“The business model that we take with our customers is really one of customization. We aim to dig deep into the problems that they have in their manufacturing application and projects and come to find a customized solution of adhesives for what their pains are,” says Oliver Ellsworth, President of GDI Adhesives.

GDI’s five divisions, including a consumer division that sells a product known as glue dots, serve its vast range of customers. In addition to manufacturing, GDI also innovates and converts adhesives like the glue dots. Glue dots are used in two vastly different markets: one is for industrial purposes, while the other is in the consumer field for scrapbooking within the craft and hobby sector. Since the beginning of the pandemic, crafting stores have seen a boost in sales as people are staying at home more, which has allowed them to discover creative outlets and has led to an increase in craft projects.

“We call our company a vertically integrated adhesive manufacturing company that not only manufactures the adhesives, but we also innovate and convert, so we really think of ourselves as an innovation hub,” says Ellsworth.

Oliver Ellsworth grew up alongside the family business, Ellsworth Adhesives, which is GDI’s parent company today. Ellsworth Adhesives is a distribution company that is likewise dedicated to finding customized adhesive solutions for customers, primarily in electronics, automotive, and product assembly.

“I was born with the company, and I grew up with it, and as I fondly like to refer to the boardroom, which was my parents’ basement when the company started, I was getting my diapers changed on the main road map table, so I’ve known nothing different,” says Ellsworth. The Ellsworth Adhesives Corporation has branched out globally, and now it has operations on five continents with over 1,100 employees in total.

At GDI Adhesives, a positive work environment has resulted in true commitment and reliability within the workforce. The average tenure of its sixty employees is between eight to ten years, and the company attributes this achievement to its internal culture. A vital part of the culture at GDI involves group collaboration. The leadership encourages all teamwork efforts including team lunches and wearing GDI Adhesives logo wear.

“As far as my leadership style, I think the employees that are hired are capable of making the decisions to do their own job. We largely provide them with an autonomous leadership style that lets them run their divisions and departments with their own choices, along with guidance that we provide ahead of time as a vision for the company,” says Ellsworth.

The pandemic was a real challenge, although the company proved its resiliency throughout the tough year. As a manufacturing facility, most of its employees have always worked within the facility itself to produce products. During the pandemic, when the company had to allow employees to work remotely, self-motivation skills were tested, and the trust between people was strengthened.

Since then, GDI has adapted by developing a hybrid style with a combination of working from home and coming into the office periodically to allow for collaboration. Now that the country is in a post-pandemic state, it has maintained this style because it improved the work-life balance of its employees. With the opportunity to work partially from home, the team is happier overall.

Despite the pandemic, 2020 was GDI’s most productive year to date. “I think that some of the biggest challenges in our lives and companies bring out the best traits in us. So COVID, although it was very challenging from many different pain points, we also were able to turn inward a little to improve.”

Ellsworth describes the beginning days of the pandemic as a retail apocalypse. Large stores including Walmart and Michaels, who are some of GDI’s foremost customers, stopped ordering altogether. The company found ways to adapt to the market and decided to take the time to work on its internal processes.

GDI built a 170,000-square-foot manufacturing facility during the pandemic and improved its overall operation in preparation for more growth. “It’s all about the capacity we see for the future. We built a facility dedicated to manufacturing industrial adhesives and pressure-sensitive adhesive applications, and we see that as the future of manufacturing in North America,” explains Ellsworth. Adjusting to the complications of such a large expansion under stressful conditions is quite an accomplishment.

Today, the market is full of supply chain challenges, labor shortages, and price increases due to inflation. Fortunately, GDI has prepared itself for anything after emerging from this pandemic and is already ahead of these new challenges. There is also a new hopeful mindset because no challenge seems to loom as large as the difficulties of last year. The only other event in recent history that the company can compare it to is the 2008 financial catastrophe. Any extreme circumstances like these will have a significant impact on a business, but GDI is proud of its team’s flexibility in hard times.

“We’re in great shape coming out of this, and it’s a tribute to our employees and their work habits. We’re just really dedicated to our jobs, and in the end, it’s all about our families, but our jobs help us ensure that our families have security, and I think that’s what it’s all about,” says Ellsworth.

Innovation is a central part of GDI’s vision, and it is constantly pushing itself to explore the future of adhesives. The company invests in its customers by taking on their manufacturing problems and finding efficient adhesive-based solutions for them.

Approachability is another important value at GDI. To be accessible for customers at any level, the company is proactive about communicating and providing a seamless partnership.

“We also are dedicated to commitment. We are committed to not only our customers but also their manufacturing applications, and we do whatever it takes to accomplish what they need,” says Ellsworth.

GDI follows through on its commitments because of the expertise within the team, according to Ellsworth. The company is made up of tenured people who understand pressure-sensitive adhesives better than anyone else in the entire industry. The staff is experienced, battle-tested, and highly dedicated to solving customers’ problems.

“It’s all about being very open-minded with our customers—new and existing customers—for what they are trying to manufacture in the industrial world. We don’t say that we will always come up with the ultimate solution, but we will use every resource possible to see that to the end, and that’s what we’re dedicated to,” says Ellsworth.

Through its connection with parent company Ellsworth Adhesives, GDI has global connections and can provide logistical solutions for any corporation across the world. Often, companies have multiple international locations, and GDI can provide its service while fully comprehending the issues that arise in international transportation.

As GDI continues to grow, the team anticipates that pressure-sensitive adhesives will become a key aspect of new manufacturing processes. Pressure-sensitive adhesives are quite simple; they have instant bonding and fewer VOCs; they are FDA approved, and they are safe to use in many situations. It is a product with a bright future in manufacturing.

Ellsworth expressed his hope for North American family businesses in the future. “North America, in general, is extremely resilient in terms of its workforce and family businesses specifically in adaptability. Through challenging times, it brings out the best things in us, and this is one of those times. We really see ourselves as a much more capable adhesive solution provider for customers because it has been so challenging.”

The post Pressure Sensitive Adhesives Manufacturer Showing Resilience in Hard Times<p class="company">GDI Adhesives</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Adhesive Applications is the industry leader behind a tremendous number of North America’s bonding solutions. There is hardly an industry that Adhesive Applications does not serve, with expertise in aerospace, appliances, automotive, building and construction, doors and windows, electronics, graphics, medical, and HVAC. For 50 years, through economic downturns and fantastic market highs alike, the company has thrived, innovating, collaborating with, and serving Americans through tough and great times.

The company’s success is closely tied to the high level of collaboration its teams are encouraged to maintain – both within the organization and with clients. “We’re really rejoicing in the ability to just walk down the hall and have a conversation with every part of the organization [again],” says Petra Schaefer, President.

Based in Easthampton, Massachusetts, the company concluded a thorough overhaul of its headquarters earlier this year. An addition of more than 55,000 square feet to its existing footprint meant that all departments, including converting and shipping, can now operate from one facility. “This [expansion] has allowed us to greatly improve our efficiency and processes for our customers,” says Schaefer. “Having the whole management team engaged and involved in meetings allows for decisions to be made quickly. We excel at being nimble and quick to market,” she adds.

Powered by people
“Even our new office is collaborative,” agrees Judette Savino, Vice President Sales and Marketing. We have a new whiteboard table [where] we have quick meetings. And we do this constantly. Throughout the day you’ll see people standing there talking through an idea before everybody goes back to their desk.” Naturally, this type of collaboration takes place within the safety of COVID-19 distancing regulations and is juxtaposed with cleverly appointed office cubicles that offer both privacy and space.

