However, there’s been one plus—in the long idle hours of isolation, many have been driven to discover their own creativity.

Those with an entrepreneurial spirit and some crafting know-how have made the best of a challenging situation by turning interests, hobbies, and skills into successful home-based businesses. Requiring a relatively low initial capital investment, at-home enterprises can be launched with minimal financial risk while taking a chance on creating something unique.

That’s exactly what Burlington, Ontario resident Emily Errington did when she opened her online and home-based venture, Emily Creatives, a line of hand-embroidered sweaters featuring a “swoosh” flower design, along with a range of hand-crafted rings, necklaces, and bracelets.

“I started the ring business with my best friend a few years ago during the lockdown, and just recently decided to open a separate shop,” says Errington. “I’ve always been very ‘crafty’, and I constantly need new hobbies to keep myself from getting bored. After making a bunch of sweaters and rings for my friends, I decided to sell them. It’s something I really enjoy and can do in my own time, which is perfect.”

Satisfying as they are, home-based businesses have their share of difficulties, too.

“What I sell can be considered more ‘trendy’ items, which brings a whole new set of challenges to the table,” says Errington. “My products are not consistently popular and often go through waves of demand.”

She first started selling rings with crystals which was a “huge trend” back when she launched her first business. This resulted in many orders coming in every day and sometimes it was hard to keep up.

“Once they became less trendy, however, there was a definite decrease in demand and we started seeing fewer orders,” Errington says. “This is very challenging as you can never really be sure how well your products will sell. You have to understand these waves because you don’t want to buy too many supplies and not be able to use them, but you don’t want to run out. It’s important to stay on top of this to keep a steady flow with your business.”

While she purchases sweatshirts for $20 and sells them for $40, each item takes about three hours of designing, stitching, and cleaning before sending them out to customers, so the process is quite labour-intensive, but she “loves it.”

Being your own boss means just that—overseeing every aspect of whatever home-based business you launch, and with today’s technological advancements, the possibilities are virtually endless. These enterprises are growing in popularity both as a trend and as a means for entrepreneurs to launch start-up careers, often in the face of the pandemic’s devastating effect on “traditional” jobs.

With online and e-commerce businesses including candles, photo printing, clothing, and food production, a home-based manufacturing business could be the most sensible and successful business decision, depending on the goods you sell. Maybe you want to tackle 3D printing, a thriving industry encompassing everything from toys to eyeglasses to smartphone cases. While having some experience and ability in the field of 3D printing is advantageous, it’s not required. You just need a 3D printer, design software, raw materials, and some good ideas.

Or maybe you want to stick with traditional photo printing, whether for your own shots for artistic purposes, or printing for customers. From standard prints to postcards to posters, finding your niche is key. If you have experience in graphic design, combining it with printing services can exponentially enhance business opportunities.

On the food spectrum, if friends have been clamouring for your spice or jam recipes for years, the growing market for artisanal condiments might be for you. Specializing is essential, as it is with so many manufacturing business concepts. Finding and perfecting one unique product can make all the difference to prospects of growth and success.

Essentially, tackling manufacturing ventures that demand less production can benefit your new home-based industry. You’re not running a factory—yet!—so keeping it simple is your best bet for maintaining low costs and bringing success.

If you’re still wary of taking the leap, consider these perks: A home-based business offers numerous advantages: being able to concentrate on work instead of your commute; being able to personally choose staff members, if any; and many tax advantages, such as allowing the offset of a portion of home-based business income against expenses like mortgage, property taxes, utilities, and upkeep.

Most importantly, a home enterprise gives you the freedom to set your own schedule and work hours.

And then, like it or not, you’ll wear multiple hats as your own boss, whether in sales, marketing, or business development, sharpening useful skills and traits while gaining knowledge and experience in all facets of business ownership. So you might as well enjoy it, and value the rounding out of your business abilities.

Of course, manufacturing your goods is just one part of the process: advertising and selling are equally vital. Errington currently has an Etsy shop but does most of her posting and advertising on Instagram where potential customers can browse, examine the visuals and pose any questions they might have.

But never undervalue the importance of word-of-mouth advertising, Errington adds. Let people you know and trust in your community help spread the word about what you do. If you’re not comfortable with self-promotion, let your friends and family get the ball rolling via school, work, and extracurricular activities.

Customer referrals are key, so keep your clients happy with rewards or store credits if possible. It’s much simpler, and more profitable, to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one, so providing excellent customer service is essential, including offering gifts and discounts for special occasions.

Email lists to promote handmade goods and crafts are effective, as are holding contests to generate interest and expand your customer base. And don’t forget the power of social media: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are all fantastic and effective ways to gain clientele.

Thinking creatively to generate new ideas for marketing your products might include distributing leaflets in your neighbourhood and city, hosting giveaways, attending local events, and making donations to charities, all proven to help get your name out there.

While Errington is still in school and has a busy life as a semi-pro dancer, she plans to grow her mini-manufacturing business in the coming years.

“My goal is to take my advertising to the next level by doing a few giveaways so there can be more popularity, as well as getting professional photos of the products,” she says. “I’m also creating more designs and patterns for the sweaters that will be released soon.”

Making something with your own two hands is incredibly fulfilling and taking charge of your own business (and life) allows a freedom found nowhere else. After two years of being forced to shop online, many people have by now acquired a new ease and familiarity with purchasing from artisanal small-scale producers as a satisfying way to buy that connects them to both the merchandise and the maker.

So, who’s the boss? You are, or you can be with some ingenuity and persistence. Although it’s daunting at first, Errington encourages those just starting out to keep at it.

“The best advice I can give to young entrepreneurs is to stay patient,” she says. “It can be difficult to start a business. Be prepared for many days of no orders or only a few!”

And when you start, she adds, it’s always a good idea to give your friends products to try out and ask them to advertise your business.

“Lastly, love what you’re making and selling! If you don’t love it, those slow days will be much harder,” she says. “Having your own business is easily one of the most satisfying things you will do, though. You have full control over everything, so enjoy it and be patient!”

The post Who’s the Boss?<p class="company">Making Space for Makers</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

At heart, Performance Plastics is “primarily a custom injection molder,” states Rich Reed, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “The secret to our success is our unique ability to design and offer custom materials and processes. We offer our customers solutions, not products. We work with our customers to solve their largest challenges,” he adds.

The company excels at custom jobs involving thin walls, intricate part geometries, and tight tolerances. Some of its tool design software and processes are proprietary and most services—aside from some secondary finishing operations—are done in-house.

“Our tag line is ‘Problem Solved.’ We challenge ourselves,” says Reed.

To this end, Performance Plastics is “one of only a few companies in the U.S. authorized and equipped to manufacture Torlon®,” he adds. Also called polyamide-imide (PAI), this high-temperature polymer offers excellent tensile strength and requires special certification to use in the United States. Other materials commonly used by the company include fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP), perfluoroalkoxy alkane (PFA), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), and polyetherimide (PEI).

These materials form the basis for the tens of millions of thermoplastic components produced by the company each year. This total is “spread out over our three major market segments: medical, precision industrial, and then aerospace / defense,” Reed notes.

Typical components would include medical work centers, surgical equipment, inhalation systems, and cartridges for medical testing equipment. Performance Plastics’ expertise with chemically inert fluoropolymers such as FEP and PFA, as well as complex geometries, makes the firm a popular choice for customers in the medical device sector.

The company also shines when it comes to components that can handle harsh chemicals and high temperatures, which is why its parts are frequently used in industrial settings such as the energy, electronics, and automotive sectors.

For aerospace and defense, Performance Plastics makes highly-engineered, carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic components that are both strong and lightweight. These resins are practical in applications where weight reduction is a priority.

Vast quantities of polymers and resins are required to produce these components, so the company likes to form close partnerships with its suppliers. “We maintain a small number of preferred vendors but, given the current economic climate, we sometimes must look outside our core base,” explains Reed.

