Manufacturers are only as good as their suppliers, and when the supplier is Michigan-based Aluminum Blanking Company (ABCO), they can be very good indeed.
The original toll processor of exclusively aluminum, stainless steel, and other surface sensitive materials, the company’s genuinely unmatched technical expertise and robust capabilities meet even the most stratospheric needs of its manufacturing customers.
This commitment to being a solutions-oriented partner was established from the start by its founder, visionary engineer and entrepreneur Marvin Hole, and persists to this day. The company builds strong industry relationships and continually reinvests in the capabilities that make it a stalwart presence in the supply chain, helping customers through their most pressing challenges.
Born out of change
Aluminum Blanking Company was established in 1979 following the fuel crisis triggered by the oil embargoes leading to the first Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards, which sought to double passenger vehicle efficiency by—among other measures—lightweighting vehicles for better fuel economy. Marvin Hole, at the time a design engineer selling heavy coil handling equipment for metal processing, leveraged his relationships to bring the industry together in the interest of a strong and unified response to the changing political-economic climate.
Today, his daughter, Laura Anderson, is President and CEO. “He put together a meeting in 1978 after the first CAFE standards,” she tells us. “He pulled in some PhDs in Metallurgical Engineering and Sciences from one of the major mills in the U.S. and brought together all the purchasing agents that he’d worked with at the Detroit Three, sat them down, and had them listen to the scientists and metallurgists discuss the benefits of using aluminum for lightweighting.”
During this time, an aluminum mill with which Marvin had a relationship decided to divest its blanking operations, which he saw as a ripe opportunity to fill a gap in the market. Aluminum Blanking Corporation was born, and now, in its second generation of family leadership, it continues to identify new and unmet market demands.
Through continued investment in its capabilities, the same impeccable attention to detail, and deeply rooted technical expertise that comes with nearly 50 years in operation, ABCO continues to address the needs of its customers. Anderson says the team is always asking, “‘What problem can we help our customers solve?’ That also speaks to the history that we have, rich in engineering design and implementation; the ability to implement new things, new solutions, and new equipment, including our tooling and processes,” all of which have been designed around surface sensitive materials, a standard that sets the bar exceptionally high.
“Getting out of that commodity mindset and into a specialty area and making it our standard process helps us stand out from the competitors that come from steel processing; those that hope to participate in aluminum because the market is trending that way. The difference is, aluminum is our standard process, and it’s something we’ve tried to perfect,” says Anderson.
Serving customers in the automotive, defense, marine, rail, construction, emergency, recreational vehicle, architectural solar, and consumer electronics sectors, ABCO can handle the full range of aluminum. If it can be coiled and shipped, it can be processed, with some coils exceeding 100” wide with gauges over 0.375” thick—the only thing more impressive is the equipment that processes them.
In the United States, there are only a handful of heavy and wide cutlines, let alone cutlines that can cut coils up to 111” wide, explains Jennifer Blosser, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “Our line can process both aluminum up to .50” thick and stainless steel up to .3875”.”
Several industries require heavier wider sheet, such as tanker, trailer and truck manufacturers, as well as pleasure boat and rail car. Aluminum Blanking has processed it all.
A market in transition
Certainly, having these expansive capabilities helps. ABCO serves a diverse range of customers, but without question, the bulk of its business today is automotive, and it is an industry in transition once more.
From strike actions to market instability, high interest rates, and changing federal priorities, automotive has faced its share of challenges. These have resulted in lower volumes that have slowed or paused some of the programs at ABCO. The uncertainty around the future of electric vehicles has renewed programs that manufacturers were looking to sunset, including internal combustion programs, which has caused a shift in momentum at ABCO that Anderson plans to take advantage of.
“Sometimes, when you’re in the thick of things and you’re running high production trying to keep up with your customer demands, you have to put a pin in your goals to diversify not only your customer base, but also the products you support them in,” she says. “We’ve always felt we were happiest and most productive and prosperous when we had good diversity and good utilization of our lines,” so that’s exactly what the company is doing.
Becoming a one-stop shop
As always, the goal for ABCO is to continue to drive greater value for its customers by improving the value-add of its services around high-value metals. From warehousing and shipping services to improved processing capabilities, there are many ways the company seeks to address the needs of the market and support its customers with unparalleled care.
New capabilities create new revenue streams, and with this in mind, the recent commissioning of a new state-of-the-art corrective leveler for its primary automotive line will support not only aluminum projects but other advanced high-strength steels that are seeing growing demand as well. This, as well as the unique implementation of edge trimming technology for aluminum in its lines, presents a unique opportunity to secure market share.
“We put in technology to trim the coil to width in the same process as blanking, saving our customers the transportation and additional handling required to slit coil to width on a separate processing line, as well as cost and lead time,” Anderson says. This is a service that many mills require, but through ABCO, these added capabilities provide a means for customers to process their material by more efficient means that also deliver higher material value.
There has also been a great deal of technological investment to optimize efficiency across the company’s eight lines, streamlining communication and data collection and transmission across its operations. From deploying the latest in PLCs and controls, to the use of 3D printers to support new equipment designs, the integration of innovative technology is keeping ABCO ahead of the Industry 4.0 curve.
“We made extensive use of 3D printing in the launch of the new corrective leveling equipment,” Anderson explains. “Multiple parts were designed here and printed using our 3D printer. It allowed Engineering to trial parts built to the original design, assess what improvements are needed, then draft and print revisions on site.” There is also a plan to complete an oscillating shear line within the next 18 months to process simpler shapes and free up capacity for the large press lines to focus on complex parts, which is a specialty at ABCO.
As Anderson says, “We do a lot of what’s called ‘developed blanks,’ or complex shapes, probably more than any of our competitors who process aluminum. We’ve got large press beds, and it seems a shame sometimes when those large presses are tasked with a simple cutoff shape. This line will help take those simpler shapes off those lines and onto one more suitable and more productive.”
Top tier service, always
For ABCO, these investments in its capabilities and operational efficiencies are made not just in the interests of the highest standards of quality but also service, which is the foundation upon which its reputation is built. Customer relationships are of the utmost importance. “The ones that know us best have the perception that, concerning quality and technology, we go above and beyond in the processing of surface sensitive material,” says Anderson.
For many, ABCO has become a materials lifeline thanks to the strong technical expertise rooted in the company’s DNA, especially as the premier processor, handler, and all-around material expert for high-value surface sensitive materials.
As a solutions-oriented supplier, ABCO aims “to be the company that others—customers, suppliers, and employees—are excited to do business with,” which is why the company strives to deliver the highest level of quality, by investing in its people and presenting customers with a full-service partner in the manufacturing supply chain.