The company’s specialty lies in being solidly committed to custom product development backed by science and innovation at a price that suits its clients’ budgets. Adhesive Applications particularly focuses on companies in need of a sophisticated, yet affordable single-source adhesives partner, one that is adaptable and diverse in its capabilities with a well-developed research and development team. Adhesive Applications’ breadth of expertise means that the team can meet customers’ diverse bonding, laminating, mounting, gasketing, splicing, and sealing needs, with products developed and manufactured to exacting, high-performance specifications.

Serving key sectors
Experts from a multitude of fields trust Adhesive Applications to develop proprietary solutions to their unique challenges in its state-of-the-art laboratory, making the company the go-to advisor for some of North America’s biggest names. “Because if you don’t have trust, you don’t have anything,” says Schaefer. “Now we’re seeing, because of COVID and so many other factors, the drive to get things done faster and respond more quickly is more and more critical to everyone’s success. We see and understand that.”

At Adhesive Applications, customer care is another cornerstone of great service, and the team meets daily to improve its level of service even further. Staff are encouraged to look at the bigger market picture as well as future market demands. Interestingly, while customers come from wide and far for its custom solutions, some of Adhesive Applications’ best sellers remain its longstanding foam, silicone, and acrylic tape selections popular in a wide range of markets for their equally diverse performance specs.

As markets adapt to the pressures of improved personal and environmental health, the company has seen a defined surge in business from the medical field as well as the electric vehicle sector. The latter follows the drive for putting more sustainably powered cars on the road in a new, more wellness-oriented world. In terms of surviving COVID-19, the company’s innovation made a large contribution to point-of-care testing (POCT) through developing adhesives in microfluidic testing tools. This is a tremendously important field within diagnostics, especially in these times, as POCT microfluidic testing tools abate the need for laboratory testing, saving both patients and medical care providers time and money. “It’s a great industry to be in because it is ever-changing,” says Savino.

Rooted in quality
To ensure optimum quality, the company’s adhesives adhere to strict rules such as those set by The International Organization for Standardization. At present, Adhesive Applications holds ISO 10993 and 10993-1 certifications that comprehensively govern testing procedures around cell toxicity and issues concerning skin sensitization and dermatitis triggers. “Our approach to developing products is unique in the industry as we let the application drive the product selection. Through a company-proprietary, objective evaluation process, we carefully assess the attributes and requirements of every product application,” says Erik Vinh, Digital Marketing Manager.

The company’s history is one of tenacity. It was started by Petra’s father, Michael Schaefer, who emigrated from Germany in 1986. Originally, he acquired three separate businesses. When the tape manufacturing outfit started outperforming the rest, Schaefer decided to place his focus there and, in 1970, founded Adhesive Applications, leveraging the synergies that had developed between the original companies over time. In 2002, the company expanded again, giving clients more variety and better versatility as well as more powerful research and development capabilities. And, while the firm continues to grow, it prides itself on serving its loyal clientele better than ever.

That’s because the company’s staff of over 70 is as knowledgeable and loyal as its median tenure is long; some members of staff have been here for thirty years or more. “We do not have the staffing issues that we hear about to the degree that we see throughout the industry and throughout the world right now,” shares Schaefer. To ensure that its staffing status quo remains this way, the firm researched its pay equity situation some time ago to guarantee that everyone was earning a fair and sufficient salary. Management also used the opportunity to share the company’s financial well-being with employees.

In addition to being a fair and generous employer, several of the company’s management team are women. “[In this way we could show our people] what we’re focused on and what we need to do to get there. Now I think we’re attracting very hardworking people… Almost everybody goes above and beyond in some way, shape, or form to deliver to a customer. And that’s huge,” Schaefer says. The company’s management team is as hands-on as all its other teams and it is therefore not uncommon to see leaders working just as hard as the rest of the company’s people out in the field. “It’s a very collaborative group. Everybody at every level works with each other,” she adds.

Adhesive Applications’ signature knack for adaptability remains one of the company’s strongest attributes. As illustrated through its robust response to COVID-19, staying on top of technological advances in the field will continue to strengthen its bonds with clients. While continuing to monitor market changes closely, the Adhesive Applications team will also stick to what it knows works – solid science, rigorous testing, and quality relationships.

The post Next-Generation Adhesive Solutions<p class="company">Adhesive Applications</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

RegO® Products’ longevity is a testament to the company’s talent, leadership, and capacity, all of which have helped it withstand the impacts of a global pandemic. In addition to initiating a rapid pandemic response, the company has continued to invest in its people, equipment, and future, and has emerged from COVID stronger than ever before.

“We did not lose a single production day last year during COVID. The teams adapted very quickly, fought through all the changes and produced growth in a pretty tough marketplace and that’s led to a breakout year this year with all-time record production volumes and revenue output,” says President of RegO® Products Mike Lucas.

With year over year growth expected to continue in the future, RegO® Products has invested heavily in growing its capacity. The company just concluded a $7 million capital investment campaign to sustain growth in demand in the present and well into the future.

From the perspective of Stephen Faley, RegO® Products’ Chief Operating Officer, “Three years ago, without this kind of investment, we wouldn’t be able to react and sustain the level of growth that we have.”

Three pillar strategy
When it came to capacity growth, RegO® Products focused on three main pillars: the continued development of new products and innovative capacity, capital investments to support operational efficiencies, and customer and employee engagement that has resulted in a valuable culture shift invigorating every level of the organization.

Already a highly innovative company with a solid focus on product development, RegO® Products’ investments helped to create new operational efficiencies that resulted in shortened lead times and fewer redundancies, and reduced the need for secondary processes. It changed the way the company did business, for the better.

Faley likens the investment to a “war effort” to get product out the door as quickly as possible, which is a challenge, given that the company offers 4,500 different SKUs, an exceptionally broad offering and one that continues to grow year on year.

As Faley explains, “In being a business that can cover all the bases, RegO® Products really has to focus on product availability. The whole idea is the ease of doing business, internally and externally, so not only has our operational focus been on making sure we have enough capacity for the growth that’s coming, but at the same time focusing on product availability.” He says that “It’s got to be easy for customers to get that product; you’ve got to make it simple.”

As well as a wide range of product offerings, RegO® Products boasts a best-in-class client Sales Inventory Operations Planning (SIOP) process which integrates it with the inventory needs of its clients to promote improved inventory planning, streamlined supply chains, and next-level customer service regardless of which industry, market, or product is in play.

Any one, any time
Noting the complexity of operating a business with such an expansive catalog of finished goods, Lucas says, “It’s not only about keeping up with that growth, but it’s about building the flexibility into our machining operations to be able to build any one of these 4,500 parts at any given time.”

To accommodate the growth in capacity afforded by the capital investments, RegO® Products has hired upwards of 70 new employees, with plans to add more. The company grew its engineering teams by 25 percent this year and plans to double down with another 25 percent.

Growth in engineering capacity is imperative for RegO® Products, as Lucas noted: “Last year, sixteen percent of our revenue was from new products, so that continues to be a major focus. We continue to get more and more revenue out of those products each year around our core markets.”

Developing skills
To seamlessly integrate new employees into the company’s operations and culture, the leadership team has developed a comprehensive onboarding process and skills matrix to communicate roles, responsibilities, and career potential from the outset.

“We have a robust skills-matrix program that we have established. This is a program that drives incentives and wages for employees based upon the skills they have, and it gives them a very clear path to being able to move up the ladder from area to area to further develop their skills and grow,” says Faley.

Lucas added, “Obviously, the more skilled a person is and the more machines they are trained on, the more value there is for us. So, after the matrix was laid out, and these skills were identified for every machine, and everyone was certified or validated as to where they fell, we went back and paid for that to make sure everyone was fairly compensated for all of the skills and cross-training they had.”