Regardless of the assignment, Performance Plastics aims to involve its clients every step of the way, from concept through to design and the creation of the mold. Reed points to a post on the company blog outlining a ‘Project Development Roadmap’—a collaborative process formulated by the company.

The first step involves working with the client to set guidelines regarding the budget, time commitment, and minimum quantity of components involved in a job. Following that, the Performance Plastics team and the client come to an agreement regarding the function and conceptual design of the mold. In the next stages, the client issues a purchase order, and the company does initial part design-for-manufacturing (DFM) work. Once the client greenlights the initial DFM, Performance Plastics designs the mold, incorporating suggestions from the customer, and a final DFM is submitted. Only after the client approves the final DFM does the team start the actual mold construction process.

With the company passing a corporate milestone this year, Reed reflects on its history. Performance Plastics has grown considerably since it was founded in 1982 but its basic business philosophy remains the same.

“From the beginning, our founder wanted to specialize in services and solutions other companies could not offer. We only want the large volume, difficult jobs,” asserts Reed.

The company was purchased in 1997 by Tom Mendel, who continued the tradition of handling complex, large-volume work. Following the purchase, the company hired more manufacturing and engineering staff. In 2015, Mendel brought MCM Capital—a microcap private-equity business—on board as a partner to spur further growth.

The company currently has seventy-five staff members, plus “approximately twenty-five to thirty temporary, seasonal employees, depending upon demand. We have been running at full capacity on all three shifts since before COVID,” Reed says. “We have six engineers on staff, each specializing in different areas. Many management staff also have engineering training.”

He adds, “Our corporate culture is very unique in the fact that we have many employees that have been with us for over twenty years and helped us develop into who we are today. We are very family oriented and encourage a healthy balance of home / work life.”

Given the nature of the markets it serves, Performance Plastics adheres to comprehensive quality parameters. The firm is ISO 9001:2015 certified and ISO 13485 compliant for medical work. It is registered with International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a requirement for companies doing work for the American defense sector, and it follows the Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) terms which set very high-quality benchmarks.

“We use 3D modeling and CAM / CAD technologies. Additionally, we offer a unique service of industrial [computed tomography] scanning services. This allows us to [work] with existing parts without destroying the original part,” Reed points out.

Performance Plastics carefully selects the appropriate resins for each job and engages in systematic design verification and part validation. It uses Zeiss metrology equipment to analyze dimensional tolerances, part dimensions and other data, robotic placement systems and advanced vision inspection solutions. As noted by Reed, the company employs a CT scanner to examine the interior of components and creates detailed 3D computer models for supplementary inspection.

The company’s concern for flawless design and production is self-evident; when making components for aircraft and medical operations, parts must work all of the time. “We refer to our parts as being ‘mission critical,’” states Reed.

Because of its credentials and ability to mold Torlon®, PPL developed a line of high-quality, exclusive products, called EnduroSharp® Torlon® aircraft maintenance tools.

The EnduroSharp® line consists of “a series of specialized tools developed for the F-35 and F-22 Lockheed Martin fighter jet fighter program,” says Reed of the massive, multi-national, multi-billion dollar aerospace initiative.

These proprietary non-metallic Torlon®-based scraper tools were created “to remove adhesives, sealants, and coatings from composite structures without damaging the substrate, in very critical programs such as the F-35 fighter jet,” he continues.

The firm will soon be launching another new product, a Torlon® Sealant remover (TSR). It is also intended for use in aerospace maintenance and will enter production within a few months.

The COVID pandemic did not have a huge impact, although the company still followed health and safety protocols to protect workers. “We were one of the lucky companies that actually did well through COVID. We are considered an essential manufacturer because we supply into the aerospace / defense market. We had policies implemented which included social distancing, masking, and sterilizing equipment between shifts. We also had limitations on the number of individuals that could occupy spaces (lunch rooms, tooling rooms, maintenance rooms) at times. We still maintain our sanitizing procedures between shifts to maintain a healthy work environment,” Reed states.

When it comes to promotion, the company favors online platforms and in-person events. “We focus mostly on digital advertising, social media, and trade shows. We produce weekly blogs, several of which have been picked up by print publications such as Plastics Today and Plastics Manufacturing Magazine,” he shares.

In addition to making excellent thermoplastic components, Performance Plastics is heavily involved in charitable and community initiatives. Through a partnership with Goodwill Industries of Southern Ohio, for example, it employs several people with disabilities. The company does food drives at Thanksgiving, and a toy drive during the Christmas season for the local community.

Moving forward, the company is eager to hire more staff. “We are always looking for fresh talent and ideas at Performance Plastics. We offer a full comprehensive benefits package as well as reimbursement for education and training,” states Reed.

The problem is that Performance Plastics faces a labor shortage. It has been well-documented that not enough young people are entering skilled trades and manufacturing to replace workers approaching retirement. Low unemployment rates in the post-COVID economy have exacerbated the problem by shrinking the talent pool.

The largest non-COVID-related “challenge we have by far is labor,” says Reed. “I know we’re not alone. A lot of other manufacturers across the country have the same issue… It’s really pushed us to become better in many ways to attract and retain labor.”

Despite the labor crunch, he remains highly optimistic and offers an upbeat forecast. “We are continually taking on new projects and are looking to expand the EnduroSharp® line in the future,” says Reed. “Our objective in five years is to double sales. [We will do this] through our focus on our existing customers, new customers, and our EnduroSharp product line.”

The post Celebrating a Milestone with New Products and Big Goals<p class="company">Performance Plastics Ltd.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

A few years before the merger, Clifford Pierce took over business operations, a position he held until 1976. Clifford is credited as the innovator who grew the company significantly, leading to it winning many long-term clients and including some with which Pierce-Roberts does business to this day. During this time, the company expanded into molding, providing rubber components and parts for companies like IBM, Black & Decker, and many more.

Ownership of the business passed to Arnold Pierce after Clifford’s time ended, and was then handed to David Pierce. In 2004, David Pierce sold the business to current President and CEO Chris Weber and his business partner Denise Hoffman. Weber is now the sole owner after Hoffman passed away in 2017.

Over the years, Pierce-Roberts has progressed by providing custom solutions for various applications, and has developed hundreds of material formulations in the rubber industry. “Name an application or environment and we’ve made components for it,” Weber says.

The business has long counted itself as unique in the rubber industry thanks to a proven history of manufacturing molded components with complex geometries and demanding performance applications. Whether compression, transfer, or rubber injection molding, raw material formation and compounding, rubber-to-metal bonding, or turnkey solutions for subcomponents, Pierce-Roberts offers a multitude of solutions with its broad range of capabilities and services, and over a century of experience.

Pierce-Roberts has been ISO 9001 registered since 2001. It has traceability from the first to the last step, with many levels of inspection, measurement, and redundancies. Pierce-Roberts takes what it does very seriously and strives to be the best custom rubber products manufacturer.

Weber describes the polymers they work with, such as Buna, Butyl, EPDM, Fluoroelastomer (Viton) Neoprene, Polyurethane, and Silicone as living, moving things that one must learn through continued effort. “Rubber is a learned and developed skill that we cultivate with the people that are [here],” he says. Employees are cross-trained in different departments regularly to be able to help overcome any potential bottlenecks across the processes and in its many production lines.

Weber explains that the company subscribes to the synchronous flow management theory (also known as the theory of constraints), which means that work is organized around these bottlenecks within the chain of production so that these situations can be anticipated and self-managed. When employees know how to do one another’s jobs effectively, then it is easier for them to earn more and for the business to gain new apprentices.

This approach has led to virtually no employee turnover, save for retirement. Both Weber and Vice President Charles Foley express how exciting it is to come to work and learn new things daily, making this an atmosphere that is sought after by customers and employees alike.

