And in America, Rogers Brothers Corporation was founded.

A part of North America’s manufacturing history, the company that began 117 years ago is stronger than ever. Today one of the premier trailer manufacturers in the United States, Rogers Brothers’ early days saw the company involved in projects such as bridges and steel structures.

This changed with the First World War in 1914, with the company taking on troop carriers, and again in World War II when Rogers Brothers focused on tank retriever trailers, earning an award for employee performance and wartime dedication.

Over a century of experience

Over a century after it was established, Rogers Brothers Corporation remains a trusted, fully family-owned and managed business with a staff of about 45. Today, the company is owned by the third and fourth generations of the family: Larry Kulyk and his children, Jay Kulyk, as President, Nick Kulyk, as Vice President and Shop Supervisor, and Beth Hough, as Corporate Secretary.

Larry Kulyk, President of Rogers Brothers Corporation from 1989 to 1994, serves as the company’s Chair of the Board of Directors and Corporate Treasurer.

“He’s the last member of the third generation active in the business and still is an integral part of company management,” says son Jay. “His career at Rogers spans nearly 60 years.”

Other family members also fill key roles at Rogers, including brother-in-law Kyle Glasl, Sales Coordinator, and brother-in-law David Hough, Production Coordinator. Recent years have seen the next generation showing interest in the family business.

Like his dad, Jay has been instrumental in the success of Rogers Brothers. Starting part-time in 1984 and going full-time in 1991, Jay succeeded his uncle, Mark Kulyk, to the presidency of the company in 2012. With a bachelor’s degree in economics from Carnegie Mellon University, Jay combines his knowledge of business and finance with plenty of hands-on, practical know-how about the trailer industry.

The ultimate in trailers®

Rogers Brothers’ slogan is “Since 1905, The Ultimate in Trailers®” for good reason. Manufacturing products for the construction industry, the company also makes trailers used in the mining industry as well as others specifically designed and crafted for a single purpose. This includes trailers made to haul power-generating equipment and transformers, boilers, and even massive steel coils.

Some have a capacity of 20 tons, while detachable gooseneck trailers can handle up to 100 tons. Configurations include front loading, rear loading, modular and other types. Rogers is known for the quality of its manufacturing. Clients also appreciate its ability to customize and paint trailers to meet their requirements.

At its 100,000-square-foot facility in Albion, Pennsylvania, the company produces around 110 to 120 trailers every year, depending on the type. In some years, Rogers has built over 200 trailers, mostly smaller models; other years have seen the company manufacture less than 100, but comprising mostly large units.

“We currently have a strong backlog of orders, and our lead times remain quite long for us—28 to 32 weeks for many trailers,” says Jay Kulyk. “The majority of those are for trailers used in the construction industry to haul excavators, bulldozers, paving machinery, et cetera. We’ve also seen an increase in specially designed trailers used to haul steel coils within steel manufacturing plants.”

Like other companies, Rogers Brothers faced challenges at the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, including an increase in lead times. Nevertheless, the cloud of COVID had a silver lining in the end. When the pandemic hit, the company had a healthy backlog of trailer orders on its books and was looking forward to a good year in 2020.

On March 18, 2020—a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic—Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced the mandatory shutdown of most businesses that were “not life-sustaining.”

The state published a list of “essential” business categories that could keep operating, and an appeal procedure was established for businesses deemed “non-essential.” The “essential” list was, in many instances, ambiguous, and Kulyk’s read of it at the time left them as a “non-essential” business.

Due to this, the company had no alternative except to temporarily lay off its entire workforce, effective the following day. Despite email requests for clarification from the state of Rogers’ proper business category and filing an appeal for permission to reopen a few days later, the company received no response.

Finally, on May 11, Rogers Brothers, along with many other types of companies, were permitted to reopen, conditional on putting in place certain COVID-related precautions and procedures. “The ‘silver lining’ to this otherwise depressing situation was that we did not lose a single trailer order despite the unexpected two-month delay in our production schedule, and every single Rogers employee reported back to work on the day we were permitted to re-open,” says Kulyk.

A customizing company

From decades of trailer manufacturing expertise to longstanding family values, dedicated staff, and exceptional customer service, Rogers Brothers is an industry leader.

Working with customers on exact needs and specifications, Rogers makes dedicated trailers to special configurations for construction and mining, and also single-purpose products of all sizes, with wide-ranging customization to ensure their clients’ complete satisfaction. Conforming to transportation guidelines and regulations, construction trailers that go on highways are often smaller than those used on mining sites—often impressively larger and heavier.

Market sectors for the company remain strong, especially construction. The business has seen a noticeable uptick in orders for specially designed heavy-duty trailers purpose-built to haul large steel and aluminum coils within manufacturing facilities.

With a notable 120^th anniversary due in just three years, Rogers Brothers Corporation is planning its celebrations. For now, and the future, the company will keep doing what it does best: making the finest trailers in America.

The post Four Generations & Still Trucking<p class="company">Rogers Brothers Corporation</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

To understand lean, it helps to go back to the origins of the concept. Henry Ford is the first person credited with integrating a complete production process. In 1913, his revolutionary Michigan factory implemented ‘flow production,’ a system that incorporated interchangeable parts and conveyor belts to dramatically streamline and improve production. Today, we know the concept as the assembly line.

So how did Ford bring this concept to fruition? According to The Henry Ford, an educational non-profit located in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford engineers found unexpected inspiration in the meatpacking industry, where conveyors moved carcasses through meat cutters, which removed parts of the animal in stages along the way. Ford and his engineers reversed the concept of these ‘disassembly’ lines to create his famous assembly line, which made the automobile far more affordable and accessible to the everyday consumer.

In addition to increasing efficiency and lowering the final cost of the product, the concept reinvented how we thought about manufacturing. Until then, standard shop practices used general-purpose machines grouped by process. Each machine made parts that workers moved to different areas of the shop for the various stages of assembly. Workers tended to be experienced craftsmen specializing in a single skill. The shift to assembly line production ushered in a new era where productivity trumped tradition.

Other automakers worked to improve Ford’s assembly line production model, seeking adaptations that would allow more flexibility to accommodate automobile consumers eager for more options. The Toyota company—Eiji Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno in particular—re-evaluated the situation throughout the 1930s, then again after World War II ended.

Through years of continuous improvement, the team recognized ways to create both continuity in process flow and product variation to deliver exactly what customers wanted, in the shortest time possible. The Toyota Production System (TPS) was born. According to Toyota, this system is “based on the philosophy of achieving the complete elimination of all waste in pursuit of the most efficient methods.” In other words, the system is the basis of Lean.

Toyota explains that the Toyota Production System was established on two core concepts: ‘jidoka’ and ‘just-in-time.’ Jidoka can be roughly translated as “automation with a human touch,” which enables equipment to stop immediately in order to prevent defects. By adhering to just-in-time, the system produces only what is required for the next process in the continual production flow.

This combination of concepts allows Toyota to quickly and efficiently produce one quality vehicle at a time that will meet each customer’s specific needs. “TPS and its approach to cost reduction are the wellsprings of competitive strength and unique advantages for Toyota,” the company summarizes. “Thoroughly honing these strengths is essential for Toyota’s future survival. We will use these initiatives and develop our human resources to make ever-better cars that will be cherished by customers.”