The introduction of the skills matrix promoted further cross-training and motivated employees to grow their skill levels. This has led to increased compensation commensurate with the additional value these increasingly skilled employees added to the company. It’s been good for the company culture as well.

By clearly delineating skills and creating a system of compensation tied to that, the program has created excitement in the company. Employees are eager to take advantage of upskilling and training opportunities, especially when it comes to the new equipment.

“I think it has been quite energizing for our teams, too,” Faley notes. “They know that when they learn more skills there’s compensation tied to it. There’s excitement about the newer machines, and people want to learn how to run them.”

This was echoed by Lucas. “When people see that the company is investing in the equipment, in the factory, and in their training, it creates a cycle of positive culture change. People are energized about the future and really engaged in the process.”

Future investment
Clearly, it’s easy for employees to be gratified and excited when a company shows such commitment and promise for the future, especially when the employees are assured that they are part of that future.

As Faley explains, “We’ve been looking at the future and heavily investing in the future.”

Whether that means capital investments in equipment and capacity, or human resources development and appreciation, or systems to improve customer ease and relations, recent times have been a storied success for the company. And bode well for the future.

From a manufacturing standpoint, RegO® Products continues to demonstrate that capital investments done right are worth every penny, especially as it relates to improved productivity, maximized value, optimal output, and client satisfaction. This is the end goal and the reason for its continued growth and success in the markets it serves.

The post Innovation in Action<p class="company">RegO® Products</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Steadily growing since it was founded in 1990, HAHN today has, besides its German and USA operations, strategic locations in the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Croatia, Austria, Mexico, Turkey, and other sites.

With many companies and brands under the umbrella including WEMO Automation, HAHN Robotics, Invotec, Rethink Robotics and REI Automation, the respected business has a powerful presence in the United States as HAHN Automation, Inc.

Located in Hebron, Kentucky, HAHN Automation was formed in the U.S. over 20 years ago, and continues to live by its motto, “German engineering made in America.”

Experts in automation, robotics and testing processes, HAHN Automation remains both a pioneer and a leader in the industry, continually expanding its services, and investing in technology and employees for the betterment of its many customers.

From HAHN to HAHN Group
Known globally for its work with clients in the automotive sector, the company decided to help stabilize and diversify the business, creating the HAHN Group about four years ago. As a holding company for HAHN Automation, which is a multi-site company, the move saw HAHN add medical and consumer goods to its roster.

These include sizable independent companies not under the HAHN Automation brand, and owned in their own right, such as Miamisburg, Ohio-based Invotec – which designs and manufactures automation solutions for medical device manufacturers producing test, inspection and assembly equipment – and REI Automation, Inc.

These companies, and others, keep their original names, and are supported by the HAHN Group. As an added benefit some, like Columbia South Carolina-headquartered REI, also cover a region that wasn’t as well supported before joining the Group.

Growth strategy
A shining example of the HAHN Group’s strategic growth strategy is REI Automation. REI (Reverse Engineering Inc.) was created in 1991 and owned by Paul Brown and Grant Phillips for the past 23 years.

“We bought a fledgling two-employee company when we were young,” says Grant Phillips, President of REI. Starting off with General Electric’s management training program and growing within the organization, Phillips later purchased REI. Expanding the business to almost 80 employees and $25 million in revenue, REI became an integral part of the HAHN Group on November 1, 2019. REI continues operating under its existing management.

REI focuses on five different industries: automotive work, medical products, electronics, the nuclear industry, and consumer goods – a sector seeing marked increases in the level of automation.

“Electronics, consumer groups, and medical products are three areas where we definitely focus on growth,” says Phillips of REI, which also has groups from Germany and Connecticut heavily involved with testing and vaccination products for administering COVID-19 vaccines.

“Growth has been organic, growing from within, as well as acquisitions. In the case of REI automation, we were a rapidly growing company when we became part of the HAHN Group a year and a half ago; in fact, in 2019 we were named one of the fastest-growing companies in the Inc. 5000 list. Now we are part of the Group.”

Still operating as an independent company under the REI name, Phillips is pleased with the acquisition, and the benefits for both REI and HAHN. “We are still agile and free-growing,” he says. “We have the resources and best practices to share with the Group companies. It’s a great strategy that is very different from anything else in the world.”

Philipp Unterhalt, Managing Director of HAHN Group, said in a media release at the time of the acquisition: “We found a passionate team with an impressive track record building the company in the past and ambitious plans to develop it further. We are ready to support REI Automation on its further journey and are delighted to have them on board.”

No time for idling
Never the kind of organization to stand still, the HAHN Group and its companies keep developing.

In 2015, the company created a new location in Queretaro, Mexico. The next year, it doubled its production capacity by investing in its Hebron facility. 2017 marked not only the 25th anniversary of its Rheinböllen location but also the Invotec acquisition.

In the years to follow, the company saw ORWIN and Multi Automation come under HAHN Automation along with REI, and HAHN Automation launching SmartSolutions, its “first own standard product on the market,” as it’s written in the company history.

Among the Group’s companies is HAHN Plastics. Formed in Connecticut in 2017, this division is active in many sectors, including assembled plastics parts and connectors for the automotive industry, the molding of medical devices including equipment and disposables, oral care, packaging, and more.

“They have really grown these past several years,” says Greg Earle, Managing Director, who has been at HAHN Automation since 2012.

Automotive automation
With the automotive sector still going strong, HAHN Automation is actively involved with its counterparts in Germany, supporting global customers like American multinational supplier BorgWarner, and Brose, the fourth-biggest automotive suppliers in family hands.

Since HAHN has locations worldwide, the company deploys and supports machines in the United States, Mexico, the Czech Republic, China and other sites.

Working through Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, HAHN Automation builds equipment for world famous shock manufacturer Bilstein, which makes shocks for Tesla, one of the world’s biggest makers of Electric Vehicles (EVs).

Additionally, HAHN works with other Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) producing parts for respected automakers like Volkswagen, Volvo, and BMW. “Most of the automation in car manufacturing is in building the components to go in cars for the final assembly of the vehicle,” says Phillips. “It’s a lot of hand assembly, and the automation is usually in the body-building.”

Although HAHN Automation is stepping up its efforts in the medical and consumer areas, it is also seeing growth in other areas of the changing automotive market, especially with the shift away from gas to electric-powered engines. This includes working with a company on the base-plate for the heat sink that seats rechargeable batteries.

Active in so many areas of automotive, HAHN Automotive remains highly competitive in traditional areas such as turbochargers, fuel consumption, and additional power extraction, but is also familiar with the present and future needs of electric vehicles.

And, in a similar way to the shift from gas-powered engines toward EVs, the company expects green energy will be an area of growth in the next five years.

The source of solutions
With many decades of combined experience, HAHN knows the ins-and-outs of automation.

By working closely with clients who usually come bearing drawings and specifications, HAHN Automation proposes the best solutions for assembling the product. “We are experts at knowing what to do first, second, third, and what are the best transfer mechanisms and best processes for putting products together,” says Phillips.

“Customers come to us with a product design, and we typically develop the assembly line for putting the products together. The final assembly line is built as a project – that’s what we do.” Sometimes, when there are unique or difficult processes, HAHN works with the client on prototyping.

To provide their customers with the best, most informed processes, the HAHN Digital group created EVE Vision.

Experts in the digitization of manufacturing companies and combining digitization with automation and robotics, the group’s EVE Vision provide a viable, advance solution with which to address manual vision inspection challenges.

