It doesn’t get better than seeing William Shatner, one of history’s most recognizable science fiction stars, going beyond Earth’s orbit to get us thinking about what could be possible, like a visit to Mars. And now more and more of the next big projects planned to advance space exploration are collaborative efforts between public and private sources.

One of the intriguing possibilities for both private and public agencies is manufacturing in low Earth orbit or outer space.

The remarkable thing about manufacturing off the planet is that you take gravity out of the equation. Gravity—while handy in that it keeps us all on the ground—clouds precise scientific measurements. This includes thermophysical properties of materials as well as how those materials interact in terms of convection, buoyancy, and contact with the container in which they are measured.

When you remove gravity from the environment that you conduct experiments in, you end up with breakthroughs in fluid dynamics, the fundamental internal structure of fluids that can impact formulation chemistry, improve energy generation and, ultimately, make for better manufacturing processes both in space and on Earth.

For instance, fibre optic cables that connect the digital world are made of ZBLAN, which is the most stable and widely used fluoride glass in fibre optics and can cost as much as $1 million for a kilogram. However, one of the things that make it so expensive is that gravity causes imperfections in ZBLAN so it’s more difficult to produce.

But, in a low Earth orbit environment, the dispersion and performance of fibre optics becomes much easier. The purity of the fibre is also increased dramatically, so current thinking is that the potential is there to make digital communications superior to what they are now. In addition, other super alloys benefit from being manufactured in space through the reduction of oxidizing layers in the manufacturing process.

One of the most compelling types of manufacturing that can be used in space is 3D printing. This also extends to the printing of biological materials such as functioning human hearts and food in space, where bovine meat can be grown through 3D printing. An Israeli company has successfully produced meat in a lab on the International Space Station using a 3D printer (without access to all the natural resources required to raise farmed meat). Each slice of Adelph Farms’ steak costs about $50 to produce.

As we push our space exploration efforts and begin to conduct long-term or long-duration exploration of our solar system, the ability to manufacture needed parts or tools in space will become absolutely necessary. By manufacturing in space, significant amounts of risk can also be reduced because systems don’t have to be excessively designed on Earth to work in space, and spare tools don’t need to be made and stored in the vessel in case something breaks.

In an interview with Tech Briefs, Tracie Prater, a materials engineer and the materials and process lead at NASA’s In-Space Manufacturing Project, discusses how 3D printing manufacturing could help further space exploration. “3D printing is about reducing logistics and the amount of mass you have to take,” says Prater. “Perhaps the most exciting part of 3D printing for space missions is that you don’t necessarily know what you might need to print. Manufacturing enables you to create your own solutions. To me, this is a crew safety enhancement.”

Also to be considered is the $366 billion in revenue that has been generated in the “space-for-earth economy” which refers to the goods and services produced in space for Earth, according to the Harvard Business Review. This kind of opportunity can be quite intriguing for manufacturing companies.

Although the possibilities of manufacturing off the planet are intriguing, there are significant hurdles. To make manufacturing as we presently know it happen in low Earth orbit means making some significant changes to the infrastructure that is now orbiting the planet. Deloitte Consulting notes that serious hardware is needed, such as compact nuclear reactors, next generation launch vehicles to transport payloads at lower costs, and advanced robotics to maximize the limited space that would be available in a low Earth setting.

Not only that, making deliveries from space would hardly be a picnic. You would need to overcome the vibrations that go along with a re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere and landing in safer, but more remote locations would add to what would certainly be a highly complicated supply chain. Then there is the research and development that represents a critical part of the manufacturing process. The space and capacity that would be required for this level of manufacturing would take another International Space Station, but on a much larger scale.

But what if instead of floating in orbit, you could set up a manufacturing complex in a low-gravity environment without needing to build a space station?

In our solar neighbourhood, one of the closest stops is the Moon. At a mere 384,400 kilometers away, getting to the Moon, in astronomical terms, is like going to your house’s garage. It’s this proximity that makes the Moon one of the best options for off-Earth manufacturing. NASA and partners are planning a return to the Moon in 2025 as part of the Artemis program, and ICON, one of the companies connected to this mission, has a vision of lunar infrastructure based on 3D printing.

As Melodie Yashar, Vice President of Building Design at ICON, explains, “We’re looking into how to create horizontal construction elements such as landing pads and roadways and then eventually thinking about how we can develop vertical construction elements.”