The Machine That Changed the World analyzed the tools used in the game-changing Toyota Production System and identified the five key principles, bringing the concept to the world and launching the lean phenomenon. These principles—identify value, map the value stream, create flow, establish pull, and seek perfection—have revolutionized how many manufacturers do business, allowing them to gain a competitive edge by simultaneously increasing production, lowering costs, improving quality, and raising profits.

Step one on the path to lean manufacturing is to identify value. To do so, a manufacturer must identify what their customers want and how the company’s products satisfy those wants. Then, the manufacturer must establish how much the customer is willing to pay for that desired product—which ultimately determines the product’s value.

Manufacturers must respond to this determined value by eliminating waste—including stripping the product of any unnecessary features that customers do not desire—lowering overhead, and delivering a product specifically designed to meet the customer’s needs. The idea is to deliver the ideal product at the ideal price while still making maximum profit.

The second principle is to map the value stream—the lifecycle of a product from design and use to its ultimate disposal. Manufacturers must study the use of materials and resources used for the production of the product to analyze where there is waste in the cycle and how to reduce that waste. Any aspect of production that does not add value to the product should be eliminated.

This evaluation process can be complicated and time-consuming to thoroughly analyze all the stages and aspects of a complex manufacturing stream. Different professionals who specialize in each stage of production will likely need to participate to create a full picture of the situation.

Creating flow aims to improve lead times by stripping away any functional barriers. An efficient production flow moves items through the production stage and into shipping without interruption. By analyzing the use of labourers, materials, shipping methods, and more, manufacturers can reorganize the manufacturing floor to create a smoother, more unified production process that reduces delays and minimizes waste.

The fourth principle, to establish pull, guides manufacturers to apply a pull-based production process rather than the more traditional push model. In a push-based production process, manufacturers forecast production in advance, buying materials pre-emptively and pushing those materials through production before there is a demand for the finished product. Push systems tend to be easy to implement, but create problems when inaccurate forecasts create stockpiles of unsold inventory—or not enough inventory to meet demand. Consequences may include excessive warehousing costs, customer complaints, and disrupted schedules.

A pull system, on the other hand, pulls an order that has already been created and then begins the manufacturing process. After an order is received, the process is set in motion, from the purchasing of any materials not already on hand, to the actual production of the product. The system helps manufacturers avoid both overproduction and underproduction by manufacturing on demand, according to the customer’s needs.

Last but not least, lean manufacturing requires manufacturers to seek perfection. Toyota dubs this process ‘kaizen,’ which means continuous improvement. The concept relies on ongoing, incremental change that becomes an expected part of the company culture.

Everyone who has a hand in the manufacturing process—not just management—must participate. These participants have to continually evaluate and improve each stage of the manufacturing production process by eliminating waste in an unending process that becomes an expected way of approaching business.

There is no sitting on one’s laurels when it comes to lean manufacturing. While each improvement merits credit, manufacturers must maintain the final principle—continuing to seek perfection—to truly achieve lean. The concept of lean is not a one-time fix, but an ongoing way of doing business that, when properly implemented, can reinvent a manufacturer’s production process and create long-term success.

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Its systems can measure the height, width, volume, and location of sealant / adhesive dispensing in manufacturing plants. The in-line data gathered by sensors is analyzed by its proprietary software while its Adaptive Process Control (APC) system adjusts automatically to maintain control in changing conditions.

The company’s systems “have perfected the measurement of process performance. We compare these measurements to pass / fail specifications—essentially sorting bad parts from good parts; however, inspection is ‘non-value added.’ Toyota and other customers have been pressuring Coherix to develop adaptive process control capabilities. We have, and APC is our primary deliverable today,” states Coherix Founder and Chief Executive Officer Dwight Carlson.

APC is an essential element of the ‘factory of the future’ concept which Carlson strongly endorses. Also known as Industry 4.0, the term refers to connected and highly-automated factories in which sensors and monitors glean and transmit production and quality data.

Such facilities “require manufacturing systems that can see in 3D in real time. They must see well enough and think fast enough to operate autonomously… adaptive process control is key, and absolutely necessary for autonomous operation,” he says.

APC allows Coherix to “control the process,” and ensure consistent quality, providing extra value for end customers, adds President Jürgen Dennig.

Coherix products are equipped with a variety of APC-enabled solutions to optimize dispensing. Coherix 3D, one of the company’s leading machine vision systems, features AutoRepair, in which bubbles and gaps in the dispensed adhesive are repaired automatically without human intervention; LocationMaster, which locates parts and transmit information to the robot to modify the dispensing path; and Z-Tracking, which “dynamically adapts to each part’s individual variations to maintain acceptable tip to part distance, preventing broken nozzles and scrapped parts,” says the Coherix website.

Coherix 3D also uses RobotAssist to help programmers maintain the proper tool angle and nozzle distance relative to the surface of the part and NozzleCheck to prevent material build-up at the dispensing nozzle.

Coherix™ Inline Glass Primer Inspection, used for comprehensive in-line inspection and complete part traceability during black and clear primer dispensing, uses LocationMaster, as does Coherix 3D™ Inline Swirl Bead Inspection, which inspects swirl bead dispensing operations.

Coherix espouses total dispensing systems engineering. “People are selling robots; others are selling dispensing systems; others are selling fixtures for parts, but nobody is taking care of the process in total, and that’s what we do: total dispensing systems engineering. We have the best guys you can get. It’s not about a product; it’s about a process,” states Dennig.

This process analyzes dispensing system performance and warns clients before the dispensing process goes haywire, he adds.

At present, most of Coherix’s efforts are focused on a specific market. “Our primary industry today is automotive, especially Tier One auto suppliers,” Carlson says.

As well as Toyota, Coherix has worked with VW, Honda, Nissan and Ford, and has a presence in “all of the plants,” of a leading electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer. “We’re kind of their go-to guys on dispensing,” he says. “EVs and battery makers are becoming a significant part of our business. Both accelerate the need for lightweighting, which drives the use of adhesives.”

Lightweighting is all about reducing the weight of planes and cars, to enhance fuel efficiency and drive costs down without sacrificing performance. In a lightweighting process, parts and panels can be manufactured from materials such as carbon-fiber composites to be both light and strong. Parts are not welded together but attached using sealant or adhesive, which is where Coherix comes in.

The company also does some work with vision system integrators and manufacturers that make adhesive dispensing equipment. While it has no intention of moving away from its existing markets, it is eager to branch out into new sectors. To achieve this, it will be releasing the Coherix 3D Mini next year. Designed to be used with mini dispensing machines, this new product differs in size from its conventional counterparts.

“In car manufacturing, usually dispensing systems are sitting on six-axis robots. In mini dispensing, usually they are three-axis—x, y, z systems,” Dennig explains. The 3D Mini will broaden the company’s market reach, he adds.

“Mini dispensing is more for the electronic consumer and medical device industries,” than automotive, he says. “I can tell you the mini-dispensing market is 2.5 times bigger than the dispensing market in automotive, so [the Coherix 3D Mini] is giving us huge opportunities.”