Used for augmented reality, these glasses allow experienced technicians to see inspections for themselves but from a distance, through the eyes of staff on site – who may be less qualified but who literally act as eyes, ears and hands.

“They wear these glasses, and we are able to see what they are seeing” says Earle. “And then, within the glasses on our computer, we can say, ‘Push this button,’ and circle it in their glasses, or say ’Type in this number here’ and display it, or send in the print or schematics.

“It lets them keep their hands free. Plus, it lets us see exactly what they are seeing so they don’t do things to wrong way.”

As an innovative technology that merges glasses from electronics company Epson with software from HAHN, EVE Vision has really taken off in the marketplace. Especially, according to the company, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic over a year ago, since fewer people need to put themselves at risk.

Room for VR
To further support customers, HAHN Automation created a Virtual Reality (VR) room for design presentation and reviews. “It’s pretty cool,” says Earle. “The VR room gives customers the chance to see our machines and our products in a virtual environment so they can walk around the machine, check the heights, check the ergonomics, see parts move in a computerized virtual environment, and get a feel if this is where they want things – is this the right height? – and those kinds of things.”

Continuing to win awards for its work – including the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. for 2019 for REI, and Kentucky Manufacturing Company of the Year in 2015 for HAHN – the company plans to continue to innovate and expand to meet the needs of customers, now and in the future.

“We will continue to grow and cover a multitude of regions around the world, as well as touch every industry with factory automation solutions,” says Phillips.

The post Have Automation Solutions, Will Travel<p class="company">HAHN Automation, Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

With myriad uses across military, towing and recovering, all-terrain, forestry, mining, utilities, and large-scale industrial and consumer applications, the popularity of Ramsey Winch products can be attributed to their dependability and ruggedness, which is genuinely legendary. And all this is framed by committed customer service.

Designed and manufactured to the highest possible standards, Ramsey Winch products are punishingly tested to ready them for a hard, unforgiving life in the field.

As company President and Chief Executive John Celoni says, “these aren’t winches made to sit on front bumpers and look pretty,” but winches manufactured for the military, mining, and other tough-as-nails industries where working vehicles and equipment sent must be able to self-recover in any environment, from muddy terrain to deep snow and ice.

Far from an ordinary winch company, Ramsey employs highly trained, dedicated staff who ensure their products function under these challenging conditions – every time!

The people factor
Responsible for the design, machining, assembly, sourcing, finishing, painting, and outfitting of 50 to 60 different products, Ramsey’s team is composed of mechanical engineers, manufacturing engineers, electrical engineers, machinists, supply professionals, warehousing, and shipping and receiving with both domestic and international capabilities.

“The differentiator between Ramsey Winch and any other competitor is our people,” says Celoni. “It’s our people and our culture standing behind the product and service. We have staff with over 40 years’ experience in the winch business – specifically the Ramsey Winch business,” he says.

“We machine our own products, and we take it from concept to delivery, and everyone collaborates to solve problems and find opportunities to grow the business. It all evolves. Anybody can have a great strategy and a great product, but it’s the people that differentiate Ramsey Winch from anybody else.”

Unlike many companies where clients call and are immediately placed on hold, the opposite is true at Ramsey Winch. When customers phone, they talk to a live person, not a recording. “This is a people business, and Ramsey Winch is a people-first business, both internally and externally,” says Director of Sales and Marketing, Samuel Rooke.

With an extensive background in heavy equipment, Rooke knows the challenges of the industry, and the importance of working closely with customers. “We take care of our employees internally, and they want to take care of our clients externally. The single biggest piece of what makes our customer service team successful is that they care, and they’re going to work through a solution until it’s resolved, not give you piecemeal answers.”

Hard-won skill sets
Much of the company’s strength comes from the scope of its skill sets, which are shared among three wholly-owned subsidiaries: Ramsey Winch, Auto Crane, and Eskridge.

Ramsey represents the winch side, while Auto Crane designs and manufactures truck-mounted electric and hydraulic cranes, crane-control technologies, mechanic service bodies and work ready trucks, with Eskridge designing and manufacturing power transmission products such as planetary gear drives, anchor drives, and associated integral brakes. The three entities complement one another and continue the vision of founders Claude and Rayburn Ramsey.

Established as Ramsey Brothers Tool & Die in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1944, the company started off making tools, dies, and parts for the world-famous Douglas Aircraft Company.

The next year, the brothers unveiled their first winch, a design by Claude called Model 101, a heavy-duty worm and gear model. Ideal for pulling stuck vehicles out of sand, mud, snow, and through rough terrain generally, the Model 101 was soon seen on “Willys,” the iconic jeeps conceived and manufactured by Willys-Overland Motors for theater-of-war use.

The winches produced by the Ramsey brothers soon became essential equipment in the towing and recovery industry. Demand for products grew so much that Claude and Rayburn renamed the business Ramsey Brothers Winch Company in 1947.

As Ramsey Winch phrases it, “due to the significant impact that Ramsey Winch had on the Towing and Recovery industry, in 1987 the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame inducted Claude Ramsey as the first member who was not actually a towman.”

Still steadily growing, the company continues to manufacture products that set the benchmark of quality and endurance, including the PowerMaster™ Series – made for power and utility markets – and the Wildcat Series, used in oil and gas production.

Ongoing innovation
To satisfy every extreme of customer requirements, Ramsey developed two types of winches: worm-gear driven, and planetary-gear driven. While the early years saw a focus on heavy-duty industrial worm gears – which, even today, some customers prefer for their ruggedness and durability – the technology grew to include planetary gear sets, the company’s primary focus today.

“The planetary tends to give you a faster and more efficient product,” says Rooke, “and therefore can potentially give you better return on investment.” He does point out, nevertheless, that with more moving parts, planetary winches can be more expensive than the worm-driven models. But whatever the final choice, Ramsey Winch quality is never in doubt.

Paying close attention to customer requirements, Ramsey Winch constantly designs and produces new series to meet the needs of the marketplace. These now include Wildcat and the Hercules series which was unveiled to the market about a year and a half ago, with 2021 seeing the full release of this exciting product along with Helios.

Focused on tow and recovery, the company’s Hercules has a line pull of 20,000 pounds (9,072 kg) to 50,000 pounds (22,679 kg), while the Wildcat has a line pull from 50,000 pounds (22,679 kg) to 250,000 pound (113,398 kg), making it well-suited to the oil and gas industry.

With a pull of 20,000 pounds (9,072 kg), the Helios 20000 has a speed of 37.5 feet (11.4 meters) per minute, and a cable capacity of 155 feet (47.2 meters) short, and 260 feet (79.2 meters) standard. The model is also available in other specifications. “When you need it to work, the Helios will pull it for you,” says Rooke.

Although relatively new to the market, client feedback on the Hercules and Helios lines has been overwhelmingly positive, both in terms of quality of manufacturing and of product performance.

“People are excited about these products coming into the market,” says Rooke. “They are a new iteration, and perhaps a little bit more modern than the older series of winches. Efficiency and return on investment is what we strive for.”

Like all Ramsey winches, they are subjected to rigorous testing internally, and undergo a four-step gate process for new product development at the company’s facility, which is ISO 9001:2015 certified. Meeting additional external standards including those set by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and SAE International standards, products are then field tested with customers in real-life situations before being rolled out.

Future growth
At Ramsey Winch, it can take anywhere from 18 to 24 months to bring a new product to market. Winches are never rushed out the door, but thoroughly tested over and over to ensure they’ll easily stand up to client demands.

Among its many innovations, Ramsey has developed and patented thermal limiting modules and overload limiting indicators for electric winches, which allow customers to maximize the cycle duty time of a product while in operation.

