From Kenneth Lanter,

An idea is born:
In 1965 while working as a manufacturing engineer at Amcel corp. in the Bee Tree area of Swannanoa,
N. C., I became in charge for getting quotes on miscellaneous sheet metal and machined parts for a project we were building for our owner, the Celanese Corp.
Upon reviewing these quotes, I was amazed at the prices these items seemed to be worth, and after having put this project to bed; during some of my bedtime hours, my mind kept reflecting on my independent nature and the possibility of starting a metal fabrication shop and competing with some of those shops, whose prices I had quoted earlier.

Building a partnership:
My supervisor, Herchel Robinson, was the only person I knew who could and would listen to my dreams, and hopefully, I could get him to dream also. After a few months of discussion, he and I decided to explore this idea further. We invited Ed Nix, an expert fabricator, Dan Zumstein, a general machinist who could do anything mechanical, Bob Wiley, the best engineer around, to meet with us to discuss the possibilities.

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From Loren Lanter,

New technology:
Brisco began to investigate laser cutting around late 1996. We attended IMTS (International Manufacturing Technology Show) in September, 1996 with the intension of learning more about water jet cutting. During the show, we began to see that lasers were better suited to our needs as a job shop. The water jet could certainly perform nicely, but the speed of the laser was unmatched. After returning from the show we decided to look for quotes on a new system. We purchased our 1st system (a 2800 watt 3015 with a rotary axis) in the fall of 1997 from Bystonic.

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