Huge opportunities could in fact be the byword at Coherix, which now has a foothold in multiple regions. Coherix Europe is based in Sinsheim, Germany, while Coherix Asia Pacific is based in Singapore, and Coherix China is in Shanghai. Since we last spoke in 2021, the company has also launched Coherix Japan and Coherix Mexico. The Ann Arbor office oversees both North and South America.

Personnel numbers have also expanded, from roughly seventy people at the time of the previous profile to over eighty today. The company’s success is even more remarkable, given that it is located far from the technology hub of Southern California.

Developing a Silicon Valley-style “high-tech culture in the Midwest,” was difficult, Carlson concedes. While Ann Arbor boasts the highly-regarded University of Michigan and companies that do federal government research, the Midwest is better known for old-school manufacturing and contentious labor / management relations than visionary technology firms. Yet, Carlson has succeeded in establishing a company imbued with a spirit of collaboration and innovation.

Success, however, might beget another problem. Traditionally, as companies get big, they tend to become more conservative and cautious but Carlson does not anticipate any difficulties staying innovative as the firm grows.

In addition to recruiting what he calls “hot-shot engineers,” he has retained certain workplace principles derived from his experience with Hewlett-Packard. In the 1970s, Carlson licensed HP to sell products developed by a previous company he ran.

As part of these principles, stock options are offered to all staff, and the company does not have a rigid hierarchy. “We are a team. Everyone is a team member. We have leaders, managers, coaches, but no bosses! We share the rewards of success with our team members. Everyone is a stockholder,” he notes. It also helps that Coherix is forward-thinking with an eye on emerging technologies and manufacturing trends.

For all this, some situations remain out of its control. The long-term effects of COVID, for example, are still being felt. “We did a great job preventing COVID from infecting our team. However, COVID has negatively impacted our customer base which, in turn, impacted us. We have been very fortunate to be able to continue to grow our precision dispensing business,” Carlson says.

The pandemic interfered with the production of semiconductor chips, which had a ripple effect throughout the world. The semiconductor slowdown caused supply delays and led some original equipment manufacturers to reduce production. Authorities in Shanghai—headquarters for the company’s China operations—locked that city down for months to prevent the virus from spreading. This strict measure made it difficult to do business.

While there was not much Coherix could do about the Shanghai situation, the firm successfully navigated the semiconductor storm.

“We’ve been able to make our deliveries, by the grace of God. We’ve been through semiconductor shortages more than once. We know how to find one thousand parts here, one thousand parts there, whereas the auto guys have to find millions,” says Carlson.

COVID aside, “recruiting global team members that meet Coherix’s high performance standards,” is also a challenge, he says.

While qualifications are important, Coherix wants new hires with the right mindset. “We hire attitudes! We can teach our team members everything else,” he states.

Coherix representatives offer a dynamic forecast, predicated on cutting-edge products and technology and a stellar staff. The goal is to be taking in over $100 million in annual revenue and be listed on the NASDAQ, one of the world’s largest stock exchanges, within five years.

More of Carlson’s market plan might be revealed during this period as well. Having set his sights on one market vertical, he is already contemplating further moves.

“Right now, Jürgen is leading the first business unit—precision dispensing—and I am starting to turn my attention to selecting the second,” he says. “In 2024, I would like to identify our second application, our second market vertical, then you go on to your third and fourth. That’s the strategy.”

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Founded in 2001 by three gaming enthusiasts in Calgary, Alberta, CoolIT’s journey in superior direct liquid cooling (DLC) products for the desktop gaming industry began by using copper coldplates and heat exchangers containing coolant to cool CPUs, GPUs and other computer hardware, drastically decreasing the components’ operating temperatures and increasing computing speed and performance.

CoolIT patented its Split-Flow coldplate technology in 2009, giving the company the unmatched cooling capacity required by the desktop gaming industry. As the company grew, so did the need for DLC in the data center and high-performance computing (HPC) industries.

“Supercomputers became faster and more powerful, thus hotter due to all the computing power,” says Hamid Rafiei, Vice President of Manufacturing. “Designs of server boards and server racks became denser and more packed with components to increase the amount of computing power available in a smaller footprint.”

Meeting a need
When traditional air-cooling methods started struggling to keep up with these servers’ performance requirements, CoolIT launched into the data center and HPC industry with its first prototype data center cooling system in 2010.

Today, CoolIT Systems is the global leader in scalable liquid cooling solutions for the world’s most demanding computing environments.

“In the desktop enthusiast market, CoolIT provides unparalleled performance for a range of gaming systems,” says Rafiei, adding that in the enterprise data center and HPC markets, CoolIT partners with global leaders in server design such as Dell, HPE, Gigabyte and Supermicro to develop the most efficient and reliable liquid cooling solutions for their own leading-edge products.

Through its modular, Direct Liquid Cooling technology, Rack DLC™, CoolIT enables dramatic increases in rack densities, component performance and power efficiencies, with its Rack DLC™ technology providing cooling for systems such as Frontier, the fastest, most energy-efficient, and first-ever exascale HPC system in the world.

Using North American and Asian manufacturing sites to produce its products, CoolIT currently employs more than 190 personnel, with headquarters in Calgary, Innovation Centers in Canada and Taiwan, and sales teams located around the globe.

Milestones of cool
Other notable milestones during its history include moving to a larger 7,000-square-foot office location in 2007 and expanding again by 1,500 square feet to accommodate a growing engineering department in 2008, followed by the move to an impressive 30,000-square-foot space in 2014.

In the ensuing years, CoolIT launched five new data center programs with server original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) including Dell, HPE, Cray, and Intel and was recognized globally as the standard for DLC, becoming the number one server OEM liquid cooling partner.

Revenue surpassed $66 million in 2019, followed by $100 million in 2021, a 260 percent increase over 2018. More recently, the company announced new strategic partnerships with nVent, launched Innovation Labs in Canada and Taiwan, and in 2022, surpassed 80 filled patents.

CoolIT has also been investing significantly in its automation line. Since 2019, the company has expanded by 10,000 to 13,000 square feet every year, and with the help of a scalable labour force and investments in automation, this has produced a fivefold increase in production capacity since 2019.

In 2021, CoolIT’s first automated assembly line was installed and commissioned in its North American manufacturing plant in Calgary, with design, deployment, and integration of the automated line executed entirely by CoolIT’s manufacturing team. This automation utilizes a variety of robotics systems from collaborative robots to pneumatic systems.

“The automation systems deployed give high control over the manufacturing processes, from applied torque control to speed control for various operations,” says Rafiei. “The built-in quality check within the system includes automated segregation of parts, which improves product quality and increases throughput.”

Automation up, jobs up
CoolIT has also invested generously in developing and attracting automation experts to grow its manufacturing capabilities, he adds. The company is proud of the jobs it has created for the North American technology and manufacturing sectors, its own headcount growing by more than 80 percent from 2019 to 2022, with manufacturing engineers, technicians, and automation experts involved in industry-leading, exciting and productive operations.

Like many other companies in the high-tech industry in the past few years, CoolIT has suffered from a continuing shortage of electronic components and the long lead times of semiconductor components. The increased logistics lead time during the COVID era has been another challenge the company has faced, with ocean transit times increasing significantly in comparison to pre-pandemic.

