Nudo manufacturing process for laminating fiberglass to plywood panels opened the doors to numerous other paneling systems using aluminum, vinyl, and plastic.  These laminates are bonded to waferboard, OSB, particleboard, and various other substrates.  They can be single or double sided, in finishes that are smooth or textured with choices of patterns and colors.  Used in floors, ceilings, walls, partitions, signs, and countertops, these products are odor, chemical, stain, scratch, shatter, and moisture resistant.  They clean with steam, detergent and water, or high pressure sprayers and do not trap dirt or food particles.  They are ideal for use in restaurants, food processing plants, dog kennels, modular buildings, restrooms, schools, car washes, hospitals-the number of applications is immense-anywhere a durable, sanitary, easily maintained construction material is needed.  Distributors, architects, and contractors readily recognize the registered and trademarked names such as Fiber-Lite®, Nu-Poly®, Nu-Alum®, and FiberCorr®.  Thousands of various panels are produced each day.

Through imaginative thinking, the laminating process led naturally to the manufacture of plastic profile pieces-moldings, corners, caps, and other pieces that join and finish panels.  Special equipment that turns vinyl or plastic pellets into a liquid forced continuously through a die, manufactures the desired shape profile extrusions, and length.  Next came an injection molding system that forces various resins into a mold to make rivets, screws, and other fasteners that will not rust, rot, peel, or corrode and are used to attach paneling to wood, brick, stone, concrete, or other substrates.  One of the newer processes for Nudo Products is sheet extrusion.  This works much as the profile extrusion except that a continuous flow of plastic or vinyl material produces sheets up to 60 inches wide, in various thick nesses, into rolls weighing up to 1000 pounds.  With this process Nudo has become its own best customer through vertical integration.  No longer do they buy the plastic and vinyl sheets they laminate.  They also market their plastic sheets to various case manufacturers who produce things such as band instrument and computer cases.

With their own machining capabilities at Nudo, laminated panels can be tongue  and grooved or cut to shapes and routed for counter and table tops.  New product lines keep coming.  Anew edge treatment process applies a durable plastic coating to routed edges.  New heat laminating equipment reduces the curing time and adds flexibility in production of products using composite cores over the original cold press laminating systems.  And then there are Nu-Ice, a product improved over other earlier synthetic ice.  The extensive distribution network established at Nudo enhances new product capabilities.

Since 1990s a new product or building space has been added almost every year at Nudo Products.

Receptive and inventive are two words that come to mind in describing the owners of Nudo Products: receptive to new ideas and opportunities that fall within their manufacturing, marketing, and distribution capabilities and inventive in that new products trigger ideas for others, some of which they patent.  Nu-Ice is only the most obvious example of Nudo's innovative thinking.

It all began in August of 1954, when Sam Nudo, Sr. joined his brother in establishing Economy Awning and Tile Company, a retail shop selling awnings, floor tile, siding, and windows.  In 1962 Sam bought out his brother and kept hold of a dream to one day sell his own products rather than someone else's.  The opportunity arrived when Armbruster Manufacturing in Springfield decided to stop fabricating fiberglass awnings.  Sam investigated, acquired the equipment, and set about adding his own ideas to the designs.  Economy Awning became a wholesaler and the largest fiberglass awning-manufacturing dealer in Illinois. Sam and his wife, Wanda raised five sons, each of whom has been involved with Nudo Products.  Wanda, herself, took an active place, serving as president of the firm.  Today, three of the boys, Sam Jr., Tim, and Pat are the main partners in the business, while Sam, Sr. calls himself one of their employees.

The bulkiness of fiberglass awnings and consequent shipping costs limited their market area, so in the late 1970s, when the company was approached about manufacturing fiberglass panels for the dairy, farm, and food processing industry, they seized the opportunity.  Nudo Products hasn't been the same since.  Sam Nudo, Sr. gives a lot of credit for the expansions to his sons, who have followed their father's lead in being open to new prospects.  While fiberglass awnings and the wind deflectors for the recreational vehicle industry (for which Sam Sr. has a patent) are still made, they are less than one percent of the hundreds of products manufactured, marketed, and distributed nationally and internationally today.