Since electric winches generate a lot of heat, this is essential to their successful operation. By working with thermal technologies, heat is better controlled, with winches cutting off once they reach a certain amperage level or heat level. This allows them to cool down and recycle to become more efficient, critical in applications such as military.

“What was happening before we got in with this patented product is that the winches would burn up, then you’d be stuck out in the theater, so to speak, and at risk,” says Celoni. “So this prevents the motor from overheating and the winch from not being able to operate.

“It takes an operator’s knowledge and reduces the need for it, because technology manages that process for them. It’s a differentiator, and it saves lives.”

With the belief that the business is only as good as its people, Ramsey Winch continues to attract top-notch employees like Chad Martin. Vice President of Operations, Martin is responsible for all three businesses – Ramsey Winch, Auto Crane and Eskridge – and says what drew him to the company was its culture, people, and products (and super duper boss!!)

“It’s a very cool product with a long history of performance, and fantastic name recognition in the industry,” he says. “Everybody knows Ramsey Winch, and there are high expectations for that product. So the challenge I was ready to accept, coming to work for this organization, was to make sure I help continue that legacy of Ramsey Winch, as well as expand its capabilities and breadth across multiple industries.”

In business for 76 years, Ramsey Winch’s past achievements and sustained reputation for quality will ensure its success long into the future.

“We are a mission-critical component on a very critical piece of equipment that’s time-tested, with almost eight decades of experience and reliability that’s been out in the marketplace,” says Celoni. “And it’s all wrapped up in innovation and responsiveness when there’s a need. When you want to work, we’re ready… and the winch will work.”

The post Better Winches Make a Better World<p class="company">Ramsey Winch</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The Durham, North Carolina-based company is a technology enabled field services company that services automation equipment from mail to robotics with a large install base in north America spanning multiple OEMs and markets. The company also delivers comprehensive solutions in retail, grocery, and pharmacy click-and-collect, automation, and production mail.

“It’s our broad product lines that differentiate us,” says President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Blue. “Most companies in our market space have one solution. They try and shoehorn that product into every application that’s out there. We believe that, when it comes to retail and in the mail industry, one size definitely doesn’t fit all.”

Bell and Howell’s top-notch service is a key differentiator in all its businesses, and its geographic coverage gives it a clear advantage over the competition. “We are in all fifty states,” says Senior Vice President of Service Solutions Jim Feely. “The high quality service I provide someone in New Jersey is the same service they get in California and Texas. They don’t have to use multiple providers.”

The company’s North American footprint guarantees a quick response time, no matter where the client is located. “In service, the most important item for any customer is response time,” he points out. “It’s all about how quickly we can get there and fix the machine. If you have a contract with us, we can guarantee a four-hour response time, and in many cases, we’re averaging two hours to get there.”

One of the core strengths of Bell and Howell services is its remote monitoring capability. The company’s Remote360 platform, an IoT-enabled remote monitoring, diagnostic, and repair solution, monitors connected equipment 24/7, and automatically creates service calls based on algorithms. Automated escalations are built-in for “roll the truck” on-site repair when required. This Remote360 technology has helped tremendously in servicing Bell and Howell’s “essential business customers” especially in retail, grocery, and production mail industries during the pandemic.

“The goal is to capture potential problems before they go south and well before a tech needs to be dispatched,” Feely says. “We’re able to capture issues before it results in equipment downtime and in many cases, find and correct the matter before the customer knows there’s a problem,” he shares.

“We can now diagnose and repair 99 percent of service calls remotely on our grocery pickup systems,” he says. Across all of Bell and Howell’s remotely covered equipment, three out of every four service calls do not require the company to send a technician onsite and, even when one is required, remote technology ensures that they will be well-informed of the situation before they reach the site, thereby achieving a greater first-time fix rate.

When onsite, technicians can troubleshoot with help from headquarters via the same technology. “All technicians carry a handheld device that tracks their progress and allows audio-visual communication with our expert home office support staff. If a technician needs assistance, Technical Support can suggest what needs to be done in real time to simplify and speed the process. My specialists could be halfway across the country, [yet] literally on my tech’s shoulder assisting them, and seeing what they are seeing,” Feely says.

“A lot of companies say they’re a 7X24 operation, but a lot of those require prearrangements or standby,” he says. In contrast, Bell and Howell’s service is available around the clock. “You place a call here at 2:00 pm or 2:00 am, someone will answer, and you will get a service tech dispatched immediately, with no prearrangement required.” This gives customers peace of mind, especially those with machines used during non-traditional hours. “We can service it no matter what time they run, day or night.”

A sophisticated parts management system keeps the service team well prepared. The warehouse technology automatically restocks parts as they are used, so technicians never have to worry about placing orders or monitoring the stock. “Our inventory is so accurate, we have not had to complete a physical inventory in nine years,” Feely says.

Another advantage is that the company’s parts are stocked in locations throughout the United States and Canada, in proximity to customers no matter where they are. “So, someone in California does not necessarily have to wait for a part to come from Durham,” he says.

Bell and Howell, as part of its digital transformation, has invested heavily in technology, tools, and processes to improve its service execution. The new field service management software deployed this year has powered skill- and geo-location-based technician scheduling and dispatch among other things. Customers can create service calls, schedule appointments, track estimated technician arrival times, and see notes, parts used, and reports using a web-based customer portal in real time. Bell and Howell’s data analytics team continually refines the algorithms used for remote monitoring and predictive maintenance thereby increasing the service efficiencies both for customer and Bell and Howell.

Bell and Howell’s average technician tenure is fourteen years, making it a highly experienced service team. “We try to create a great environment for our associates to grow within the organization, myself included,” Feely says.

“I started literally at the very bottom while completing my degree in electronics from DeVry. Like many in Bell and Howell Service, I worked my way up through the ranks to now lead the entire Service organization. It is that kind of opportunity that keeps people here. Our employees know we work hard to promote from within, and that is what makes our team so strong. Keeping that tenure and that experience within our organization is absolutely huge and a tremendous value for our customers.”

Training is emphasized for both new recruits and the company’s most seasoned hands. “We’ve been ranked in the top one hundred training companies globally by Training Magazine eighteen years in a row,” Blue says. “So, we take it pretty seriously.” In addition to focusing on mechanics, electronics, and software, customer service interaction skills are a focal point of the company’s top-ranked training program. “We continuously train on how to provide the highest quality customer service and communication, because the one thing that we always find brings maximum value is not just our technical skill, but our ability to communicate and generate a trusting long-term relationship with our customers,” Feely says.

“We start every single class we have—every type of class no matter what it is—with one-hour customer interaction skills training,” Feely says. “We never want to lose focus on what matters most, and that is taking care of the customer.”

At the onset of the pandemic, Bell and Howell rapidly ramped up its remote learning capabilities, successfully migrating 95 percent of its in-person training to instructor-led virtual learning. “Utilizing this training methodology, we can train our technicians on new original equipment manufactured (OEM) products faster and more efficiently.” Bell and Howell is also experimenting with augmented and virtual reality training programs.

Bell and Howell is at the forefront of automated grocery locker technology. “Our solutions provide better access and an improved customer experience in getting groceries to consumers,” Blue says. This technology is particularly beneficial to food banks. “A lot of food banks are staffed by volunteers, so they may only be there two hours or four hours a week, and that’s your window to go pick up.”

Such restrictive hours can be a barrier for food bank clientele. But with Bell and Howell’s solution, food banks can load up a locker once a week and give clients quick and easy, round-the-clock access to fit their schedule.