“CoolIT has been very successful in managing these challenges and hit all-time revenue records after COVID,” says Rafiei. “This is due to the agility and capability of CoolIT’s engineering team to identify an array of alternative components and designs. These alternative components are then diligently and successfully qualified for implementation into CoolIT’s products.”

The company’s Supply Chain team has also been very successful in securing safety stock of long-lead-time components, enabling the production lines to continue to run at high capacity, he adds.

Always innovating
This impressive company also differentiates itself from competitors in other essential ways. Notably, CoolIT Systems owns more than 80 patents in direct liquid cooling (DLC) hardware, software, and control systems, including one key technology—the patented Split-Flow coldplate—which provides the highest thermal efficiency in the industry and can capture high heat-loads from the electronics it’s cooling.

“This key technology is central to the CoolIT product ecosystem and has allowed the company to set the standard for heat capture capability and reliability,” Rafiei says.

“The Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs) and Reservoir and Pump Units (RPUs) also contain proprietary and industry-leading hardware, software, and control systems that cool and manage the liquid flow to and from DLC-enabled servers.”

These patented, proprietary products are manufactured on CoolIT production lines specifically built for DLC products, unlike similar companies that mostly retool manufacturing originally geared toward traditional air cooling.

“This allows CoolIT to implement the more stringent manufacturing practices and sophisticated product testing that DLC technology requires,” says Rafiei. “CoolIT’s manufacturing engineers and technicians are in-house and hands-on, ensuring a reliable and robust production process.”

What’s more, recent investments in robotics and automation as well as automation engineers, specialists, and maintenance technicians give the company the flexibility and expertise in-house to deploy very sophisticated and complex automation systems in all areas of manufacturing.

The automation capabilities can quickly meet production ramp-up requirements which enables scalability as well as repeatability and reliability. CoolIT has invested in growing its expertise in automation and relies fully on internal resources to develop its automated solutions for manufacturing lines.

“CoolIT is not only the innovation beacon of the advanced cooling industry but also prides itself in being a team of problem solvers and innovators,” says Rafiei. “CoolIT’s dedicated and passionate expertise is found across all teams, especially among product development, project management, manufacturing and services.”

The product development team includes an R&D team focused on qualifying next-generation technologies, design engineers who work directly with customers to ensure their products meet customer requirements, and test engineers who verify and validate the performance and safety of new products.

Global leader
All of this is made possible in CoolIT’s Innovation Centres currently located in Taiwan and the newest, the 13,000-square-foot Liquid Lab™, based in Calgary. The Liquid Lab gives engineers the ability to prototype and rapidly iterate ideas, while 3D printers, a skiving machine, lathe, and multi-axis CNC give engineers access to rapid prototyping tools that significantly shorten the product development cycle.

With more than 10 independent testing areas including environmental chambers that allow for extreme temperature manipulation and a Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) chamber, the Liquid Lab provides engineers with the equipment necessary to replicate harsh environmental conditions, testing and improving product reliability.

“All of these contribute to CoolIT Systems being the global leader and number one trusted source for robust, refined, and reliable manufacturing of DLC and advanced cooling products,” says Rafiei.

Thanks to the company’s continued investment in its manufacturing expertise, innovations and people, CoolIT delivers reliable, efficient DLC products at high volumes and decreased lead times, helping customers resolve heat-related issues and ultimately enabling peak performance in their enterprise servers and HPC systems.

The post Game On and Keep Cool – Building a Better, Cooler Computer<p class="company">CoolIT Systems</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

While there are countless press manufacturers in the market, in North America and abroad, Macrodyne’s size and wide range of specialties set it apart. Its core faculties are impressive and include forming and extrusion, as well as niche moulding capabilities such as compression moulding, forging, stretch forming, and superplastic forming in addition to complete automation solutions. Built upon a legacy of engineering that spans more than three decades, the company continues to innovate and modernize a tried-and-true technology in new and exciting ways.

Macrodyne’s presses, press lines, and die-handling equipment serve customers and OEMs in complex industries like automotive, aviation, oil and gas, and pulp and paper. Its team of experts can engineer a solution to meet a customer’s needs and offer exceptional service and support long after the sale is complete.

Teaming up
The company’s dedication to customer service met great challenges during the pandemic travel restrictions, particularly in guaranteeing the exceptional level of service that their international accounts had come to expect. Macrodyne developed a suitable new approach for the times of building strategic relationships in key markets.

“We spend a lot of time finding partners, either individual contractors or companies, that we can work with to maintain that level of service and it’s worked well for us,” says President and CEO Kevin Fernandes.

Collectively, the team rose to the occasion, staying safe while delivering projects. And by ensuring it had plenty of components and stock on hand, the company could mitigate the impact of supply chain shortages and continue delivering orders as promised.

As Fernandes notes, “It’s not a low-cost solution to the problem, but in terms of the ability to scale, and in terms of the ability to keep service with the customer, that approach has worked perfectly for us.”

Model for success
By leveraging strategic relationships, staying attuned to ever-evolving market conditions and remaining innovative, Macrodyne is redefining what is possible to drive growth in both revenue and projects to assert its reputation globally.

Fernandes and his team were aware that to break into the European market and compete locally, they needed a presence of their own. So, to get things moving they pursued a strategy of acquisition rather than establishing their own facility, which is costly, time-consuming, and presents a formidable staffing challenge in these constricted labour markets.

“Our biggest problem with the European market,” Fernando says, “is that there was no presence, so anytime we tried to make headway there they would just tell us ‘That’s all great, but if you don’t have an office and service here, if you don’t have local support, we’ll just go with one of the other dozen press manufacturers that are already in our backyard,’ which, to be fair to them, makes a lot of sense.”

Macrodyne responded by delivering on all of those things and more.

Macrodyne acquired German press manufacturer Dunkes, a company that has been in operation since 1960 and brings decades of experience in pneumatic assembly and riveting presses. These competencies will round out Macrodyne’s portfolio nicely.

As an example, the Macrodyne hydraulic straightening press manufactured by Dunkes is the ticket to boost efficiency, precision, and productivity in manufacturing processes regardless of the shape of the material (round, flat, et cetera). Access to this technology or the European market would not have been possible without this acquisition.

And, while the details are yet to be released, there are other acquisitions in the works in Europe and the United States, the latter of which will position Macrodyne to take advantage of the emergent Build America sentiment in a market it has long served.

Bigger capabilities, bigger projects
With the capacity to undertake projects of up to 30,000 tons across applications and sectors, Fernandes refers to the last year as “an inflection point for Macrodyne,” as it has completed larger and more exciting projects than ever before.

“Broadly speaking, we’ve been building presses in the two-, three-, four-thousand-ton range when we’re talking about big presses, but if we look at this last year, we delivered an eight-thousand-ton steel straightening press, our first,” he explains.

While smaller than the 11,000-ton press Macrodyne previously delivered, this was the largest in terms of sheer size and weight. There is also an order underway for four 10,000-ton presses with full automation, which will be supported by its new automation office in Kingston, Ontario.

