suit from Flanders Filters/CSC for one million dollars. 1 year later Flanders/CSC paid me to release them from their own law suit. After winning the law suit the business exploded. I was global in a few months. Metal Craft had 45 independent sales representatives which covered 50 states all over the world including China for sales. Metal Craft went on to do 1.5 million the first year and grew to 27 employees.



I was later approached by a company to sell the business but refused and went into my second year which was even better than the first. After my third year of business I was approached with another offer by Farr company out of Elsagundo Ca. I sold the business in 1997. The business was sold a few years later to Cambridge Air Filter in New Jersey, another older business in the industry. It is known to the world now as Camfill Farr with over 350 employees located in Washington NC.



In 1999 I was approached by an old customer/friend that needed some special equipment designed to meet FDA regulations, he ask me if I would help him and that is what started CFI Industry. I incorporated my second business in this industry in 2000 also located in Washington NC. I purchased another 15 thousand square foot facility and started designing my new product line with a few new innovations. Having designed mostly everything Flanders and Cam-fill build today, it was not hard to engineer solutions to surpass the competition in both quality and price.



I rehired my old QA manager and set up a quality assurance program that addresses all concerns in NQA-1. CFI QA testing is in accordance with (Nuclear Specifications) ANSI-N509-1989/N510-1999. Also rehired the same purchasing manager and almost all the original section -9 welders. We were now open for business. I had my QA manual established, Welders certified, developed all the written procedures and began doing business. We had 20 employees in 2005 and sales slightly over 2.8 million. I established this business with a new design developed for the Army Corps of engineers and Homeland Security for Federal buildings in Washington DC. We since have done many government projects along with Bechtel Nevada, Edgewood Arsenal, University of Buffalo nuclear medical department, Bristol Myers and many more.



Our systems offer more energy savings that any other in the world. Our in-place test housings have only .07” static while others offer over 1”; our designs are futuristic compared to my competitors while our lead times are shorter with 100% on time deliveries.

With today’s technology, we water cut our components as not to heat stress metal edges. We cut gears and mechanical parts up to 1” thick. We move things with leverage not slide like others. Our designs offer the latest design while our smaller group keeps a much higher quality product and can serve our customers in a greater expedient manner. Our competitors can not compare and neither can their service or workmanship.

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