“The added advantage is you don’t have the stigma of waiting in line at a food bank,” Blue says. The company’s commitment to fighting food insecurity extends beyond technology; the team also donates to local food banks. “We think this is a very important social issue for the country and for companies to address,” he adds.

The company’s automated grocery locker technology is also advantageous for the farm-to-table market. “For those farm-to-table companies who are trying to look at ways to get their goods to the end consumer without going through middlemen, this offers a direct-to-consumer way to provide those goods in both a convenient as well as high-quality way,” Blue says.

The next-generation service and technology that Bell and Howell provides are critical and increasingly in demand, particularly due to the global pandemic. “COVID had a big impact on that, accelerating the number of people who shop online and then go pick up in-store,” Blue says. “We’re going to see an expanded presence in automated pickup as consumers really demand that level of convenience from the stores they shop at.”

The number of consumers who shop for groceries online rose from less than five percent to around twenty percent during the pandemic. “That’s still only one in five consumers who are shopping online for groceries, so there is significant opportunity for added convenience and added sales around online grocery purchase and pickup,” Blue says.

The opportunity extends to pharmacies as well. “Prescription pickup itself is a relatively new market, but the data indicates there’s a lot of pent-up demand for after-hours and extended-hours pickup,” Blue says.

The team is eager to be at the forefront of these industry advancements and emerging opportunities. “Having a geographically distributed, highly-skilled mechatronics technical team that can get there in hours and keep that equipment running is the real advantage that we have,” Blue says. “And we think that that advantage is going to continue to drive our growth as more and more market segments automate.”

The post A Next-Generation Service Organization<p class="company">Bell and Howell</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The company provides a variety of products for industrial needs, from hydraulic power units and systems to custom parts including manifolds and assemblies. The key is providing “a custom fit for every application,” says Systems Engineer Elizabeth Meyer, M.E. “We work with our customers to have a really comprehensive understanding of what their needs are in their system, and find a system that not only matches their needs, but improves upon any problems they are having.”

Zemarc’s commitment to superior engineering solutions sets the company apart. “A lot of design engineering groups are going to tell you why something isn’t possible, whereas at Zemarc, we wanted to define our success in our willingness to meet unique challenges that are posed to us by our customers,” says Bradford Belote, Zemarc’s Director of Sales. “Those requirements can often be difficult in technical capability or centered on tight timelines and we always want Zemarc to be there to meet those challenges head on. That’s really what differentiates between us and our competition.”

Zemarc’s engineers’ expert knowledge and desire to make this knowledge accessible to customers can be seen—and utilized—through materials such as the whitepaper ‘Specifying Hydraulic Power Units,’ authored by Meyer. The paper walks customers through the basics of determining application, pump size and type, reservoir, motor size and type, and the needed accessories. This information is critical because hydraulic power units, or HPUs, are “one of the most essential parts of a hydraulic system. Without them, the system would have no power and not be able to function.” To learn more, read the complete whitepaper at zemarc.com/hpuwhitepaper. Learn more about available standard and custom Hydraulic Power Units at zemarc.com/hpu.

Women at the helm
Talented women like Meyer are not the exception at Zemarc—they are the rule. Every engineer in the company is a woman. “I think that’s unheard of in our industry,” says Marketing Director Lucy Chen. “It’s never like that.”

The company’s commitment to employing—and valuing—women is seen throughout Zemarc. “Not only is the engineering team all women, women play key roles throughout our whole company,” says Meyer. “Through the management levels we have women who are working to make sure that we have strong goals and diversity and I think that’s [important]. Supporting women in engineering, in general, is so important… We can keep an open mind and work in different industries without pigeonholing ourselves. Every company should have women throughout their ranks.”

The opportunity to hire woman engineers came naturally as the older generation of engineers retired and the company began to actively look for the best and brightest new talent. “The industry was shifting to where everyone was retiring and they had to hire on massive amounts of new people,” Chen recalls. Industry insiders predicted the loss of twenty five percent of employees over just a five-year period, and this trend accelerated during the pandemic. “Larger manufacturers had the choice to push retirement early,” Chen says, “and a lot of people did take that offer.”

As Zemarc recruited new engineers to fill the industry-wide retirement gap, “we did not see any issues with gender, any issues with anything else,” Chen says. Instead, the team was open to anyone who could add value to the company. This led not only to an increase in female employees, but also to the hiring of young employees who brought a fresh, new perspective. And, once on board, these young minds have been given a remarkable level of influence within the company. “We really encourage them to talk to not only everyone internally and share their opinions and show that their voice matters, but we also have them express the same thing to our vendors and our customers,” Chen says.

Supporting diversity
Zemarc is also deeply commitment to diversity. “At Zemarc, diversity is more than just a headcount in getting the right numbers of different people,” Chen says. “It’s about valuing the perspectives and influence that these different people have by showing them that we value inclusion through our interpersonal relationships, and the leadership we have at Zemarc really encourages people to practice influence by asking questions consistently and frequently.”

Chen considers herself a Diversity Advocate in addition to her official position as Marketing Director. “Because of the voice Zemarc leadership gave me, I am proud to use that privilege to advocate for diversity on an interpersonal level,” she says. “I believe it really helps people understand the purpose of diversity beyond its political concept.”

A close-knit company culture has been key to successfully welcoming and valuing diversity. “Everyone knows everyone,” Chen says. “We’re very family-oriented.” She credits Zahid’s “actions and his values of caring for the individual” for this supportive environment. Nearly half a century after founding the company, Zahid is still an active, supportive presence. Before the pandemic, he still came in every day to check on people and ask how they were. And, while following pandemic protocol, Zahid still managed to check in at least once a week with employees who were still in the office. His model of valuing each individual automatically set the stage for the company to value all voices. “It doesn’t matter how old you are or what gender or ethnicity you are,” says Chen. “If your management is able to show you that your voice has value and let you practice that expression of influence, then the diversity will be very natural.”

Valuing every voice
Making sure that every individual is heard is a hallmark of the company. This open communication not only supports employees, but also benefits customers and the company as a whole by ensuring that all talent and ideas are fully utilized. “In our company culture we are always talking about ideas and focusing on creativity, trying to get feedback and understanding from everyone in the company—not just people in management and engineering, but throughout the company,” says Meyer. “We try to get new ideas that help our company and our customers overall to give our customers the best working environment we can give them. Along with that we do have a great management team that works to enable a can-do attitude where we try to have a lot of positivity.”

A key benefit of the company’s emphasis on open communication is successful teambuilding. “We have a great cohesive teamwork environment where we can get pretty much anything done once we put our heads to it,” Meyer says. “Everything we have to do [requires] working together as a team. Whenever we have an engineering project, it’s not just engineering working on it. We’re working with our sales people [and] working with everyone on the internal side, making sure they’re understanding clearly what’s going on with a project.”

Indeed, Zemarc makes a point to enable communication among all levels of employees. “There are no barriers that make it difficult to talk to [anyone in the company],” Meyer says. “I can just walk in or call them, even if they are higher up… It’s really easy to have discussions with Zemarc and I think overall that helps everyone we work with, including our customers.”

After forty-five years of success and growth, Zemarc is well placed to continue exceeding customer expectations. Armed with a team of diverse, forward-thinking engineers and a commitment to developing—and effectively communicating—the best solutions, this is a company to watch.

The post Forward-Thinking Engineering<p class="company">Zemarc Corporation</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

This shift came in 1972 when the company was purchased and incorporated as Russells Technical Products by Don Bench, already established at that point in the test chamber industry through his work with Conrad Inc. which was founded by chamber industry heavyweight Charles Conrad. Over the ensuing half century, Bench’s family became a part of the company, with his grandson Jim currently serving as president.