As part of a panel discussing what could be possible for the Moon, Sam Ximenes, Founder and CEO of XArc Exploration Architecture Corporation, describes being able to produce bricks on the Moon. “Bricks are a basic building material here on Earth that are used in all kinds of applications,” says Ximenes. “We’ve been able to make bricks in a vacuum.” This is especially important because it proves that off-planet manufacturing has huge potential.

NASA’s Prater also talks about how 3D printing can be used on a Moon base. “Ultimately, I envision a “one-stop shop” manufacturing system or even a suite of manufacturing capabilities that will be deployed on Gateway or in habitats on the lunar surface. The system will have metals manufacturing, polymer manufacturing, and post-processing.”

Beyond manufacturing on the Moon, there is also the possibility of manufacturing based on material collected from the Moon. Blue Origin is the space company set up by Jeff Bezos in 2000, and part of the planning and mission of the company is to move beyond the current state to advance space exploration. One plan is a high-tech manufacturing system to build solar cells from material found on the surface of the Moon, meaning that materials don’t have to be transported from Earth and can reduce the environmental impacts and cost of the manufacturing.

The possibilities of what can be manufactured off the planet are intriguing. While the Artemis project could be the first step, there are many obstacles that need to be overcome. It’s also true that what needs to be built has not been conceptualized yet, but we do know that technological developments have a way of moving things along much faster than we expect. So, while it still may sound a little like science fiction now, so did cellphones at one point—and now we’re streaming Star Trek on those very phones.

The post Out-of-this-World Manufacturing<p class="company">Building in Low Earth Orbit and Beyond</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The additions to the company’s Barrington facility are completed and the space has been filled with $15 million worth of new equipment. The expansion has enabled the team to increase its offerings by introducing milling and outside diameter thru-feed and infeed grinding to its operations.

“We’re trying to expand a little bit more outside our boundaries to get more parts complete to the customers, to try to be a one-stop shop,” says Vice President of Operations, Marc Moran. “We’re really looking at that in the future.”

Providing a broad suite of services has always been a priority for the company. “Years ago, we were really heavily [in] hydraulics,” Moran remembers. “Since the ’08-’09 crash, we decided to get more into medical, government—to mix it all up—and it’s helped us over the years.”

Having this range of capabilities has become even more critical as of late. “The last few years, everyone was so busy you couldn’t get parts done anywhere [from] outside services,” Moran says. “It used to be a one-week turnaround; now you’re talking five to six weeks’ turnaround time. It was really affecting us and our customers. That’s why I decided to try to do more in-house, to do our own grinding and such. It’s only a couple of machines to start, and then we’ll see how it goes. If it keeps expanding, we’ll get to offer even more to our customers.”

The 28,000-square-foot addition to the Cary facility has also been completed, “and we have room for another 50 or 60 machines,” says Moran. “We’re prepared and ready to grow when needed.”

“We’re always willing to expand to meet any new customer demands or needs that are not yet being fulfilled somewhere else,” Production Sales Engineer, Karl Mayle, adds. This commitment includes bringing new employees on board. “We’ve been able to hire some really talented people, even from other industries, that allow us to have different input and insight on how to [improve] the organization and our manufacturing technologies,” he shares.

As the team adds new capabilities, it will continue to offer traditional services to provide a solution for every customer in the hydraulics/pneumatic, medical, aerospace, defense, electrical, automotive, firearms, and electronics sectors. “We’re a job shop, so we make parts for every industry,” explains Moran.

And this team knows how to fully support its customers in each of the industries it serves. “We’re working across several different types of industries, between medical, government, and hydraulics; they all have different requirements and expectations,” says Mayle. “We work really closely with the customer’s procurement and supply chain teams, along with their engineers, so that we’re knowledgeable from the front end and we’re able to support what they need as their projects evolve or are completed.”

The company uses top-of-the-line equipment to manufacture its parts. “We have a variety of the best Swiss equipment,” says Moran, with a list that includes Citizen, Star, Tornos, Miyano, and Eurotech, who has been a big part of the company’s growth. “I think it really sets us apart, having top-notch equipment. Our Swiss machines have up to twelve axes. So what we can offer our customers is to do one operation instead of doing five operations, which will bring the cost down. By offering that quality, top-notch equipment and doing it faster and in one shot, I think it really helps the customers and makes us more competitive.”

“With our range of equipment, it really allows us to be dynamic,” adds Mayle, “because the machines are so adaptable and diverse.”

Using advanced technology is mutually beneficial for the company and the customer. “The new technology out there is what makes us more competitive,” Moran says. “We’re always trying to stay on top of everything so we can get the best parts to our customers and satisfy their needs and try to get the best pricing for them. That’s what makes it all work.”