At Macrodyne, it is not just about the size of the projects and the range of its capabilities, it is the speed of delivery that’s important. A 3,500-ton press was expedited in six months at the height of the pandemic and a 2,500-ton press in only seven months, manufacturing feats that would have taken most manufacturers a year or more to complete.

“The number of projects we do per year has been relatively stable but the revenue per project has grown substantially, so we’re now taking on projects that have a larger scope and increased revenue, and also projects that are much larger. Instead of 100-ton presses, we’re doing 10,000-ton presses,” explains Fernandes.

Larger projects mean larger revenue and the need for larger manufacturing capacity. To support the growth in project size, Macrodyne has also grown organically by investing in its local manufacturing footprint. Last year, its presence in Concord, Ontario grew from 32,000 square feet to just under 100,000 square feet to accommodate even the largest projects.

Levelling up technology
Further to growing its physical footprint, Macrodyne is growing its capabilities and in this regard, partnership is an important part of its success. This year, the manufacturer signed a global licensing agreement with AEM Power Systems to develop gas-oscillation superplastic-forming technology, a move that could render conventional superplastic forming obsolete.

According to Fernandes, prototype testing is underway and once commercialized, “We could potentially be able to do superplastic forming up to twenty times faster, create shapes that were never feasible before, and reduce tool wear.”

In an industry where advancements are typically fractional, this will be revolutionary.

Fernandes compares it to typical die clamping-process improvements that could take a part of the process from ten to five minutes. Where this advancement represents five percent of the overall cycle time, gas-oscillation superplastic forming will deliver savings of upwards of 95 percent total cycle time.

“There’s not a lot of proprietary technology left in this industry but in this case, it really would be truly proprietary technology,” says Fernandes. “We always want to keep our options open.” For the company, keeping its options open includes identifying new ways to innovate, grow, and offer greater value to its existing and prospective customers long into the future.

“Long-term we will continue to develop new technologies or push the envelope on the technologies we’re currently working with. That can specifically be new technologies, but more generally, larger-sized presses that exploit the technologies we’ve already developed. Or it can be full turnkey cells and automation—things we’ve done before that we’ve just been involved in on the surface, but now we want to be the ones,” Fernandes says.

As both a press manufacturer and an innovator, Macrodyne has become a force to be reckoned with. Proud of how far the company has come, Fernandes is looking to replicate this success in new markets wherever it makes sense to do so—across industries, sectors, and borders alike, making an impact wherever Macrodyne goes.

The post Making a Global Impact<p class="company">Macrodyne Technologies, Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Liftow helps their clients choose the safest, most advantageous and most cost-effective material-handling solution in the areas of sales of new or used material-handling equipment, rentals, parts, service, and corporate training. The management at Liftow emphasizes a commitment to genuine partnerships with customers while providing excellent service and high-quality products.

Liftow provides services in Ontario, Quebec and The Maritimes, along with British Columbia under the MasonLift name, Badger Toyotalift in Wisconsin and Northern ToyotaLift in Vermont United States.

With Liftow branches in Canada stretching from Windsor to St. John’s, the company’s acquisition of Badger Toyotalift, Northern Toyotalift, and MasonLift has resulted in a total of 25 branches across North America.

Covering North America
Liftow’s impressively large network allows it to service big companies with several different locations, helping resolve a variety of issues and challenges.

“What makes us unique is our local presence and the number of locations we have across North America,” says President Sheri Brimley. “It sets us apart so that we can be local to our customers and provide the best customer service experience.”

Liftow’s dedication to quality customer service is unparalleled, with highly trained and experienced associates ready to assist in any potential situation. Each location houses a branch manager, service, rental coordinators, parts associates, highly trained technicians, sales professionals and training consultants.

With more than 20 full-service branches and 300 factory trained technicians, Liftow can service customers wherever they are in the designated territories, 24/7. “We have dedicated new and used equipment representatives. In addition, we have Inside Sales and Aftermarket Representatives to assist our customers with their rentals, service and maintenance programs,” says Brimley.

Product lineup
As for the types of equipment Liftow sells, the variety is impressive, including electric counterbalance forklifts, narrow aisle-reach forklifts, walk-behind or ride-on pallet trucks, and internal combustion sit-down cushion tire or pneumatic tire forklifts, with capacities ranging from 3,000 to 125,000 lbs. including Telematics—the company has it all.

When it comes to used forklifts, the products are certified and have gone through complete inspection and reconditioning with genuine parts by Liftow’s Toyota trained technicians.

Training programs for all experience levels from beginner all the way to in-house trainers. “We offer national coverage, and we do online training as well as blended training. We are the largest training provider in North America,” says Brimley. “We also offer forklift tires for all applications as well as premium batteries, including Lithium batteries and battery service.”

Liftow also takes safety seriously, offering many products used in the industry, including drum handling equipment, facility protection, fall protection, forklift attachments, safety lights, scales, booms, propane safety ergonomics, and safety training accessories. The company’s online shop allows customers to buy these safety products online.

“Shop.toyota.forklift.ca allows our customers to conveniently access parts inventory and obtain pricing 24/7,” says Brimley. A model and serial number search feature eliminates guesswork, and a French version of the website is also available.

The new SEnS Smart Environment Sensor™ (SEnS) is a pedestrian detection system, designed and engineered by Toyota, which uses advanced technology and can assist operators in identifying a pedestrian or object behind their forklift during a shift. If within a detectible range, a buzzer and four indicator lights will alert the operator that a pedestrian or object is within a certain range of the rear of the forklift. SEnS is available as an add-on kit that can be retrofitted for select Toyota Forklift models currently in utilization, as well as new models. SEnS works with multiple input voltages and fits a variety of applications.

“Also to align with market changes and customer needs, Toyota Material Handling and Liftow are working with Toyota Advanced Logistics, integrated by Bastian Solutions, to bring our customers automation technologies that meet any market challenge,” Brimley shares.

Challenge and change
Along with its numerous successes, the company has experienced its share of challenges, particularly with supply and demand, and recruitment. “That’s a challenge for everybody, not just us,” says Brimley.

“In regards to employee retention, we are fortunate to retain a lot of our people. They love to work here and many have been here for 25 to 50 years. You don’t see that very often anymore.”

She adds that, “Liftow has its own recruitment team, and having this team has helped us tremendously in talent acquisition.”

Liftow clearly doesn’t fear change but embraces it; as an example, the company’s training division stepped up when it was needed most. “What set us apart is that we were able to do our online programs when customers couldn’t do in-class training, a solution that allowed us to service our customers through the pandemic,” Brimley explains.

Along with its commitment to training, service and technology, Liftow has numerous other areas to celebrate.

“What sets us apart is our culture, people, and structure,” Brimley says. “We’re innovative; we’re always looking at ways to be better from a technology perspective and improve processes and overall customer experience, a key brand pillar.”

The post Raising Standards in the Forklift Market – Elevating Everything<p class="company">Liftow Ltd.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The company was founded in Sudbury, Ontario in 2004. Its formation was preceded by over two decades of business in central Canada for the Fuller family, which began with pipe fabrication company Abraflex, founded by president Bill Fuller in 1980. Present-day Fuller Industrial president Jeff Fuller (Bill’s son) joined on with Abraflex in 1993; a few years later, the company purchased carbon steel pipe, tank, and assembly fabricator Basco Steel. Both companies amalgamated not long after, with new president Jeff Fuller ultimately forming Fuller Industrial in 2004.