Jim Bench explains that, after his grandfather took over the company, the focus pivoted to test chambers as it was a field he found to be more interesting than “sitting on top of a local restaurant in January fixing their HVAC.” Even greater attention was paid to environmental test chambers by Don Bench and son Bill in the 1980s as hires were made from other companies to continue its growth, including current Chief Executive Officer Gary Molenaar.

Some three decades later, the company is growing rapidly and will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2022.

Russells is active in many different industries today including automotive and aerospace and especially within space technology. The company has been in the field since the early 1970s, supplying standard and custom design-built environmental test systems. Customers from across the industry use the chambers to test products to ensure optimum efficiency on land and in outer space through methods like temperature and humidity testing, altitude testing, cryogenic freezing, solar radiation, wind/freezing rain, and thermal shock testing.

Clients’ products have experienced incredibly fast temperature changes of 600 degrees Celsius per minute so the company has gotten used to accelerating its lifecycle testing to ensure solar arrays or pieces will work in space without having to worry about needing repairs.

Sales Manager Ryan League adds that, since developing a reputation in the seventies for its capabilities in design-build and engineering experience, Russells has enjoyed a good amount of standing with larger aerospace and defense contractors like Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, Northrop Grumman and more, in addition to automotive and commercial customers like General Motors, Hewlett Packard, and others. Clients like these have strict requirements for equipment at both high altitudes and low temperatures, and the company’s attention to these details has made the space industry “the bread and butter of [Russells] for the better part of thirty years.”

A collaborative and open relationship is what Russells application engineers and management strive to foster with clientele. Bench explains how application engineers at the company gladly lead customers through every step of the process, with the same point of contact being present for a client throughout the entire process, with information readily at hand. Russells offers a friendly and personable approach along with a unique, in-depth knowledge of the client’s project.

“That same engineer is still responsible for your bottom line [as the project goes to the test floor] and will work with you through the installation process as well as in startup and post-installation,” Bench explains.

Russells focuses on customer service at the heart of its priorities. As League explains, the company is small enough to be nimble and offer hands-on solutions while still operating on a global scale, an approach that is highly valued in its segment of the marketplace.

This amicable approach applies to more than customer relations, and Russells demonstrates a philanthropic streak. Many Russells employees are involved with FIRST Robotics competitions, a program encouraging high school kids to pursue careers in science and technology. Several workers volunteer and mentor as professionals and team with students to build robots for worldwide competition, a company practice in place for over twenty years. This involvement forms the base of the company’s community-minded practices and has even led to some students choosing Russells as a place of employment after their education.

The company also gives back to its local Michigan community through initiatives to benefit local rescue missions, women’s shelters, or even local families in need, efforts that it considers vital to its annual operations and to the ongoing growth of its local community. Russells and its employees view the company as an important piece of the community and seek to breed that culture from within.

Bench acknowledges that the company gets to work with exciting aspects and products in the industry, and although it is not responsible for making these products directly, it does play a part in improving them. This vision is projected to employees so that it is understood that what may seem like a relatively minor task can have a real impact within the industry.

Although countless companies were taken aback by the effects of COVID-19 in 2020, including within the testing industry, not much slowed down for Russells during that time. League attributes this to the company’s primary customer base being essential government businesses, like the U.S. Department of Defense, so demand never slowed down.

As a result of the pandemic, there has been a big change in the global and local supply chains which has led to a significant impact on how Russells accumulates the materials and components that go into equipment. The pandemic caused the company to re-evaluate its own supplier network, as it typically deals with many Michigan-based suppliers for its raw materials like steel and its pre-manufactured components. Because of the impact on the supply chain, it had to invest in new relationships, and these have strengthened it and allowed for the development of new, more agile business partnerships. This was a tumultuous time for countless industries, but Russells is leaving the pandemic in even better standing than it was before.

“If we can’t make it financially, we can’t meet everybody’s needs,” Bench says, underlining that the company is always keeping an eye on its financial footing. “Our customer base depends on us to service their equipment… we need to be here.”

Growth is slow but consistent, and he adds that the company intends to be around for a long time so its clients can rely on its strength and expertise. Russells will be looking into its internal systems to grow and get better at serving these clients moving forward, including experimenting with new refrigerants, and investing in new software for both machine operations and internal corporate operations.

Bench explains that the goal is not necessarily to be on the leading edge, but to be close enough to remain a leader in those spaces. The company is capable of solving many testing issues and uses much expertise and tried-and-true methods while being unafraid to try new things.

League highlights that test chambers have come far in the past thirty-to forty years and that the industry has built systems with a profound longevity. “We stand behind our products and want customers to understand that we build test chambers to last, and they can have confidence in the products we offer.”

The post Test Chamber Solutions Built to Last<p class="company">Russells Technical Products</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

That’s not all though. As well as contributing to high-profile missions beyond Earth’s atmosphere for more than 75 years, AOTCO Metal Finishing LLC has also done its bit – and still is – for the safe return to health of countless Americans who have suffered in the grips of the pandemic.

While the rest of the country was shutting down, AOTCO, a designated essential business, was producing parts for national defense and aerospace. Galvanized, its leadership moved quickly to make available a portion of its sophisticated, specialized production capabilities to help with the national emergency response.

The Massachusetts-based company provides specialty metal finishing for many industries, including medical and telecommunications. That means high-precision electroplating, anodizing, multi-material plating and other surface treatments on a broad range of substrates from gold and silver to tin and copper, as well as the sought-after beryllium and magnesium.

Medical manufacturing
During the pandemic, AOTCO, employing its unique skills, has shipped vital parts for 40,000 emergency life-saving ventilators. The team adjusted production to prioritize parts for these essential ventilators, along with hospital bed components, surgical instruments and testing equipment used in diagnosis.

“At that time there weren’t any guidelines from the CDC and we had to figure things out on our own,” says Matthew Smith, President of AOTCO. “So that had a lot of implications, but it was very important to us to try to do something and make a difference.”

If you know anyone who was seriously impacted by contracting the coronavirus, AOTCO may have had a hand in their treatment.

AOTCO used its NADCAP-certified expertise in aerospace, in terms of quality control, adherence to specific temperature and pressure tolerances, and the confines of regulatory and traceability standards, and applied this know-how to assist with the greatest health crisis of our time.

“A big part of what we did was to free up capacity and add shifts to push the parts through. We wanted to get those out there as fast as we could,” Smith says.

Many of its major customers, who are primary defense contractors, also dedicated capacity to making miscellaneous ventilator parts. “The demand was incredible,” he adds, crediting his knowledgeable and experienced team.

Fortunately, the complex processes used in finishing these parts were familiar skills to AOTCO, although a lot of the parts themselves were new. The timing was also fortunate. AOTCO had just received its ISO 13485 medical certification that allowed the company to pivot and provide vital medical components in an expedited fashion. No small feat!

Back to space
As we come out of the pandemic, AOTCO is once again pivoting to fill production gaps in aerospace and defense industry manufacturing. A lot of manufacturing resources across the country were put into fulfilling the medical needs of Americans, and now companies are racing to meet across-the-board demand as manufacturers and suppliers reboot.

For AOTCO, it is all about being agile and responsive (as well as always on time) in meeting the changing demands of its customers. And this has been a staple of the company since it was founded in 1945.

“We work across the board on specialized components from propulsion systems to guidance systems to optical systems,” says Smith.

AOTCO’s parts contributions have been found on space vehicles – from the space shuttle to the International Space Station and the newly deployed Mars landing vehicles. Clients range from agencies to primes to subcontractors.

