The Material Works, Ltd. began as an offshoot of Red Bud Industries, (RBI) a leading producer of machinery and systems for coil processing. Kenneth Voges, a pioneer in coil processing technology, founded RBI in 1959 and in 1992 started TMW as a separate, independent entity.

TMW operated from one 90,000 sq. ft. facility (the taller building in the photo) in Red Bud, Illinois until 2000. That year, TMW opened a secong major facility - a modern 216,000 sq. ft. toll processing center on the Kaskaskia River outside Red Bud.

In 2006, TMW set up its current structure of the Processing Division, which manages all toll processing operations, and the Technology Division, which conducts process research.