At all times, Pierce-Roberts looks to foster a relationship with its clients that is as positive and enduring as the one it shares with its staff. The secret to the longevity seen among the company’s most lasting relationships is transparency, honesty, and understanding each client’s needs and working with them to meet those needs. Foley describes Pierce-Roberts Rubber as the company that says “yes” when other manufacturers say “no”.

The company services industries and business segments such as Military, Material Handling, Marine, Medical, OEM Industries, and Aerospace. Military components manufactured are used in various applications including submarine, aircraft, and ground troop product requirements.

The business is also always open to being a part of new or uncharted areas. When it comes to welcoming new customers into the fold, Weber and company are quick to do so with open arms. “Welcome, thank you for finding us!” is how Weber describes the way it warmly greets new business.

Within the past couple of years, Foley admits that COVID-19 has placed challenges on the rubber industry that are still felt today, such as the difficulty in obtaining raw materials. However, COVID has also been a challenge that Pierce-Roberts has been able to overcome by committing to innovation and material formulating capabilities.

Rubber manufacturing is considered old technology, but one that has also evolved a great deal across more than a century and promises to continue doing so. Foley stresses that the key to maintaining and growing within the industry is to continue to innovate and “step outside the box” at every opportunity.

The demand for rubber components is affected by the circumstances of the industries that rely on these parts, so there is a constant ebb and flow. However, as Weber affirms, the industries Pierce-Roberts serves are diverse enough to level out the fluctuations seen in various business segments. Custom manufacturers are in a good spot currently, and especially with Pierce-Roberts, there is hardly an application for which it has not made a component.

Pierce-Roberts will look to continue increasing its employees’ knowledge and educating them as much as possible on the intricate role that rubber plays in so many different fields. “Industries and applications will change every day,” Weber muses, “but the people and growth of knowledge are the most important parts of the future.”

It is important to senior management that Pierce-Roberts will be here for the next 100 years and beyond, a responsibility the company feels to its future as a business and to its employees. Weber admits that the company’s growth, particularly over the last twenty years, does not generally happen with companies of its size. It is the hard work of all involved and the importance of what Pierce-Roberts manufactures every day that continue to separate the business from other manufacturers.

Senior management embraces the efforts of its employees, and customers feel that the company is with them on every project. Weber happily proclaims that it feels amazing to have gotten so far and that plans are in place beyond his leadership that will ensure Pierce-Roberts continues for years to come. The business lives by a creed that Clifford Pierce himself coined in 1939 and has served it well to this day: “Just do the right thing for customers, employees, and yourself.”

The post A Century & Counting<p class="company">Pierce-Roberts Rubber Co.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

This commitment to safety and performance is backed by a reputation that spans 114 years. Throughout this time RegO Products has consistently invested in its capacity to innovate to address the needs of its customers and their industries. The result is a catalog of over 5,000 active SKUs, many of which were first to market.

Despite a storied history and a robust product portfolio, the future has only just begun for RegO Products as it embarks on a new chapter under new ownership. Recently, Dover acquired both RegO Products and its peer in the market, ACME Cryogenics, Inc., to better meet market needs.

The two entities are in the process of synergizing operations into a single platform as part of the OPW Global operating unit, within Dover’s Fueling Solutions business segment, which will draw on the particular strengths of each: RegO Products’ reputation as a clean energy solutions provider and ACME’s strength in the cryogenic liquid and gas markets.

A path to new energy solutions

As President and CEO Mike Lucas says, “The hydrogen economy is a significant focus for us, as it was before the acquisition. ACME has a strong position with hydrogen in the current industry, so bringing us together has helped accelerate what we can provide to the hydrogen industry as it builds out and develops new industry applications,” and, he adds, ultimately a pathway to net zero emissions.

One clear opportunity is the LNG (liquefied natural gas) market, particularly in end uses like heavy-duty trucking where there are challenges when refueling vehicles that are transporting cryogenic liquids. Since gas in liquid form needs cold and pressurized conditions to maintain that form, it becomes more dangerous and challenging than the diesel alternative.

“With the current technology, because it’s cryogenic, the nozzles want to freeze to the truck. The drivers were having a difficult time operating them because they were experiencing leaks and maintaining this equipment would create downtime at the station,” explains Senior Vice President Product Portfolio Chad Thomas.

To address this challenge and improve the process for both the driver and the station operator, RegO Products went out into the industry for driver feedback to help develop a solution. The result was a product that keeps the equipment clean and dry, simplifying refueling, and putting an end to human error by automating much of the process.

“The driver only has to hang the nozzle on the truck and press a button, so all the other critical factors are automated, taking driver influence out of there,” says Thomas of this advance that has transformed the process, and which will encourage greater adoption of LNG heavy-duty trucks.

With the industry in mind

As the focus at RegO is on both the end user and the industry infrastructure, the company is deeply involved in the development of new industry standards and regulations to ensure safe adoption of these advances in procedure and technology.

Lucas aptly notes, “For the hydrogen economy to take place, you have to be able to produce it. We provide many products and solutions on the infrastructure side, supporting all those products that are needed to expand production capacity globally.”

The innovation doesn’t stop there. RegO Products introduced a custom-developed app that connects end users with digitized resources like the invaluable Serviceman’s Handbook, which is imperative for the installation and servicing of propane equipment.

RegO Products recently took everything a step further by including reference information, product availability, and essentially, “all the tools they need to do their day job,” in the app, says Thomas. Every possible issue has been considered to optimize its complete suite of offerings. This full-service approach has been key to the company’s longevity and success.

To be in business for over 100 years is a testament to RegO Products’ ability to remain relevant as a solutions provider. Time and again it demonstrates that it can evolve with the industry, and even lead. Especially now as the economy moves to alternatives like LNG and LP, cleaner fossil fuels that are often overlooked.

From Lucas’ perspective, “As people move away from sources of power like gasoline and diesel fuels and coal, LNG and LP will have a role as clean fuel. There are also newer technologies where you can make propane from renewable resources, or you can put additives into propane that reduces the carbon emissions.”

The ultimate clean source

While hydrogen is the ultimate clean source of power, it will take time for it to grow into its full promise, and in the meantime, LNG and LP will support countries around the world as they strive to meet ambitious emission reduction requirements.

“When you think of the alternative energy and the CO₂ emission reduction targets, LNG is a critical player, especially in Europe when it comes to meeting some of those targets adopted by the Paris Accord and EU regulations,” says Thomas.

While the economy continues its green evolution, the goal at RegO Products will be to integrate with ACME under Dover to increase their collective impact on the industry.

As always, RegO Products will emphasize innovation and operational capacity to maximize productivity and nurture its culture of success to ensure that its legacy stays in great shape for the next 100 years.

Speaking of a timeline of 100 years, how confident Is RegO Products, really, about the company, its market, and its future? Well, it recently wrapped up $7 million in capital investments and announced plans to invest $6 million more over the next few months. There’s a signal.

The post Cleaning up Clean Energy Solutions<p class="company">RegO Products</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Based in the Concord area of Ontario, Pack-Smart has performed more than 1,500 installations in 25 different nations over the past 20 years, differentiating itself from traditional packaging solutions through innovation and the application of cutting-edge technology.

With a personal background in print and print finishing as well as packaging, CEO Derek Dlugosh-Ostap has been involved in numerous interesting projects over the years, primarily with automation.

“At Cadbury we implemented chocolate wrappers that would run at speeds of over 1,000 chocolates per minute,” he says. “The industry standard at that time was about 150 chocolates per minute. I was right out of school and thrown at this project with electronic motion control technology, and not a lot of senior people were very interested in venturing into uncharted territory.”

Being young and fresh out of school, Dlugosh-Ostap was put on the project, igniting his excitement about motion control servo motors.

“I felt that would be the next generation of technologies used in automation, specifically print and packaging.”

After working for both Cadbury and GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline) leveraging motion control, he decided to start Pack-Smart.