Mike Nelson, AOTCO Sales Engineer, highlights one influential project for an optical bench that was used to predict a rocket’s exact coordinates while it was leaving the Earth.

The bench had to be made of a very specific metal that was processed in a specific way, “because when the parts are subjected to fluctuations in temperature, those fluctuations have to happen at the same rate as the pieces they are connected to or else it throws off the measurements sent back to mission control,” Nelson says.

“Even the slightest hiccup could result in an inaccurate reading and a failed mission because they won’t know the exact location of the rocket.”

The art of coating
A moving craft, whether it’s a rocket or an airplane, can build up a static charge. AOTCO coats parts in such a way so that high-tech electronic components can function without interference.

“It’s actually nothing fancy, it’s just a lot of coatings applied to one piece,” says Chris Osborn, AOTCO quality control inspector. “By putting multiple applications of chemical nickel on one part and anodizing it, we were able to achieve different outcomes, so the piece is both electrically resistant and conductive.”

Typically, customers come to AOTCO with a specific problem rather than a request for a particular coating. For example, the challenge might be an ongoing electrical short or making a part more robust in a particular hostile environment such as deep ocean water or the icy landforms on the Red Planet.

Every pound launched into space comes with a big cost attached. AOTCO provides the fine, protective coating that allows millions of dollars of technology to get off the ground.

This is where AOTCO has achieved a competitive advantage in certain highly advanced techniques that are extending the capabilities of the aerospace industry. For instance, the company is recognized as a leader in plating malleable, ultra-lightweight beryllium. Beryllium can be stamped or formed into complex shapes with precise tolerances, and can be heat-treated and alloyed with other metals to form a tremendously strong and durable metal that can literally bounce back to its original shape even when under extreme stress or intense heat conditions.

To complement this specialization, AOTCO has now added magnesium plating to its repertoire. Magnesium, like beryllium, is an ultra-lightweight metal – no, the lightest – that can be used as a replacement for aluminum in many applications. Magnesium, 100 percent recyclable, is the lightest of all structural material and has the best strength-to-weight ratio of common castable materials.

At 30 percent lighter than aluminum and 75 percent lighter than steel, magnesium is ideally suited for parts that must withstand the extreme changes in direction that’s found in many aerospace applications.

Magic with magnesium
Joining AOTCO, and bringing this industry specialization, is Lead Engineer Steve Rohrbacher, the former president of Millennium Plating, a top plater of magnesium that closed its doors.

“Now we have two metals that we can process for complex specifications and supply to prime contractors [calling for] the most advanced, lightest metals, essentially things that can solve all their moving problems,” Rohrbacher says.

“We can add more to the payload of each rocket and each delivery to space by reducing the weight. Now we can put the same amount of pounds up, but 30 percent more devices, 30 percent more of the small satellites.” That’s a huge competitive advantage.

AOTCO has set a course for continued growth. The company is bringing in industry experts like Rohrbacher and pairing them with ambitious newcomers to push the frontiers of electroplating.

“We see ourselves as helping to lead innovation and bring this industry into the 21^st century, pushing the materials that we can do, while on the quality side introducing database management and modern quality management,” Smith says.

“On the people side, we’re building up the next generation of electroplaters. Our mission is to preserve the art of plating and build the future of it.”

The post Rocket Men Will Understand – Lightweight Metals Mean Larger Payloads<p class="company">AOTCO Metal Finishing</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

With any project, the company employs a method of quality assurance it identifies by the acronym ‘R.I.S.K.’, in which it rapidly identifies both risks and opportunities within an assignment, implements processes to ensure compliance within the necessary safety and regulatory guidelines, satisfies its customer’s expectations, and reinforces knowledge of its quality procedures throughout the company to ensure product and service uniformity.

Elcon has managed to grow substantially within the past year, and growth is forecast to accelerate with the recent refresh of its branding and website. As part of the refresh, the company surveyed its employees, customers and prospective customers to help more clearly define its values.

“We have invested in new technologies that allow for greater design freedom and faster production,” company Marketing Analyst Nikki Do explains. “We are not stagnant; we grow both internally and externally to provide customers with what they need.”

Elcon continues to increase the amount of research and development on the materials it uses through partnerships with local universities. This move also falls in line with the direction of the brand in that it is looking to develop better processes and a greater understanding of materials. Do mentions one such partnership with the Material Science Department at UC Davis that has led to new understandings of the dynamic properties of refractory materials. Elcon anticipates that this will lead to new customers, especially within the aerospace industry, as refractory metals are very resistant to heat and wear and can survive in the extreme environments of outer space. As the new branding increases awareness of Elcon’s capabilities, opportunities for growth increase in scope and importance.

Do and the Elcon team are excited about opportunities for partnership with non-profit organizations like India-based ‘Explore The Space’, an agreement that gives the team international exposure to space exploration. This past June Elcon’s president hosted a webinar targeted at university STEM students on the future of materials in space technology – what materials will be needed to not only explore space but to sustainably live there as well. In September of this year, they will host another webinar focused on the manned Artemis mission to the moon planned for 2024. The webinar will discuss and explore topics such as what systems are a part of the Artemis program, what challenges are posed in this mission, and what breakthrough technologies are needed to set up human colonies in space.

During its rebranding process, Elcon, like all other businesses and manufacturers, found itself amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It was certainly not unaffected by this but, because its products and services are important to the medical and national defense sectors, it continued operating at full capacity with virtually no slowdowns. The company recognized the importance of an engaging online presence, especially due to the lack of opportunities for employees to interact in person with customers during this time. The team developed a new website while conducting further research on customer markets to gain a greater understanding of the company’s value to prospective customers and the overall market. “We revamped how we communicate our value and our mission in order to give our customers a better experience,” Do explains.

Elcon honors the client-business relationship in as many ways as possible. The company values long-term partnerships in which it can be completely transparent with its client from the start of a project to production, with the goal of being the vendor of choice on new projects. It values client participation throughout its processes to ensure successful products, especially in high stakes industries like aerospace and medical devices.

Do cites the company’s work on projects like NASA’s recent DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, creating key components for the NEXT-C solar electric ion thruster, and manufacturing parts that play important roles in satellite communication. Do lists refractory metal components, photo-chemically etched hemispherical grids and vacuum relay switches for radar systems as examples of how aerospace clients have sought the expertise of the company.

Do feels that the company’s Silicon Valley location is important to both its identity and success. Since its founding over 50 years ago in San Jose, Elcon has been surrounded by an innovative and problem-solving work culture which in turn permeates the company.

Silicon Valley is also a magnet for employees with diverse backgrounds and expertise, which helps the company attract independent thinkers who are unafraid to dive into new and complex applications. Do adds that Elcon is formed by a team of material scientists and fabrication experts who offer knowledge in specific materials that positively affects the success of the customer’s end applications, and this is something that Do feels a lot of companies today overlook.

Although Elcon is a key player in its industry, company officials are noticing a lot of recent consolidation among competitors. Do clarifies that current customers continue to grow organically and with new products but the pipeline of new customers is also growing in new technology areas like mobile energy storage, production space centers, automation and renewable energy. The challenge remains in figuring out what developing markets need or will need in the future.

Elcon is focused on moving several development projects into production before the end of 2021 and on investing in new production equipment and technologies. To achieve this, the company is hiring experienced engineers and technicians with experience in multiple industries.

“We didn’t lose much time in 2020 so we expect our projects in aerospace and medical to be particularly strong through 2022… a lot of our current projects are headed toward that direction,” says Nikki Do of the positivity felt within the company about its prospects. As momentum continues, Elcon Precision is breaking manufacturing boundaries by not only expanding its online presence, but also its technology, capabilities, and international market reach.

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