The company expanded its enterprise in the years to follow, growth which included the creation of Fuller Western in Edmonton, Alberta, which would eventually be sold to the CASL Group of companies (an assessment center for construction management diplomas, which Fuller still shares an alliance with). Today, Fuller Industrial Corporation serves a global mining clientele, with projects taking place on every continent and with newly patented systems and products to serve its customers in every way possible.

Among its considerable list of services and products, the company provides detailed engineering services, including pipe and valve fittings, rubber / ceramic lining (its specialty service), corrosion and abrasion control products, painting, quality control, and more. It also offers services in logistics with export packaging, shipping, and field work. It is ASME-certified (American Society for Mechanical Engineers) for pressure-piping as well as pipe and boiler repair.

Fuller believes in adding value to all its endeavours, especially through the delivery and maintenance of process piping systems and corrosion / abrasion control. On a more holistic level, the company prefers to add value through a creative use of technology and continuous improvement on its offerings, in a manner that is quick and cost-effective for clients. These values are further promoted in what the company calls “The Fuller Way,” a philosophy that stresses delivering projects on time and to specifications, with an eye on achieving long-term success and building foundational relationships. Elements like a strong organizational structure, accountability-based management, properly trained and motivated workers, and processes based on both standardization and continuous improvement add to the success of this philosophy.

Another leading tenet of the company’s practices is its commitment to all-inclusive pricing, an in-house system designed to give project and procurement personnel transparent pricing figures in large-scale pipe fabrication projects. In these projects, Fuller tracks the costs within all its services and presents each component cost (along with material and labour) in an appendix. This allows the customer to scale a project or change requirements as needed to their specifications at any point across a project’s life cycle.

Throughout all its projects, Fuller demands a high commitment to safety, healthy work environments, and a superior product from the entire team. The company also recognizes its responsibility to environmentally conscious practices (especially important in a company supporting the modern mining industry) and considers it a duty to remain open and committed to its nearby Ontario communities as much as it to itself and its customers. A key binder to all these approaches is the idea of respect, one that extends to both the company’s considerable clientele and to its employees, boosting the efficacy of its continuous improvement model.

Lean culture is another value the company takes seriously, an approach that has led to continued client and partner satisfaction. ‘Lean’ represents a corporate framework that is growing in esteem throughout many areas of industry, with the goal of eliminating waste of any kind to create a robust yet nimble final product. Another value of lean culture is one familiar to Fuller, that of continuous improvement. By focusing on both principles, Fuller Industrial can offer a product that is, by nature, more efficient and ultimately excels in meeting the needs of customers while keeping workers at every level involved in the process.

Embracing lean culture and promoting all-inclusive pricing are not the only examples of how Fuller Industrial takes a different approach from its competitors; in all respects, the company uses a mindset of innovation to ensure client success and satisfaction. For example, Fuller barcodes and tags its products with a unique serial number to provide full traceability and transparency in its processes. The company also maintains a deep library of safety, technical, inspection, and test plans (ITPs) to benefit its customers across myriad fields (i.e. oil and gas, mining, flue-gas desulphurization, water treatment, nuclear) and of varying sizes. Measures like these add to the company’s strong emphasis on relationships in all it does, as it demonstrates both a commitment to transparency in its operations and a willingness to go the extra mile in being the go-to company in its part of the mining sector.

In recent years, the company has added robotic welding and lining equipment to its operations, building on its reputation as an advanced manufacturer that embraces modern solutions to modern challenges.

The company’s drive toward innovation has also benefited the overall mining industry, as with Fuller’s part in developing a rubber-lined piping system design handbook. This project was conceived when the company recognized the industry’s lack of a set standard for rubber-lined piping systems on both a local and international level. This new system the team developed in conjunction with input from engineering groups and customers provides center-to-end dimension standards, regardless of end termination style. This has helped to end many problems with end set off gaskets, messy cut groove specifications, and more, yet another example of the continuous improvement at the heart of the corporation that benefits both its own operations and the plans and ideas of mining industry clientele.

Fuller Industrial Corporation began from local roots in its Sudbury location and has risen across 40 years into becoming a global force in its sector. Today, Jeff Fuller oversees the company his father began, and his own children count themselves among the roughly 80 employees that comprise the Fuller workforce. The company recognizes that its community of Sudbury has deep traditions related to providing mining supplies on an international level, and Sudbury itself is recognized as possessing one of the largest mining and supply clusters in the world. With over 450 mining supply services in its region, Fuller looks to continue to stand out from the rest by offering a strong labour force along with support from local government, educational institutions, and businesses in its endeavours. The Fuller name is one that has been strongly associated with Sudbury and its local community for many years, as well as within the Canadian mining industry, and Fuller Industrial Corporation aims to keep it that way as it moves into 2023.

The post Adding Value in Everything They Do<p class="company">Fuller Industrial Corporation</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Serving a diverse range of markets including agricultural, leisure pool & spa, medical, environmental, electrical, industrial, chemical, construction and building products, Kemflo Canada works with customers on projects from concept and prototyping to mold design and manufacturing.

Kemflo’s injection molding capacity
Kemflo has a machine range from 60 to 1200 U.S. tons, which allows the company to manufacture parts weighing as little as five grams up to parts weighing seven kilograms. This gives Kemflo the range to produce a large variety of products.

Kemflo has over 50 years of experience working with engineered thermoplastic resins and has become a leader in its industry. Today, the company’s biggest markets include high-rise construction, fittings for chemical fluid handling, mass transfer filtration media, and agriculture.

People and technology
To ensure the highest possible quality and in keeping up with customer needs, Kemflo Canada has invested over $20 million in tooling for proprietary products, custom automation, and other capital equipment over the last 30 years. “Along with the financial investment, we have invested heavily in acquiring and retaining qualified technical personnel,” explains company President, John Kehren. Kemflo currently employs approximately 60 skilled people within its 100,000 square-foot facility, located in the city of Richmond Hill Ontario, all with a dedicated mindset of product quality and continuous improvement.

Kemflo Canada has retained many of the same clients for the past 30 years and counting. “We’ve heard from customers that they appreciate how we’ve gone the extra mile and do a great job servicing them,” says John.

Kemflo Canada makes many OEM products, such as fittings for fluid handling in the pool and spa industry as well as industrial applications where there are high temperatures or high operating pressures in highly corrosive environments.

There are also agricultural products—such as lids and tank adapters for plastic holding tanks used by farmers—and products for the commercial sector, where customers need to store everything from water to hazardous chemicals. The materials used for holding tanks in the chemical process industry must be highly resistant to corrosives and made from exotic resins.

“We’ve seen our business grow over the last decade. Products such as agricultural products and Mass Transfer Plastic media have been major products that have contributed to our growth,” shares John.

Quality
Kemflo is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company and has met specific certifications to meet industry standards specific to the products made. The certifications are National Sanitation Foundation (NSF/ANSI 61), Underwriters’ Laboratories (UL), and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and these are industry standards that Kemflo is approved for to validate products made.