“If the machines are faster, we can make the parts faster, so they can get more parts quicker,” says Mayle. “With more capable technology, we can make more complex parts for their growth and [support their move] into other projects and industries.”

By producing top-notch products using advanced technology, the team has become a part of the larger picture of American manufacturing. “Manufacturing’s got to keep going,” Moran says. “We have to do it in our country. That’s what built this country, and I really am a strong believer. We have to keep going and keep getting better at it as best we can to compete with the rest of the world.”

Swiss Automation hires experienced workers to operate the company’s advanced equipment. “We have a lot of skilled employees here,” Moran says.

And the team is working hard to ensure there will be enough skilled workers to hire in the future. “Everyone’s having a hard time finding skilled help,” Moran says. The company runs an apprenticeship program to support employee growth internally. “We build our future. That’s really helped Swiss Automation grow over the years. That’s my goal: to keep doing that.”

The team also works with schools, sponsoring programs and donating machines to the local community college and high school. This is particularly important because few students are given the opportunity to train on the type of specialized equipment the company uses. “There are no Swiss-style machines out there in schools,” says Moran. “So being the first ones to be able to do that, I think really helps not only our business, but also other businesses out there.”

When it comes to the future, the team’s goal is “always continuous improvement,” Moran says. “There’s always room to get better and smarter.”

While looking to grow, the team will continue to be careful about expansion, aiming for “strategic growth,” says Mayle. “We don’t want to jump heavily into a market just because it’s moving up; it could crash just as quickly.”

“That’s one thing that I was always very cautious of,” Moran shares. Take the firearms sector, for example. “It was extremely busy for the last couple years, and now it’s really slowed down,” he says. “I didn’t go crazy; I could easily have bought forty machines to keep serving that market, but I knew it wasn’t going to be sustainable.” Instead of putting all its eggs in one basket, the company continued to serve multiple sectors, ensuring that Swiss Automation would be insulated from the ups and downs of any one market. “That’s why I like to diversify as much as I can.”

Employee wellbeing is another strong factor when considering the company’s future. Moran wants to make sure that Swiss Automation is “a good place to work and all my employees are happy. I want to see them all succeed. I try to do the best I can for them. So that’s my goal: we all come to work, work hard, go home, and enjoy life. It’s the American dream.”

Moran also has a personal goal that will keep driving the company forward. Whether or not he reaches his ultimate goal, the company will benefit from his efforts. “By the time I retire, I am hoping I can hit a hundred million dollars in sales,” he says. “Is it achievable? I don’t know. But I’m sure going to try.”

The post Still Leading the Industry<p class="company">Swiss Automation, Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Over the years, MPA’s capabilities have expanded in step with its performance and success. Established as a sales organization in 2010 by Tom Clark and Ron Michon, the company has since steadily enlarged its size, scope, and reach, matching the growth in demand that’s recently been accelerated by changes in the market.

“COVID created some issues: it’s hard to find employees, it’s hard to keep employees, it’s hard to train employees. That created some pent-up demand for maintenance and repair at the customers’ facilities, and they’ve been reaching out to us much more than they would have pre-COVID,” explains Production Manager, Nick Martin, who became a part owner of the company in 2020.

“A lot of customer equipment is in disrepair and needs to be updated. Many customers have also lost their skilled trades internally, so they’re reaching out to companies like ours to do the work. The demand is at an all-time high,” says Martin. “They might be adding new equipment and new assets, which we also do,” he adds. “So not only do we service the equipment they already have, but we’re able to offer them a whole new press line with a feed transfer—anything that they might need.”

Throughout its history, MPA has cleverly concentrated on diversifying both its equipment and talent, and is thus able to provide more comprehensive solutions to its customers, whose needs have grown and evolved.

“From a sales organization at the time, selling new equipment, press controls, and some used equipment, we started to bring in service in 2013, starting with four service employees. We added some engineering resources: welding, machining, electrical, assembly, disassembly, and mechanical, and things just started to snowball from there,” Martin explains.

Today, MPA enjoys over 80,000 square feet of physical space, a footprint slated to grow by an additional 27,200 square feet at its Lansing, Michigan facility. This expansion will include a 60-ton overhead crane to support growing demand for its services. There are already plans to add to the mix another large building with 200-ton crane capabilities, further to an expansion at its Eaton Rapids, Michigan facility.

As well as locations in Lansing and Eaton Rapids, MPA has boots on the ground in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia to serve its growing numbers of clients throughout North America.

