After seven decades of innovation using light and other modalities as transportation mediums to drive evolution in the sensor industry, Tri-Tronics Company, Inc. is a proud proponent of automation. Through the development of its easy-to-use sensing technology, Tri-Tronics primarily serves the packaging industry with next-generation sensors. The company stands out for its adaptability and customization, securing itself the coveted position of trusted supplier to many industry giants looking to invest in valuable sensor excellence.
Never one to back down from a challenge, the Tri-Tronics team can meet the needs of all customers in industries including packaging, material handling, automotive, semiconductor, airport and baggage handling, food and beverage, and elevator systems.
The company also creates special sensors for chemical detection used in fighting counterfeiting. Beyond these fields, it serves the healthcare industry, pharmaceutical manufacturing, the automotive industry, travel-related companies such as airports, and countless others across North America and the globe.
Founded in Illinois in 1954 by three former Motorola engineers, the company moved to Tampa, Florida in 1981, and is owned to this day by the second generation of one of the founding families. Still at home in Tampa, its large fiber optics sensor selection is supported by an impressive stable of through-beam sensors, diffuse sensors used for sensing objects, and retroreflective sensors that employ prismatic reflectors used mainly for detection on conveyors and similar.
Driven by light
Light, being omnipresent, is easily taken for granted, so it’s equally easy to forget that modern technology as we know it would be impossible without the light-driven sensors that enable the automation surrounding us on every level, every day. And it’s Tri-Tronics that is responsible for a good share of these applications available on the market today.
This includes fiber optic sensor applications like the DFS31, a low profile, high-stability, ultra-high-speed sensor for plastic fiber optics. This unit comes to market offering a two-micro-second response time and is typically featured in registration mark sensing and other high-speed applications.
Tri-Tronics also specializes in IO-Link-enabled sensors employed in autonomous fabrication facilities. These ultimately optimize machine uptime by predicting and diagnosing maintenance events and monitoring machine performance, among other functions.
Harnessing light to achieve the latest automation technology, Tri-Tronics prides itself on providing custom and standard solutions chock-full of innovation based on decades of shared and accumulated expertise. The outcome of its dedication to providing customers with practical, robust ways of solving a host of issues through sensors is a sterling reputation and well-grounded success. These successes are enhanced through a wholesome company culture of collaboration, creativity, and novel idea development by a well-coordinated team of industry experts.
The human element
Alongside technological excellence, the company’s leadership focuses on good organizational health. The positive results of caring for its staff are evident in how long people choose to stay with the team. Many team members have significant tenures working directly for the company or previously in the sensor industry.
“We bring a lot of expertise that provides useful perspective in the way we design our products, what a good product looks like, and how it interacts with the customer,” says Scott Seehawer, President, who joined the firm in 1995 shortly after completing his engineering studies.
Consequently, user-friendliness is at the forefront of everything the team does, consistently providing project owners and end users with a satisfying experience from inception to implementation and beyond. “We work hard to make sensing simple. It’s an art form to some degree. In a way, that makes customers’ jobs easy,” says Seehawer. It’s crucial to prioritize human needs, in his opinion.
While Tri-Tronics may be innovation-driven, it is relationship-powered. The result is longstanding partnerships with customers which, in turn, adds to the company’s value proposition. The more advanced its engineering, the more its end users benefit.
Leading with a deep level of automation knowledge, the company’s growth strategy pivots on providing customers with the technology they need to run more smoothly, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Itself an avid employer of technology, the company is discerning in its investments. “We’d love to move at the speed of ideas. There’s more technology out there than I think one can harness,” Seehawer says.
The company’s function is much more than developing sensors, however; the team also develops durable housing for its sensors that can handle tough, demanding environments, with packaging to match. It does a lot of work on elevator sensors, where meeting and adhering to strict industry codes is non-negotiable for any supplier.
3D technology
In a fast-paced industry, staying abreast of new developments is imperative. Tri-Tronics’ latest contribution to the world of sensors is 3D technology which will soon be released at the National Association of Elevator Contractors’ United Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in September this year. With so much invested in developing its new products, the team is excited about this upcoming show.
By adapting to Industry 4.0 while keeping the innovation coming, the company has positioned itself well to serve a range of clientele. That is part of the team’s excitement about the big event ahead—they will no doubt meet myriad new contacts with access to many new fields.
Tri-Tronics is also well-versed in developing large ranges of solutions as, in many cases, nuance is vital to solving sensor demands. “In our world, there are a lot of specific needs. And if you can precisely tailor the sensor to the application, you get great results,” Seehawer says.
Committed to ongoing evolution, three years ago the company expanded its original facility to include another footprint around 30 miles away. Today, fabrication is split 50-50 across its two Tampa addresses. Agile and quick to spot an opportunity, the company saw the perfect gap to implement lean fabrication strategies and improve its production flow within the context of its high-mix low-volume processes. This affords the team tremendous adaptability to meet customers’ volume needs, from a single custom unit to thousands.
Good ideas, good team
Due to the precision demanded by Tri-Tronics’ undertakings, expert staff members are another key component of its success. It comes as no surprise that Seehawer so sincerely appreciates the people who make this organization happen.
“Our team is everything. Good ideas are also great, but you can’t do anything without a good team,” he says of his colleagues, some of whom have been coming to work here every morning for four decades. Completing his executive MBA in 2006 with the full support of the firm, this president believes in fostering talent and employing people who enjoy continuous learning. Tri-Tronics goes to great lengths to provide a range of learning opportunities for members of its team over and above those that naturally occur while bringing technologically sophisticated solutions and customers’ infinite range of requirements together.
Upon scanning the horizon, developments await. This year, the company launches its new website, complete with a breadth of new products. And while the growth of its capabilities is a given, further physical expansion is always an option as well. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for this impressive company’s capabilities—what Seehawer rightly refers to as a combination of art and science.