“As well,” says John, “we have a committed Quality Inspection department which understands the importance of quality and how important implementation is in a 24/7 production environment.”

Diverse capabilities
With decades of in-depth engineering experience in mold making and custom assembly
automation, Kemflo Canada provide clients with turnkey solutions that are effective and cost-efficient to compete in a world market. Along with producing a variety of molds, tooling
department specialists will perform repairs or modifications of molds to avoid unnecessary
downtime to service customers in a timely manner.

Using the latest software and technology, the engineers at Kemflo Canada provide a total range of design services using 2D and 3D platforms like Siemens PLM (Unigraphics NX), SolidWorks and Pro/Engineer (Creo Elements/Pro). John states that, “Kemflo’s 35 years of experience in engineering combined with the latest in software technology allows us to provide our customers with the best engineering solutions.”

For clients requiring prototyping, Kemflo uses the best available technology, including the
Dimension 1200 Series 3D printer. By using 3D printing, Kemflo can produce conceptual parts
before going into the mold design and production phase.

A great place to work
With many long-term and dedicated employees who value the company’s integrity and
commitment to excellence and social responsibility, Kemflo is constantly seeking professionals in the areas of design, processing, and automation. Like other companies in the manufacturing sector, Kemflo Canada has experienced some challenges filling positions, especially technical ones. Part of the reason, says John, is that, “many Canadian colleges no longer offer courses for injection molding and processing plastics.”

In Ontario, the Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning closed its Canadian Plastics Training Centre 13 years ago, while other colleges in Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec shuttered their programs in the mid- to late-2000s.

Ongoing growth
Turning 35 next year, Kemflo Canada plans to mark the anniversary with a celebration toward the end of 2023 and advertise the milestone on social media. Continuing to grow its operations, the company recently bought a location in Houston to expand its mass transfer packing line. Houston is known for its prominent chemical market, which requires products for chemical use and chemical processes.

“Our plans are to grow existing products in the markets we’re already in and work on this strength. We have increased our U.S. sales dramatically and by having a presence in the U.S., we have been able to capitalize in the market we’re in,” says John.

Committed to providing quality products and services, the team at Kemflo looks forward to working with its large base of existing customers and welcoming new clients. “Kemflo Canada is a diverse turnkey operation with over 35 years of experience in many types of thermoplastic resins, including specialty engineered resins,” says the President. “Kemflo offers quality service and cost-effective solutions with resources to do more than just injection molding. We look forward to the challenges in the future and are very excited to be a part of this.”

The post The Injection Molding Leaders<p class="company">Kemflo Canada Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“It’s one of these industries that flies under the radar and goes unseen,” says Owner Joe Genova. “But when you look around in your grocery store, or your convenience store, it’s all around you. Flexible packaging is everywhere.”

A whopping seventy percent of the flexible packaging market is used for food products, Genova explains, while the remainder is used for consumer products such as laundry detergent, industrial and medical applications. “So it really is all around you, but no one really knows about the industry.”

Though often unrecognized, flexible packaging is vital to the food chain and distribution. “We’re really an integral part of the food supply chain; food manufacturers could not deliver food to the stores, and ultimately the consumers, without packaging. If that wasn’t significant enough, packaging’s number one priority is to protect the product inside and keep our food safe, which makes our industry essential. Imagine if all our food was exposed before it was bought, and not just at the store, but all the way through the distribution line. [Imagine] the foodborne diseases and illnesses that would come with that. You’d have a lot of sick people around. So, number one, packaging protects the product that’s in there.”

Flexible packaging also allows consumers to know exactly what they are purchasing. “We see this in the ingredients printed on the package or the nutrition facts,” says Genova. “Many brands are even taking it a step further with printed QR codes which, when scanned, will elaborate on the origin of each ingredient. So there’s transparency that’s created through printing.”

In addition, flexible packaging is key to keeping the price of food down. “It allows us to distribute food products all over the country at a fraction of the cost,” Genova says. “So when you think about how important [a role] packaging plays in just our food cost, it is really remarkable.” In fact, flexible packaging, along with advanced logistics, is why the average cost of food in America is roughly 15 percent of a family’s household income. Comparatively, in other countries, food costs can be as high as 60 to 70 percent of the household budget.

Inc. Magazine recognized Poly Print’s critical role by putting the company on its Best in Business 2021 list for the food and beverage category, a coveted honor shared by only 196 of the most inspiring companies in America. That same year, Poly Print also made the Inc. 5000, which recognizes the fastest growing companies in the United States. While appreciative of earning a spot on the 5,000, the Best in Business title “actually is a lot more significant to us than even making the Inc. 5000 list,” Genova says. “That recognition has nothing to do with your growth, or your revenue, or your profits—none of that. It only has to do with what your impact is on society and the human race… It is humbling and creates a strong feeling of responsibility that not just Poly Print but flexible packaging is recognized as an industry that has the biggest impacts on humanity.”

Poly Print earned the recognition as “Best in Business” during the pandemic, when it was named an essential business necessary to keep food on American tables. Genova remembers that, during that stressful time, the federal government emphasized that the nation “cannot shut down the food supply chain and all the companies that support food supply. That’s just not an option.” The declaration made a strong impact on the entire company.

Employees all stepped up to keep supplying essential packaging to the food supply chain. Despite the risks, “our people came to work,” Genova recalls. “Our team worked long hours but we made it happen and we delivered to our customers, who ultimately delivered to stores and to the consumers.”

In addition, flexible packaging is environmentally friendly. “Flexible packaging is the sustainable option,” Genova explains. “Before printing on plastics, paper was the packaging of choice. Public perception turned negative when the narrative to print on paper meant cutting down trees. In addition, paper weighs more, yielding fewer packages. The solution was plastic films, which are predominantly used today in food packaging applications. There is an array of benefits when using plastics in packaging. Some benefits includes that it is a source reduction when compared to packaging formats, which is not only sustainable but reduces packaging weight, reducing cost and storage as well as transport size. In addition, it has the lowest tare weight ratio of any packaging, is responsible for reducing food waste, and extends the shelf life of many products, which ultimately reduces greenhouse gas emissions.”

Rigid containers, aluminum cans, and corrugated are other forms packaging and are more costly and less sustainable for the environment. Flexible packaging is the sustainable option comparatively. The developments in packaging technology are only getting better as there are now recyclable, compostable and post-consumer recycled options available. “These are all things that contribute to this circular economy that’s really important to people nowadays,” says Genova.

Poly Print is a family business, established by the Genova family in 1992. Joe was brought up in the business from an early age. “I was 10 years old when I got involved,” he remembers. “I grew up in the business, learning it, and had two really good teachers, which were my father and my mother.” Ron, Joe’s father, had extensive background in the industry, while Elsie brought her experience in administration, compliance, and finance, along with many other skills, to the table. “She is the backbone of the company and a really instrumental part to the success of the company,” says Genova.

One aspect that sets the company apart is a commitment to keeping promises. “We’re very focused on on-time deliveries, which is a really element of our industry, of most industries,” Genova says. This attitude extends to include a focus on customer satisfaction overall. Out of seven specific priorities outlined by the company, “most of those are around customer service—providing extraordinary customer service as well as providing on-time delivery.”