Recognizing the gap between print and packaging, Dlugosh-Ostap created the company with the goal of bridging that gap. His first project centred around AOL during a time when direct mail was popular and AOL was mailing out millions of discs for people to connect on the internet. “In the early ‘90s, the only way to access internet was by putting a CD into your CD-ROM, installing AOL software on your computer and using a modem to dial.”

Pack-Smart’s first account was with a company that was awarded a contract for mailing those AOL CDs, requiring some unique capabilities that included associating a CD with a special PIN code, assembling a package, and mailing it directly to a customer in volumes—in some cases up to 60 million a month.

“That was the first technology we developed at Pack-Smart,” says Dlugosh-Ostap. “A Pick & Place technology and self-mailer production system that allows for some complex material handling as well as managing data and associating that data with a product that was being mailed.”

That was the beginning of Pack-Smart, he says. “That’s our core business: complex material handling capabilities as well as data tracking. And that’s been part of our DNA from the early beginnings and it is now.”

Pack-Smart built in various areas, including pharmaceutical, developing technologies for graphical testing and bringing together multiple components into a single product to associate a certain serial number and data with that product. For transaction products, Pack-Smart has developed technologies used for credit cards, banking cards, governments IDs, any type of serialized document, and payment methods, to name a few.

Pack-Smart started developing Pick & Place Systems and vacuum transports, recognizing and appreciating the advantage of using what’s called electronic gearing technologies as opposed to mechanical linkages. From the very early days, the company utilized servo motors, motion controllers and multi-access servo systems to create large, integrated systems that give customers more control, flexibility and adaptability for their ever-changing business needs.

“As a company we’re always trying to find projects that are unique, and that’s been part of our DNA,” says Dlugosh-Ostap. “Most of our customers are companies that come to us because there’s no technology in the marketplace that exists that can solve their technological problems, material problems or data problems.”

Consider Pastures is one such company facing the challenge of innovating egg packaging. Pack-Smart has been proudly involved in many egg packaging projects, specifically for premium Omega-3 eggs where brand owners are looking to either make the packaging more interesting or more appealing.

“Over the years we’ve been able to add food colour labels and integrate them with a molded fibre type of packaging, replacing what is traditionally known as dry offset or Styrofoam trays,” says Dlugosh-Ostap. Consider Pastures’ project involved a “completely different” and unique carton with no adhesives and environmentally friendly paperboard.

“It has had tremendous shelf presence,” he says. “Doing something different with eggs isn’t an easy task; this project required some really intense collaboration between our company and a couple other automation companies. At the end of the day we’re dealing with a commodity product. The assembly process had to be efficient; it had to be fully autonomous with no manual intervention allowed in order to reduce costs.”

For the award-winning “origami-style package,” Pack-Smart had to deal with thirteen unique dividers at a speed of 600 units per minute within a precision of half a millimetre.

“The challenges in that particular project were really more material-related, because we’re dealing with paperboard which in reality is not flat,” says Dlugosh-Ostap. “It has a tendency to warp. The collaboration between the companies really required coming up with the right recipe that would create this package that was quite unique. It created a lot of buzz in the industry and it helped us create a strong partnership with the customer.”

When it comes to future plans for growth and improvement of the automation process, Pack-Smart has some definite goals.

“Advancements are always really important for our customers and for our companies because we’re often involved in projects with our customers where we work on technologies that don’t [yet] exist,” says Dlugosh-Ostap.

When company leaders in the industry come up with a new concept that calls for Pack-Smart to “break some rules” and develop different ways of reaching the solution, Pack-Smart’s motion control and multi-axis service systems and coordinated motion controllers are very important tools for their technologies, along with additive manufacturing either in prototyping or even the final form of products.

“These are some of the next generation parts of our products,” Dlugosh-Ostap says. “The most important part of our future business is RFID and NFC technology. As a company we have our own platform called Delta X which tracks all the data and allows for encoding chips, reading data reporting, and so on. This is what’s really next for our company: integrating NFC and RFID technologies within our systems.”

That leads to integrating the production floor with MES or ERP systems where they either draw data from systems like SAP or Oracle, or business solutions where they feed that information through the production floor, but whatever Pack-Smart embraces, supporting its customers is both a priority and a point of pride.

“What COVID has done to us, with limited travels and with the demand and complexity of our projects continuing to increase, we have to be able to support our customers globally without being there for them physically,” says Dlugosh-Ostap. “Whether that’s adding additional functionalities within our systems that allow us to troubleshoot remotely, or updating our equipment without actually being physically on site.”

These impressive accomplishments have resulted in the company having close to 2,000 solutions in 26 countries. “Most of our customers run in a 24/7 or 24/6 environment, so we have to be able to support them and in order to meet their production demands.”

Adding layers of remote diagnostics and using augmented reality tools are other challenges Pack-Smart has had to overcome. “We’re living in a world that’s changing rapidly,” Dlugosh-Ostap says. “Our customers are having challenges globally maintaining the workforce. There’s not much certainty anymore when it comes to workforce. We have to train more rapidly because our customers are expecting results quicker and we’re adding layers of technology within the Delta X suite of applications that allow us to train our customers and become productive while using some new technologies.”

Using mixed reality technologies within the Pack-Smart systems has also helped customers to communicate better along with additive manufacturing capabilities that allow customers to actually print replacement parts locally.

Ultimately, “We’re a company that’s always eager to enter uncharted territories, and we’re always eager to raise the bar when it comes to automation,” says Dlugosh-Ostap. “We’ve been around for almost a quarter of a century and we’ve been fortunate right from the beginning, working with challenger brands that were extremely ambitious. Throughout those years we’ve always had those exciting projects.”

Whether it’s AOL CDs or advanced SIM card production for Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecommunications company, Pack-Smart has the skills, experience and ingenuity to solve the challenge.

“Working with those companies makes you better every time you complete a project, so that’s really what we do,” says Dlugosh-Ostap. “We enjoy working on those projects with motivated, driven people who aren’t afraid to solve complex problems.”

Pack-Smart has always been part of those exciting projects, he adds, and because those brands are demanding, the work obviously comes with a lot of responsibility. They’re not leaders without a good reason: They push hard, which in turn, makes Pack-Smart employees support one another.

“We don’t have all the answers, but we work hard to get those answers,” says Dlugosh-Ostap. “We want to make sure everyone on the team has the support they need to achieve the results that are needed.”

The post Solving Complex Problems With Smart Solutions<p class="company">Pack-Smart Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Much has changed in the manufacturing sphere since 1922 when Redline Plastics began life as Dow Canvas. Designing and manufacturing tent and awning industry products, Dow Canvas was purchased by the Webster family in the mid-70s.

Under new ownership, the business became a leader in manufacturing covers for the marine and powersports sectors. Renamed Dowco in 1996, the business expanded 20 years later into plastics fabrication when it gained Premier Plastics.

Rebirth of a business

Selling the Dowco Marine division in 2018, the family kept the plastics and powersports businesses, under the name of Redline Plastics.

“We acquired the plastics business because the marine segment of our [Cut & Sew] business was growing, and it owned the market in boat covers and Bimini tops, which were supplied to all major aluminum fishing boat and pontoon manufacturers,” says Chuck Webster, President and CEO.

The purchase of Premier Plastics made a natural fit since the company manufactured rotationally-molded pontoon furniture which they sent to a sister company to foam and upholster.

“We figured we’d be more important to our customers if we were shipping not only canvas products but also their pontoon furniture to them. So it was more of a means of segmentation into an adjacent market so we could vertically integrate.”

A worldwide leader, Redline also services other industries with cut-and-sew and plastic products, including plastic rotational molding, vacuum forming, and fiberglassed reinforced plastics.

Its aftermarket powersports products include Dowco®, Willie & Max® leather and vinyl saddlebags and luggage, and covers for motorcycles, and ATVs and UTVs. Additionally, Dowco supplies many of the large motorcycle OEMs with cover and luggage products as well.