In many cases, customers approach MPA with equipment that needs to be upgraded to handle the new and innovative materials of the day, particularly in the automotive industry where vehicles are being made stronger yet lighter for optimal economy, safety, and performance. These advanced materials require manufacturing techniques beyond the capability of legacy equipment.

“A lot of our customers’ equipment is from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, and while that worked for the materials of those days, as crash test ratings and fuel economy have become larger issues in the automotive sector, these older machines can’t handle the challenges of some of these higher strength materials—excessive reverse tonnage being the main cause of failure,” Martin explains.

MPA works through customer issues with them to fully comprehend and resolve their pain points. “Whether it’s reverse engineering to improve component design or combatting the challenges of today’s manufacturing, we work with the customer to really understand what their hurdles are and what their needs are for this equipment. We work with them to make sure that they can run what they need to from that point forward.”

Behind MPA’s growth is the top-notch service that its highly skilled employees provide, bringing diverse expertise in engineering, electrical, CNC machining, mechanical assembly, and welding.

“Our world-class employees are the heartbeat of this company,” says Martin. And every single one of them plays a role in the company’s collective success: “All of these skill sets complement each other, allowing us to offer world-class turnkey solutions.”

To address the growing demand, MPA has focused on developing talent internally, as the North American talent pipeline is showing signs of skills incongruence and depletion. While there isn’t a formal program, the company’s core group of employees mentors the next generation of rising stars. This attitude among employees has been consciously cultivated for the last decade, and the company’s efforts are yielding positive results.

“We focused early on taking our core group of journeymen and we were able to find a group of younger, eager people who wanted to work and learn,” says Martin. “Now they have seven to ten years’ experience and are out running jobs and training the next set. If you find someone with the right attitude who’s willing to learn and shows up on time, we can teach them anything and they can go anywhere in this company. And they’ll be greatly rewarded for it. We’re happy to teach anybody who’s willing to listen and who wants to work hard.”

MPA has gone above and beyond to ensure that its employees are satisfied with the work environment and happy with their remuneration in an effort to attract and retain talent in a competitive labor market.

“It’s not just money; it’s more than that,” Martin shares. “If you want to retain staff, you have to do some creative things, but honestly, the culture here is one of hard work. Everyone pulls on the rope and quality is number one when it comes to the product. Our culture is ‘work hard and play hard.’ Everybody comes in and we work together and work as hard as we can and it’s not uncommon for us, outside of work, to share recreation as well. Everybody watches out for each other.”

With millions of dollars of contracts freeing up in the state of Michigan alone, there’s no shortage of work on the horizon for MPA and the pressure is on to continue to grow its footprint and employee base to meet future demand. As Martin wryly says, “It’s hard work to service the state of Michigan, let alone the entire country.”

The expansion that is taking place will ensure there’s room for growth: “The expansion will allow us the floor space we need to bring more projects in for repair work or anything else, but ultimately, we’ve got to be able to staff every square foot in this place,” says Martin. The immediate goal is to grow the team of employees to around 100.

Of course, the advantage of developing talent from within is that it allows the company to foster a culture that will preserve and replicate the high standards of quality, safety, and service that have infused MPA’s work throughout the years.

MPA was built on integrity and quality, and through its culture it continues to serve up those values for customers and employees alike. There’s no mystery at all as to why this is a partner of choice for metal forming operations across North America, who have come to count on MPA as a service provider that lives up to its reputation.

The post When You’ve Got a Culture That Works for Clients, You’ve Got Growth<p class="company">Midwest Press & Automation</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“That word ‘turnkey’ is pretty much responsible for our success,” explains Engineering Manager Kyle Jimmink. “There are a lot of companies that have skill in one area, whether it’s electrical design, assembly, building, or mechanical design. We do all of it, from conception to installing the equipment and everything in between, so the client doesn’t need to go to a number of different vendors; they can just come to us. We do it all internally, and we don’t outsource it.”

The company’s automated solutions include automation controls, data collection and integration systems, custom machinery, and enhanced machine safety features. Motion control is a house specialty, particularly for clients in the manufacturing sector. Its main markets are food and beverage, consumer products, and paper converting, with the latter sector comprising the largest share of the business.

In terms of what has changed since we last spoke a year ago, ProVantage’s workload has increased dramatically, thanks to improved economic conditions. The nature of the company’s work has shifted too. “The size of the projects has grown,” notes Jimmink.

For example, the company recently completed a safety retrofit on a paper rewinding system in Wisconsin. This assignment involved “our largest drive system to date,” and EtherNet/IP with CIP Motion (Common Industrial Protocol—a solution for sharing and compiling data in industrial equipment).