The team goes the extra mile to ensure that whatever product a customer needs is always on hand. “We maintain a significant amount of inventory on the floor, which is not very common to do because it’s expensive and requires a lot of warehouse capacity to do it,” Genova explains. But it is another one of the key reasons that the team is able to deliver on their promises.

Poly Print maintains a focus on food safety and upholding the best manufacturing practices. The company has been SQF certified for both food safety and quality since 2014. Prior to that, it held a superior rating from AIB starting in 2006, and its facility is registered with the FDA. The company upholds the highest printing standards and is certified by GMI, Graphics Measures International, which is recognized by many brand owners as the most rigorous printing standard to achieve and maintain.

This level of commitment continues to earn recognition and Poly Print has just received another award, this time acknowledging the company’s importance within the State of Arizona. The Arizona Manufacturers Council (AMC) and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce named Poly Print Small Manufacturer of the Year at the 2022 Manufacturer of the Year Awards in October.

When considering the future, it is clear that the flexographic printing and flexible packaging industry will continue to play a key role in the food supply chain. “There is no doubt that this industry will continue to grow and ultimately become the packaging format of choice for brand owners,” Genova says. “As a whole, our demand here is higher than it’s ever been.”

The team is eager to keep going in the same direction they have been headed within this growing industry—a direction that has earned numerous awards and brought continued growth. “We plan to continue to grow, expand our footprint and continue to be the leader in flexographic printing and flexible packaging, and to continue to provide jobs to our community and be a good business within our community. We don’t plan to stop anytime soon; we will continue to innovate, invest in our business, and provide value to our customers.”

The post A Truly Essential Business<p class="company">Poly Print, Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

EY Technologies is a niche manufacturer of high-precision, specialty, coated yarns with many uses. Its engineered, industrial-quality yarns are favored by some of the world’s best-known fabricators, specialty fabric manufacturers, telecommunications giants, and others around the world. Nearly forty percent of its yarns are shipped to customers as far away as Europe, Australia, South Africa, and Asia.

The company has a sophisticated, 40,000-square-foot facility in Fall River, and those with an interest in chemistry, yarn, and fiber manufacturing may be interested to know that one of the country’s most trusted custom fiber manufacturers is hiring. It is growing, and to accommodate all the added activity, the company recently opened the doors to its new Corporate headquarters and finishing facility in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The fiber expert produces everything from electronic fiber for conductive textiles and clothing to super-stretch fibers with high elasticity performance for sporting goods, multi-coated fiber technology used by the medical industry, and advanced nanoparticle hybrid fibers used in specialty construction.

People love coming to work here. EY Technologies “is a great place to work because we are a growth company. We are continuously [evolving]. We have a highly skilled workforce. We do a lot of work to retain our employees. We [pay] performance bonuses and sign-up bonuses [alongside] very good benefits packages,” says Raymond Pascale, President.

The approach is working. EY Technologies has nearly doubled its staff count in fewer than ten years. This is a driven team that strives for excellence. “We are very proud that, although we are a small, privately-owned business and compete with publicly-owned global giants, we are still the market leader in our main product. Everybody is on the same page,” Pascale adds, underlining what an important hallmark the team’s dedication to the consistency and quality of its products is.

As a trailblazer in its field, EY Technologies has an impressive product selection. One of its most prized items is used in heavy-duty agricultural and construction vehicles, protecting cable harnesses with next-generation polyvinyl chloride-coated synthetic yarn. The composition of the fiber is durable enough to survive the harsh outdoor conditions in which these vehicles operate.

The company also fabricates what are known in-house as hot-melt yarns. These yarns are treated with thick, melted resins to impart a range of desirable characteristics that improve performance in different applications. In another method, synthetic yarns are coated in a thermoplastic adhesive for use in flooring laminates and to seal fabric edges.

EY Technologies’ yarns are proven to outperform inferior products like plastic convoluted tubing as its specialty harnessing products last over fifteen years in the harshest of conditions. Weave tension combined with monofilament or multifilament base yarns or metal fiber coated in specialty plastics create high-performance solutions for unique applications.

Another of its specialty fibers has stood the test of time after almost twenty years in the field. Originally developed for the United States government to lend blast resistance to concrete, the engineered fiber offers top-performance concrete reinforcement while significantly displacing and reducing the need for steel rebar. This has proven most useful in marine construction and sea walls where corrosive saltwater coupled with the nature of currents and tidal activity perpetually beat on the structural integrity of ordinary concrete.

“In ancient Roman times, they used straw to reinforce concrete. There have been [many such] products on the market but ours is a high-end [maximum reinforcement fiber] that is extremely impact resistant. And it is showing to have a lot of structural properties to it,” Pascale says. Sold as SafeTcrete™ by another Pascale Industries subsidiary, the product is fast becoming a star in precast concrete construction as tests have proven that walls containing the product show no signs of corrosion even after two decades.

SafeTcrete™ comes in two specialty versions. SafeTcrete™ IMPACT offers enormous structural protection of up to three-and-a-half times more impact resistance during earthquakes and other heavy-weight, high-velocity contact by leveraging the flex and resistance profile provided by the unique fiber system. A chemical reaction takes place between a custom fiber mixture and concrete as the surface of the fibers allows each strand to meld into the material matrix during the curing process.

The product claims to be the first of its kind to offer this level of blast protection, making it stand head and shoulders above traditional reinforcement materials such as metal rebar and other types of fiber and concrete.

Pennsylvania State University proved that concrete containing the specialty fiber is also significantly more crack-resistant, reducing the ‘shrapnel’ effect of any high-impact blows from heavy objects or seismic activity. In addition, Special Forces testing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina also proved the material to be of far superior quality than any other available today. Further tests by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency of the company’s improved fiber culminated in very high praise and a continued working relationship between the two entities.

SafeTcrete™ Precast Structural Fibers add strength while removing much of the weight that comes with metal reinforcement. The fibers are unaffected by chemical conditions, do not dissolve in water, and offer easy finishing. Plus, as the product is comparatively lightweight, transportation is more cost-effective.

The company became known as EY Technologies after the original company, Engineered Yarns of America, was acquired by Pascale Industries in 1991. It has always been known for its innovation, manufacturing materials such as fabric-wrapped wire for reinforcing automobile tires and other products. Today, it has many new capabilities, such as filament extrusion whereby polymer pellets are turned into useful plastic fibers for multiple uses.

As the demand for its products continually grows, Pascale notes a marked shift toward improved protection in several high-end markets. This, in turn, drives an ever-growing demand for innovation. “Typical wire harness protection is not suitable for a lot of these vehicles due to either temperature, vibration, or other types of electrical interference,” he says. Another growing market positively influencing its bottom line is that of laminates used in various types of construction. These materials serve as customized wall finishes, while SafeTcrete™ helps speed up construction at a fraction of the price of steel reinforcements.

As the team greets the future of first-class fiber fabrication, EY Technologies is set to continue developing and expanding its product portfolio while honing and building on existing research through its modern development capabilities. Since its yarns are already in subspace satellites, even the sky is not the limit for this industry leader.

The post Much More Than Innovation<p class="company">EY Technologies</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.