Products include synthetic saddlebags and swing arm bags. Under its powersports division, the company sells about 100,000 motorcycle covers a year, as well as luggage.

A living culture

Designing its new state-of-the-art 222,632 square foot manufacturing facility, Redline Plastics focused on the well-being of its staff and operations.

Now settled in purpose-designed modern, clean, well-lit, and properly ventilated premises, the company aims to make Redline more than a job, but a great place to work.

“Rather than traditional corporate values… we developed cultural behaviors, actionable things that we all strive to do to build a place that we want to work at,” management says on the company website. “When we researched cultural behaviors, they were quite boring and did not resonate with us. So we made our own!”

And make their own they did. Just a few of the phrases include “Get Amped,” “Engage in Radical Candor,” “Don’t Be a Jackass,” and “Recognize Awesome.” Once the company divested the marine division, moved into the building, and expanded, the team examined what they wanted their identity to be and what values they wanted to instill in their team members.

“Everybody knows you want to deliver quality products on time and at the lowest cost possible. That’s how you do business nowadays,” says Nick Murray, Vice President of Operations. “We figured if we could make catchy sayings that reflect the way we want our employees to act and conduct business, we could speak to all levels within our organization, and make it fun. So we came up with the initial concepts, and then we added catchy pictograms and phrasing around the behavior to get the message across, while having fun.”

Best Place to Work ’21 ’22

In 2021 and again in 2022, Redline was named by Plastics News as one of their ‘Best Places to Work.’

One of the main reasons, says Murray, is that staff love the people they work with. “It’s not the pay, it’s not the benefits—although we strive to be competitive in all areas including our profit sharing programs, how we celebrate success, and how we reward all employees—it’s the people they work with day in and day out.”

With a total staff of about 180—there was an increase in staff of about 100 in the past year—Redline’s capabilities are unique in the industry simply because of its employees and what they bring. The company has industry-leading levels of skill on hand in rotational molding, vacuum forming, fiberglass-reinforced plastics, line bending, and cut-and-sew, all under one roof.

And with its engineering talent, the company helps customers transform ideas that may be sketched on a napkin all the way through manufacturing to fulfillment in all capabilities.

Rotational molding and more

Known for its rotational molding, vacuum forming, and industrial contract sewing, Redline Plastics is active in construction equipment, playground products, floor cleaners, and many other areas.

Among its smaller-scale products, the company makes panel dash inserts for the marine industry that measure several inches, while larger items include kayaks and 500-gallon tanks. At Redline, machines can handle parts from just inches in diameter to about 16 feet.

As the impact of COVID-19 on the economy lessens, Redline Plastics is seeing an increase in all sectors because of pent-up demand that has not been able to be filled in more complicated products. “We have done a nice job meeting demand and suspect that due to supply chain constraints, many customers have bulked up their inventory,” says Murray.

“If they’re unable to sell their inventory, this will lead to an eventual slowdown and then a return to the norm. To combat this looming event, we have added many new products and customers during COVID. Due to the investment in our people and our expanded capacity, in a time when there were constraints at many of our other competitors, we have been able to successfully continue our steep growth trajectory.”

Early in the pandemic, the company shifted operations to cutting disposable isolation gowns to the tune of about 20,000 units and partnered with customers to bring new lines of disinfectant sprayers to the market.

Lightweight vs. heavyweight

Some companies have transitioned their products from metals to plastics for several reasons. Finding and keeping high-quality welders is a challenge. And with rising fuel costs, making machines from plastic—which weighs much less than metal—requires less fuel, and is more efficient.

“We’ve had a number of situations where that’s happened. And with certain products like floor cleaning equipment, rotational molding is ideal for the body and the tanks and everything because it’s pretty indestructible,” says Webster.

Redline Plastics will continue to focus on supporting its domestic and international customers, whose loyalty was responsible for so much of the company’s steep growth trajectory and overall success.

Says Murray, “Our people, commitment, quality, and reputation for being able to tackle difficult products make us an exceptional partner for businesses needing components, or that want us to seamlessly make their finished product and deliver it to their consumers’ doorsteps.”

The post Legacy Manufacturing With a Modern Twist<p class="company">Redline Plastics</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

With expertise in material handling and lifecycle services, combined with industrial, warehousing, and packaging automation, Adaptec provides exceptional support for automation, robotic, and material handling equipment. This is largely due to the company’s full-service integration capabilities to handle concept design all the way through engineering, assembly, testing, installation, start up, and aftermarket support.

Adaptec recently celebrated its 45-year anniversary—a gratifying milestone for a company built on putting its customers’ needs first.

“Over the years,” says partner and Executive of Lifecycle Services, Bob Manion, “we’ve gone from expanding our company and portfolio into the automation side of the business. And then, over the last five to six years, we’ve gone through tremendous organic growth as well as the acquisition of three companies. We started as Aloi Materials Handling, acquired three companies, and quickly realized we needed to consolidate our company and create a single culture—‘One Adaptec.’”

One of the focus points ingrained into the Adaptec culture is the “white glove treatment,” listening to each customer’s initiatives and homing in on the right situation.

“It’s about being an integrator, picking and using party vendor relationships, and having direct access to partners in the business as well as leadership,” says James Van Thof, Vice President of Sales. “It’s really making sure the customer knows we’re putting them and their solution first, whether it’s a $2000 service project or a $10 million large-scale integration project. Putting them in the forefront is paramount to our success.”

The company’s longevity is impressive, especially given the challenges of COVID and the acquisitions freeze, he adds.

“It also shows our commitment to our customer, being a trusted partner and having customer retention,” says Manion. “That’s 45 years of growth, which is even more impressive than just 45 years in the business. It’s 45 years of continued growth and success, partnering with our customers.”

As with other industries, the pandemic recalibrated Adaptec’s ability to work remotely, especially in an industry that requires hands-on attention. This inspired engineers to become more effective and efficient while working with teams in a remote partnership. They had to be more diligent in designs and articulating in much more detail than before.

“We had a lot of our frontline workers and shop technicians out in the field keeping our customers running to continue moving the supply chain for essentials such as food and medical equipment,” says Van Thof. “We had a mix of office staff working remote and a mix of frontline workers that really were the heartbeat of our success in servicing customers during COVID. It enabled our customers to service their customers and get product out the door. It’s a testament to our people.”

Adaptec is known for its integration capabilities in automation, material handling, and warehousing / distribution solutions, but at the end of the day, it’s the “great people” that separate the company from others. Those that banded together through an unprecedented time to continue to operate the business and serve customers are a true exemplification of Adaptec.

The company’s core services are integrating end-to-end solutions from manufacturing to warehouse automation and material handling. The team has substantial experience in robotics, and with more than 1,000 robotic cells already installed across the United States, Adaptec integrates between 100 and 150 cells year over year.

Whether the industry or application is automotive, manufacturing, machine tending, forging, end-of-line palletizing, or packaging, Adaptec has a vast array of capabilities that sets it apart.

“Within the industry, we’re a unique company in size and scale,” says Van Thof. “We have the abilities and capabilities of the billion-dollar companies due to our service team of 150 technicians spread across the United States. We have service trucks able to answer calls within 15 to 20 minutes, but we also have that white glove touch on every project that is essential to our culture and DNA. This also allows us to maintain our excellence in robotics.”

Manion also adds that the true differentiators of Adaptec are its integration capabilities that can serve customers from concept design through installation, start up, and aftermarket services.

“It’s what we call lifecycle services and that’s truly unique. I think in the marketplace it doesn’t matter whether you’re a small or large multinational integrator, very few companies have all those capabilities in-house. We have the ability to service our customers 100 percent with our own capabilities, resources, and skill sets,” says Manion.

This dedication exemplifies Adaptec’s core mission and vision statement of “operational perfection.”

