Credit: The Northeast Georgian Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Cornelia business, Southland CNC, helps create Super Bowl (suite) trophies
By Eric Pereira

Southland CNC in Cornelia, a contract machine shop that mainly serves the aerospace industry, branched out into the red zone to create miniature trophies for suite guests at Super Bowl LIII (53) last February in Atlanta.

The project came about when Sara Weinberger, creative designer and consultant for Arthur Blank’s (Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United owner) personal suite at Mercedes Benz Stadium, was looking to create souvenir trophies for the gift baskets for suite guests at the big game.

“The project required someone who had a 5-axis mill to get the precision and detail needed to complete the look for the stadium top,” Weinberger told The Northeast Georgian. “Je Ferguson from Piedmont Metal made the connection with Keith Armour (owner) for me. I was very impressed with his operation and felt confident that he and his team would be able to complete the job in the time allotted.”

The trophies resemble the famous Vince Lombardi trophy, except the top is the Mercedes Benz Stadium. Process Floor Manager Brett Armour said they made about 150 of these trophies.

Brett Armour said they chose to make the trophies out of aluminum bar stock since it was easy to work with.

“[It’s] light [and] a lot easier to machine,” he told The Northeast Georgian. “We could’ve used stainless (steel) or another material, but that would’ve been harder on the machine and tougher to machine.”

Brett Armour said they used a HAAS UNC 750 5-axis mill to get the top part (stadium piece) done. A 2R-NC mill was used to machine the trophy base.

With OneCNC Software used for programming, the trophies were ready to go after assembling both completed pieces.

“Being able to use this machine (HAAS UNC 750 5-axis mill) and get to those sides without having to hold (reposition) it over and over is the only reason why we were able to do it,” Brett Armour said.

Southland CNC Owner Regina Armour said the engraving was done by Piedmont Metal Processing in Demorest and the chrome plating was done by Dan’s Polishing Shop in Adamsville, Tennessee.

“Working with Southland was a wonderful experience,” Weinberger said. “The team was professional and helpful with every aspect of the project. Keith even went as far as to help me source a company to chrome the trophies, which was one of my biggest concerns .I’m not sure would have been able to complete this job without Keith’s attention and expertise in such a short period of time. I look forward to working with Southland again in the future on many projects to come.”

The business was established in 1990 and is owned by Brett Armour’s parents, Keith and Regina Armour.

“This is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime deal. As long as I live, there may not be another Super Bowl in Atlanta,” he said. “There could be, but I thought maybe it would open up some more avenues to something similar. We’ve gotten some calls since we did them.”

Shown is one of the trophies carefully crafted for Super Bowl 53, which the city of Atlanta hosted Feb. 3 in Mercedes Benz Stadium.

Shown is Brett Armour with the HAAS UNC 750 5-axis mill that was used to create the top portion of the souvenir trophies for suite guests at Super Bowl LIII in February at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.