About Us
Control, automation, and modeling engineers for steel and metals
A Inverse (A⁻¹) exists to close the gap between what modern technology can do and what steel mills and manufacturing plants actually run every day.
A Inverse (A⁻¹) was founded to bring serious innovation and technology support back to manufacturing. Since the 1980s, talent and capital have steadily drifted from the plant floor toward internet and consumer software. That shift never really reversed—and today, many manufacturing sectors still run years behind the technology curve when it comes to adoption.
We started this company because we believe manufacturing deserves the same caliber of tools, methods, and engineering rigor as any other industry. Our designs and solutions are meant to raise the bar—using modern control, automation, and analytics where they actually improve efficiency and quality, not where they merely sound impressive.
Our team blends deep experience in both manufacturing and technology. That dual background helps us cut through buzzwords and vendor hype and focus on the approaches that really move production and quality.
Based in Crown Point, Indiana, most of our work is inside steel mills and metals processing plants — from control system design, automation programming, and motor control to plant data, operations modeling, and support agreements. We bring the same rigor to food production, marine, and general manufacturing clients locally and nationwide.
Capabilities
Our expertise
Every capability below is described in full on our Services page. See all services
Our Team
Engineers and scientists who know mills
A small team with backgrounds in steel production, process research, and controls, plus the field engineers and technicians who carry the work onto your plant floor.
Founder · Controls Engineer
Computer science · 20+ years in metals
Leads our control system, automation, and mill model work, drawing on a background in electrical engineering and more than two decades of process control in metals.
Process Modeler
Ph.D., chemical engineering
Builds the physics behind our mill models: rolling mechanics, heat transfer, and model tuning from plant data.
Principal Scientist
Former steel-industry research
Brings experience from a steelmaker's research group to our modeling, analysis, and troubleshooting work.
Automation Engineers & Technicians
PLC, HMI, drives, and panels
Program, commission, and support systems in the field, from single call-outs to outage work.
How We Work
Engineering built around your mill
Engineers who work in mills
Most of our work is inside steel mills and metals processing plants, so we design for real operating conditions: heat, scale, tight cycle times, and the pressure to keep the line running.
Tested before it goes in
We test control systems and programs in our Crown Point office before they reach your plant, so startup time goes to tuning instead of debugging.
Planned around your outages
Installation, cutovers, and upgrades are planned around your outage windows and production schedule.
Modeled before production changes
Where it helps, we study a change offline with process and operations models before anything changes on the line.
Contractor safety
A Inverse is registered in ISNetworld, where you can find us and review our safety and compliance information.
“A Inverse”? What’s that?
A name rooted in how hard problems get solved
At its core, the inverse of a matrix is one of the most powerful ideas in applied mathematics. Technologies such as control theory, optimization, regression, machine learning, and systems of differential equations all build on the same foundation: solving systems of equations. Those systems are often written in the familiar form
A·x=b
When you need the optimal solution for that system, you reach for the inverse of matrix A—denoted A⁻¹—read as A Inverse.
Why that matters to us: we want to be the partner you call when the problem is messy, the stakes are high, and the answer has to be right—bringing mathematical precision and practical engineering together so your operation can move forward with confidence.
…and we love math.
Work with us
Tell us about your line, your constraints, and what “better” would look like—we’ll help you get there with engineering you can trust.