“Our customers come to us to help design, integrate, and service solutions that improve their efficiency in whatever environment they’re working in. They also come to us because they want to know how to operate the cells. We have the knowledge and capability to simplify that,” says Van Thof. “When we look at our mission, it’s operational perfection because that rings true for our customers. We’re taking the complex, simplifying it, and bringing it into reality for them.”

Adaptec’s products and innovations continue to evolve in the warehousing industry as the company continues to expand in its efforts to help customers be competitive, while getting the most efficiency and effectiveness in their automation. Adaptec’s software capabilities show the team is versed in manufacturing execution systems, tracking, and traceability.

“The warehouse control software is really critical because it becomes the nucleus of driving decisions from an automation standpoint,” says Van Thof. “That’s important for our continued success in robotic cells and conveyor systems, automated storage and retrieval systems, and palletizing and de-palletizing cells.”

Taking projects from raw material arriving on the production lines to products heading out the door to customers is made possible by Adaptec’s warehouse control software as well as its vast partnerships with multiple vendors in conveyance and in robotic cells.

Van Thof will give a presentation in November on what COVID has done to spike the interest in “robots as a service.”

As companies continue to onshore, and labor challenges become more difficult for customers to manage, Adaptec is using robots as a service to bridge the gap and give smaller customers the opportunity to have the advantages and the benefits of robotic cells.

“Essentially, you’re paying a robot like you pay an employee. You automate those tasks you can’t find labor for and repurpose the labor that you have to do the tasks that are most important to the organization,” says Van Thof.

This gives customers the flexibility to look at how they’re spending money, operationalize that spend versus a CapEx spend, and get the benefits of a robotic cell without necessarily adding headcount.

“Labor is a big challenge across our industry and our customer base—whether it’s food, manufacturing, automotive—you name it,” says Van Thof. “We’re trying to accommodate bringing robots to the masses so we can help solve customer challenges caused by labor shortage; not necessarily eliminating jobs but augmenting them and repurposing.”

When it comes to the belief that robots are replacing jobs in the industry, he considers the belief misguided.

“When you look at the data on robots, they’re not,” he says. “They’re actually providing additional high-paying jobs, servicing and maintaining those jobs, and training. It’s allowing our customers to be more competitive and nimbler, and to serve their customers by getting robots to do the trivial tasks that are hard to find labor for.”

Manion adds that Adaptec’s focus is also on its people. The company believes if it takes care of its people, the people will take care of its customers.

“It’s all about our employees and our customers,” he says. “Aside from labor shortages, COVID, and coming out of COVID, we also merged four companies together right through the middle of the pandemic and everybody had to figure out how to get to work and become an effective contributor primarily as a remote employee.”

Those are some big challenges, but the company thrived.

“That all comes down to the people,” says Manion. “We have a saying here that we are ‘One Adaptec,’ and if it wasn’t for our people—and quite frankly the leaders of our company that pull all our people together—we wouldn’t be One Adaptec. The foundational building blocks of our company have always been to take care of our employees and they’ll take care of our customers.”

Adaptec has certainly succeeded, navigating a series of upheavals and emerging victorious.

While the company isn’t immune to the supply chain challenges everyone is facing, a testament to its people is the creative workaround they’ve found, especially their ingenuity in creating solutions when some components aren’t available.

“Switching the design or process of how we’re going to meet the needs and timelines of our customers has been a real demonstration of the engineering capability and supply-chain management capability of our people. That’s what enabled us to hit projects on time and get them installed and implemented for our customers,” says Van Thof.

“None of that happens without our people who are putting in long hours,” adds Manion. “They’re creating solutions outside the box to dissolve challenges to really bring us to the next level.”

The next level also includes controlled growth, a milestone Adaptec is working toward as an organization. Growth is essential, but controlled growth allows the company to keep its people at the forefront so they’re not leaving customers behind or ignoring processes that need to be updated as they continue to upscale in size.

“We’ve added 70 people since the beginning of the year,” says Van Thof. “This has allowed us to mature the process and keep up with innovations in the marketplace, keep up with engineering practices, and make sure our projects are successful and delivered on time.” It’s a critical milestone, and, in fact, one of the top three objectives for the organization.

“I think we’re in a really good spot as an organization,” adds Van Thof. “We’re attracting extremely high-level talent. I would argue our company is in unprecedented territory in terms of the resumes and the people we’re seeing and hiring. The atmosphere and the culture are upbeat. We have people putting in long hours—and it’s their sense of urgency to service the customers—again it comes back to our people.”

Finding the right cultural fit and talent set is a challenge in itself, but the momentum Adaptec has in the marketplace and industry has made it easier to achieve.

“A lot of people are getting excited to talk to Adaptec, to come interview here, to do business here,” says Manion. “As an executive, it’s one of those things that is hard to measure, but when it happens it’s just a really cool experience to see things firing on all cylinders and having excitement around the organization, both internally and externally. It creates a fun environment and it’s exciting to come to work every day and put your best foot forward.”

Along with the company’s ability to consult with customers up-front on design, lean on its vast vendor relationships, and create the ultimate solution for the customer, Adaptec prides itself on its ability to home in on the right technology to ensure that it’s focused on the initiative for the customer.

Having the ability to service that technology after the fact is extremely important as well.

“When you look at our customer base, a lot of them have multiple facilities across the U.S. operating twenty-four-seven, and to have our service techs on-site to help troubleshoot and keep other systems running with an average return time of 15 minutes, is really that ‘white glove’ treatment we’re talking about,” says Van Thof. “It’s extremely important to who we are. It’s our business model constructs that really set us apart.”

The post To Grow a Company, Start by Growing Your Customers<p class="company">Adaptec Solutions</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Specializing in sheet metal handling, metal forming, and fabrication processes, this rapidly-growing firm combines the knowledge of experience with the contagious energy of a modern innovator. From its base at 14165 Fenton Road, Fenton, Michigan, the company offers professionalism, technical competence and acute attention to detail to achieve quality and consistent results for its clients in the defense, aerospace, logistics, and other markets.

While its current clients are firmly rooted in North America and Argentina, the company’s tremendous global reach does its name justice with customers as far as the United Kingdom, China, Thailand, Europe, and farther afield. “Atlas is not resting. We continue to grow, innovate and improve. Atlas is here to stay!” President David K. Hense, P.E., says of this exciting new phase in the company’s history.

A division of Stonebridge Technical Enterprises, Ltd. since June 2020, Atlas technologies offers standard and custom design and fabrication of frontline material handling equipment to process materials like metal coils and sheets as well as to wash and lubricate such components. Other equipment also does press feeding, in-press processes, end-of-line packaging, and sophisticated quick die-changes complete with inductive power systems that make cables obsolete. Its trackless transport carts to haul dies weighing forty tons and over also feature state-of-the-art battery technology that revolutionizes ease of movement.

“Atlas is arguably the world leader in quick die-change technology [with] hundreds and hundreds of installations worldwide. Our heavy-duty equipment is built to last millions of cycles,” says Hense.

Customers benefit from its commitment to keep their facilities running optimally and much more. When prospective clients approach the team for equipment or service, three points of contact in the sales, parts, and service departments, an informative website, and an in-house technical team all come together to give them everything they need quickly and easily.

The company’s product portfolio also includes robotics, metal sheet stacking systems, and automated storage and retrieval of sheets, coils, and dies. It also offers a full tooling service as well as spare parts and international maintenance and field services. Its headquarters in Fenton also houses its engineering department, and it has a 30,000-square-foot plant on 1,100 Copper Avenue in the same town for fabrication, assembly, piping, wiring, tryout, testing and spare parts.

Its location is perfect for taking advantage of all the heavy-fabrication trades surrounding it in the Detroit area, so outsourcing services like machining and metal bending is simple.

Since its acquisition two years ago, Atlas Technologies has gone from a vertically integrated organization to being horizontally integrated. Following the changes, it enjoyed vigorous growth in revenue of 36 percent in the first year and another 19 percent in the second. Significant reinvestment across the company has permitted it to employ more people, increasing its capabilities and overall offering. The reinvestment includes new engineering software and enterprise resource planning software to allow for even better efficiency.

The mother company is known for being strategic in business, and while its projections reflect double-digit expansion percentages, it is rationally preparing for around 3 percent per annum while post-COVID markets recover. Stable financial backing and expandable credit add stability and longevity.

Further expanding its capacity for excellence also meant revisiting and revamping its roster of technical staff. As Stonebridge’s Technical Services division specializes in next-generation powertrain automation, Atlas now has a vast new resource from which to glean even more advanced engineering and skilled trades.

“Atlas hires the best and brightest engineers, technicians, and skilled trades. Getting better means that you become more efficient. You define the processes your company needs to bring innovative and durable products to market. Fiscal responsibility is the key to maintaining healthy supplier and business support channels,” Hense points out.

The company’s commitment to quality has stood the test of time, as a call from a client who bought equipment here thirty years ago recently confirmed. When asked whether the old equipment needed replacing, the client just laughed. Instead of replacing the old machines, they wanted to double their capacity by ordering another shipment of the same equipment as the old equipment was still shipshape.

This proves that built-in obsolescence is not an option in pressroom equipment. Smart fabricators demand the longest equipment lifespan possible, and they are prepared to pay for that.

David Hense has spent his life around metal, growing up in the automotive industry in Flint, Michigan. His education followed suit, giving him a solid base from which to take a deep dive into automation and realize his lifelong passion. “Automation is fun. It is [challenging], and if you ever think you know it all, just wait until the next day and you come to work. You will find out you don’t,” he says with a smile.

The company prides itself on deriving much of its production prowess from remaining agile and keeping its systems and output scalable. This, in turn, results in smart, lean systems. In practical terms, Atlas Technologies and the Stonebridge Technical Services divisions work with a combined workforce from a single fabrication footprint to optimize its potency and its bottom line during uncertain times.

The result is mutually beneficial with Atlas gaining access to the latest control technologies and Stonebridge access to new markets. “With a low overhead business philosophy, a solid backlog of engineering work, and the sharing of resources between the divisions of Stonebridge Technical Enterprises, Ltd., our Atlas Technologies division easily weathered the business fluctuations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic,” Hense says.

Atlas’ staff of around forty has years of expertise in the field, and Hense is especially excited about the new generation of staff who will take the company into the future. They “provide the brains to carry us smoothly into the future. I can honestly say that we have some of the best project managers, engineers, technicians, and skilled tradesmen in the industrial automation business,” he adds.

Atlas takes its people’s well-being and satisfaction as seriously as that of its clients, creating opportunities for staff to gather outside of the work environment to connect and foster meaningful relationships with one another. Familiar faces and warm friendships become a welcome constant that helps keep the team on track.

The approach works. Its staff turnover remains exceptionally low, making for healthy continuity and personal growth within the organization. This is not just talk, either. Hense mentions being quite touched by a text received from a team member not long ago thanking management for the opportunities the company provides.

With change being the eternal constant, Atlas Technologies views market shifts as trends to adapt to rather than harbingers of the apocalypse. Its current market projections focus on electric vehicles and the renewed vigor and innovation these are set to bring to the industry. Industrial pressroom automation has taken rather a battering over the past two decades. Things are, at last, looking up for those who stayed the course by opting to reinvest instead of moving into other areas of fabrication.

Atlas Technologies has a strong belief in bright futures, leading to its commitment to holistic and continuous improvement. “Of course, it includes product improvements and innovations that our customers will see, but every bit as important are the improvements that make our company better for our employees. After all, we spend a lot of time at our jobs. And our jobs should be something that we enjoy and something that provides personal satisfaction,” Hense says. The Atlas team has its eyes firmly focused on one global goal: to continue becoming even bigger, even better, and even stronger.

To find out more, visit Atlas Technologies at www.atlastechnologies.com.

The post Rocking the Globe – Atlas Technologies Remains Bigger, Better, Stronger<p class="company">Atlas Technologies, a Division of Stonebridge Technical Enterprises, Ltd.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Few companies have the ability and equipment to do what Liburdi does—keeping helicopters in the air, for example—but it is precisely in these demanding sectors that the company has proven itself time and time again (see Manufacturing in Focus, July 2020, for more).

Embracing innovation

This time, Liburdi was tasked with a difficult welding challenge; as you might imagine, a flight-critical component that’s formed from a single crystal of alloy (instead of its natural state of uncountable individual crystals) makes for a demanding weld. With ingenuity, Liburdi turned what might have been an unrepairable situation into a solution to keep the part in question working and help keep the aforementioned helicopters reliably in the air.

After this feat of innovation, Liburdi has been running continuous production and the hope is to ramp up output to 100,000 of these helicopter blades per year utilizing proprietary technology implemented on a Liburdi Automated System.

In many ways, this solution captures what Liburdi Automation is all about. The company provides a lot of specialized solutions, including automated welding systems and expert materials science at its Burlington, Ontario center.

The result is that Liburdi has become a go-to company with an international reputation for engineering, punching far above its weight in technology.

Originally the company started out developing custom Liburdi Automation Welding Systems (LAWS) for fully automated welding applications in the turbine, aerospace, nuclear, and industrial sectors.

An acquisition added Liburdi Dimetrics which offers orbital welding for applications like medical devices, nuclear power generation, and tube and pipe for construction.

In orbital welding, everything runs on a track around the pipe, or whatever’s being welded. The Dimetric division’s main product is a proprietary track system made of anodized aluminum for high precision and durability. There’s also, Liburdi GAPCO (The Great Atlantic Pacific Construction Company) which is the construction arm for turnkey projects in the nuclear and oil and gas markets.

With this range of services and ability, the company has the flexibility to take on almost any project in these diverse industries.

The Liburdi way

JJ Sixsmith, General Manager of Liburdi, describes company operations as a “high-volume boutique machine builder in a sense. We have a standard product, and then we build on that standard product to provide a tailored solution for our customers.”

Sixsmith has been with Liburdi for nearly 24 years, joining the welding lab after graduating from college. From there he worked on procedure development for customers and eventually, with the group’s growth, became the lab manager of the group, overseeing different divisions, including aerospace, oil and gas, and nuclear.

“There are always challenges and new materials to produce. The gas turbine and welding industry in general is notorious for developing and designing new materials all the time.”

Part of the Liburdi story starts about 40 years ago with Joe Liburdi, who was an engineer at Westinghouse in Hamilton, Ontario in the research and development of new products for turbines as well as other interesting innovative projects.

And they were interesting: back in the 1960s and ‘70s, Westinghouse was a manufacturing powerhouse for refrigerators, ovens, radios, irons, motorized fans, air brakes, electronic equipment, cathode ray tubes, turbine engines, and enormous water wheels for hydro plants.

After leaving Westinghouse, he launched Liburdi Engineering, while some of his enterprising co-workers also started some successful high-tech businesses, including one working with drone technology used for search and rescue operations.

All told, Sixsmith says, Liburdi and his former colleagues have contributed to 3500 direct jobs, and with all the tiered suppliers, have contributed close to 5,000 jobs to the local economy. “That’s a great part of our story that not everyone knows,” he adds. Joe Liburdi, after 40 years operating the business, still likes to come into the office to keep tabs on the operation.

The company is reputed for doing a lot of things in-house, where research and development is a key component. This extends to the manufacturing of custom machines to solve customers’ challenges. Essentially, the team develops the tools required, such as custom materials, along with the best processes and technology to implement the solution—and delivers on deadline.

“We provide a world-class standard product and then we add custom tools for each system,” explains Sixsmith. “It could be software, it could be peripheral devices, like closed-loop feedback systems. Every single day, we have people making something that they would never otherwise do over their careers. It’s challenging but rewarding to create solutions and make well-known repairs like we did in Chalk River.”

Touching lives

His team made repairs to the nuclear research plant in Chalk River, Ontario that at the time produced one-third of the world’s medical isotopes. A leak of radioactive water forced a shutdown of operations until it could be repaired. Liburdi was one of the only companies with the skills to work on this—and the work meant the difference between life and death for people needing isotopes for cancer treatments and heart disease tests around the world.

While about 60 percent of Liburdi’s business relates to automation in welding, there are also special projects like inspection machining to produce uniquely specialized parts. And as with many other aerospace-related companies, a COVID-driven travel recession was a difficult time to navigate.

Talk about talent

This meant that people took on new roles and some very intelligent, technically experienced people retired throughout the industry as a whole. This challenging time has not only led to changes in the company but industry-wide, as more employers are reaching out to try to fill those gaps.

“We see a big technology vacuum happening,” says Sixsmith. “We’re becoming an engineering house where we come up with a solution for the multiple industries but still have to retain that talent within our group.”

Part of the urgency to retain talent globally is the cost of losing experience. “You have somebody with 30 or 40 years’ worth of experience, then they retire. That’s a major challenge. You break down welding within the aerospace industry and there are literally 100 people in the world who do this,” says Sixsmith. “It’s such a niche, small market, but everybody needs it.”

The silver lining for the company is that having come out of a deep downturn, the travel and aerospace industry is in a recovery, while many other industries are bracing for a recession.

Looking ahead, Liburdi is bullish on the continued growth in automated welding services. But the challenge continues to be the sourcing of people with the skills to work with orbital welding products and robotic systems. This priority is attracting a new generation of people who are more comfortable with technology such as programming the weld, an automated solution that’s necessary to keep the industry rolling amidst the global lack of welders.

To prepare the company for moving forward, as well as support future generations of workers in the welding space, Liburdi became involved in an engineering technology program that has been offered by two schools in Canada.

“Kids go there and come out with jobs before they’re finished,” says Sixsmith. “That’s the new reality.”

The post High-tech Innovation for the Critical-Missions Market<p class="company">Liburdi</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

With fifty-two years of global industry expertise backing it, Leonhardt Manufacturing Co., Inc. is a trusted manufacturing partner to big brand original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Its main business lies in contract manufacturing of products and components that its customers need but do not have the capabilities to fabricate, so by seamlessly integrating with their fabrication processes, the company enables them to excel at their core skills. Leonhardt provides research and development, assistance with design for manufacturability, prototyping and supply chain management.

The company is best known for fabricating and bending steel tubes and its decorative tube-bending fabrication. Alongside this, it offers heavy-duty metal fabrication, welding assemblies, certified tooling, stamping, brazing, sub-assembly construction, and superb metal polishing.

Leonhardt serves manufacturing industries like automotive aftermarket, off-road, power sports, recreation, heavy equipment, and medical device OEMs from its 95,000-square-foot facility in Hanover, Pennsylvania. It also helps some of the world’s most respected furniture makers with leading-edge metals and finishes while creating solutions for even their most challenging requests and improving on some of these designers’ existing products.

As just-in-time supply is a priority of most of its largest customers that operate near its facility, Leonhardt Manufacturing has honed its processes to answer this need. In addition, it offers packaged parts shipped across North America and Europe and as far away as Asia.

“Our biggest drivers are quality, delivery, and cost. While we can supply locally, we also can ship globally, if needed,” says Zach Jacobs, Sales Manager. The company conducts thorough case studies and research to ensure that it has a complete grasp of the required form and function of products and their materials before going into final production.

Continuous evolution is a goal, so adapting to the needs of fabricators from an ever-growing list of industries remains a strategy for garnering new business and increasing its abilities. One example of this is its investment in new technology.

The company’s most recent installation is a next-generation BLM Eturn-52, multi-axis, variable-radius tube bender purchased to extend its existing collection of nine tube bending machines. This machine greatly enhances the ease of complex bending, clearing the way for new possibilities at better prices. It opens an exciting new world of practical and aesthetic adventure for designers who enjoy taking advantage of technology to stay current.

Leonhardt Manufacturing works smartly. As an agile and responsive tube fabrication partner, it runs lean operations developed and overseen by a process improvement engineer to ensure optimum output and minimum waste. Its overall approach to fabrication supports the 5S method, which upholds the principles of sorting, setting in order, shining (or cleaning), standardizing, and sustaining to maintain excellence throughout the organization.

Its 112 people are highly skilled tradespeople ranging from bend technicians, welders, fabricators, polishers, machinists, tool and die makers, and apprentices to a select group of engineering staff. The workforce is diverse and focused on quality and service.

“We have a collaborative team. Our people are excited about the work we do. [They] help us compete on a global scale,” says Jacobs who describes them as “world-class.”

The team looks back at the height of the COVID-19 crisis with pride. As several of its customers were essential service providers, the demand for its services remained high. That allowed the company to increase its staff count by over sixty people, making the period between 2020 and now a time of potent and impressive expansion.

Work satisfaction matters, as do ethics. “We all learned over the pandemic that family time is important,” he says, noting that these things “are taking different priority now. We have worked with our employees to convey that to the industry. Where industries were losing people, we were maintaining and hiring,” Jacobs tells me proudly.

The firm inspires by creating an environment in which each of its employees can cultivate individual responsibility and professional growth. This philosophy extends through mentorship, apprenticeship programs, learning opportunities throughout all its positions, and a “strong commitment to skilled trades.”

Leonhardt’s apprenticeship program remains one of its proudest contributions to the long tenures and ongoing professional development of its people. To this end, the team collaborates with local educational institutions, the chamber of commerce, and The Manufacturers’ Association of York to provide four state-approved apprenticeships. This commitment to perpetual growth and diversification has seen some very positive results take root, especially over the past few years.

The company also has a soft spot for supporting good local causes. Some of the beneficiaries include Roots for Boots, an organization providing real-time support for war veterans and their loved ones.

The company has always been firmly anchored in the wisdom gleaned from its earliest days as a sole-owned and operated machine shop. The common-sense approach continues to inform the entire organization with a practical, can-do attitude that translates into great service and innovation for customers. Today, the company combines this institutional wisdom with leading-edge technology as it moves forward in a new direction.

Leonhardt Manufacturing is future-oriented, so as a result of market trends and customer requests, the company is now expanding into lower-volume tube bending, which allows it to fabricate prototypes and small, custom runs of components with great ease. It has also set up a second division, Leonhardt Metal Worx, to serve markets and industries to which the parent company could not cater before. Harnessing all these new capabilities has put the company on an expansion trajectory.

It comes in the wake of the recent pandemic and its resulting international relations. This has led to the realization that homegrown supply chains are far safer to cultivate in contrast to putting all one’s trust in international shipping and fabrication.

“These things can quickly shut down supply chains. We’re seeing a lot of activity in this area and expect that trend to continue. [This] is bringing that work and opportunities back to the United States. I believe the demand for good domestic suppliers will continue to exceed the supply,” Jacob says with certainty.

That said, the company has strong growth on its mind, and its plans include sustained diversification of product lines and capabilities. As Jacobs confirms, its first half-century has taught the company and its people how things are done best. Moving ahead, it will apply this expertise to serve larger audiences with the same attention to outstanding quality and dedication it always has.

As Leonhardt’s sales teams focus on bringing in more furniture fabrication and automotive aftermarket work, an increasing number of start-ups in the medical device space are also reaching out to collaborate with its engineers. The company’s presence in the electric motorcycle market is also a cause for great positivity.

“Steel tube products are everywhere. We’re excited to grow and learn and see how we can help,” Jacobs says. Its determination to grow and improve is leading Leonhardt Manufacturing into a bright and stable future where the sky is the limit.

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