“We were able to run that machine faster than the original machine builder could ever run it. It’s very rare that you can do a safety upgrade and claim improved production rates. Typically, when you do a safety upgrade, you’re just adding doors and procedures and interlocks that slow down production, but we were actually able to implement a safety system to keep people safe, and in the end, the machine broke production records which was absolutely fantastic,” he recalls.

ProVantage recently finished another large-scale project in its hometown of Brantford. The company put together a palletizer system for an end-of-the-line palletizing process that involved scores of product combinations. Using ABB Group robotics, the team developed a speedy solution that accommodated the client’s needs.

Meanwhile, with COVID receding, “keeping up with demand” has become the biggest challenge facing the company, according to Jimmink. “We’re doing a lot of installations. We had a lot of our equipment sitting on the floor for the last two years waiting on parts. Those parts are starting to surge in for inventory, and we’re completing a lot of panels and a lot of machines rapidly,” he states.

As a vertically integrated enterprise, ProVantage self-performs most tasks. “The only thing we contract out is fabrication and parts for the machines that we design. We assemble it ourselves. If the installation is large or across borders, then we will contract labour for installation,” Jimmink explains.

In addition to its Brantford headquarters, ProVantage maintains a branch in Asheville, North Carolina. This office is very much dedicated to sales and applications development for paper and converting systems, Jimmink says.

ProVantage currently employs 30 people, and along with skills, education, and aptitude, it helps to have passion if you want to get a job here.

“When I’m interviewing and I talk about automation, there are certain people that light up. They are the people that like to watch How It’s Made; the ones that want to understand the world; the kids that played with Lego; the people who are passionate about making things work and touching things with their hands,” states Jimmink.

Of course, there is much more to the company than just cutting-edge technology and custom-made machinery. Asked why a manufacturing or industrial client should hire ProVantage over a competitor, he says, “Assuming that we’re being put against other turnkey integrators, I would say it’s our integrity. We won’t walk away from a job. All companies struggle; we’ve had our struggles in the past. But we have never walked away from a site. We make sure the client is happy in the end. If that means we have to absorb costs, we do.”

A typical client interaction begins with account managers and the applications team, with sales staff members all having a solid understanding of the technical side of the business. “They were designers and engineers before they moved into sales. They travel, see the equipment, and understand it,” says Jimmink.

Communication with the client and understanding the nature of the project at hand are central to any customer interaction. The company determines “what the client wants and needs—not necessarily what they’re asking for,” and develops a quote from there.

Once the quote is accepted and ProVantage is hired, the company’s engineers review the concept developed by the sales team and the customer. Engineering staff add their flourishes and then begin the process of designing the necessary machinery.

“We work with the clients directly during that phase,” Jimmink says. “We have project managers who handle all the communication, but when we do design reviews, it’s not just the project managers sharing presentations; the designers will share their own ideas and work with the client. We will [accept] feedback.”

Once the design work is done and has received customer approval, the purchasing and project management staff members “go into overdrive, because they have to procure everything and keep it on track and on schedule. Luckily, COVID has subsided a little bit [in terms of causing supply chain] shortages so things are starting to get back to normal,” he continues.

As parts and products come in, the quality control department carefully inspects everything, and only then does assembly work begin. Once the solution is fully assembled, ProVantage puts the system through a factory acceptance test, a process to see if newly-made machinery works as intended. Clients are invited to observe to ensure everything meets specifications.

“We will run the machine through its paces. We will do a full system check at our site to prove that it works, and we can change anything before it’s shipped. Once it’s accepted, we tear it down and ship it. Most of our clientele is 50/50 throughout Canada and the U.S. We will send an installation team to oversee the installation, then do commissioning and start-up support,” says Jimmink.

Extensive follow-up support is also offered. Clients can contact the team at any time regarding issues, and the company endeavours to resolve these quickly.

ProVantage continues to obtain the majority of its servo systems from Rockwell Automation and industrial robotics from ABB Group. It has solidified its already close relationship with Rockwell and sends employees to invite-only drives training sessions hosted by Rockwell. It has also become a vendor for the industrial automation giant. “Rockwell is now contracting our services from time to time, which is quite the accomplishment,” Jimmink says.

In July of 2023, ProVantage was recognized as a “value provider,” with ABB Group. The “ABB Value Provider Program is a global channel partner program for a select group of systems integrators and OEMs.” The exclusive program offers many benefits to both the integrator and end user—including preferred pricing on hardware and software, access to more advanced tech support and training, and collaborative sales activities across target industries.

Public events that were shuttered at the peak of the COVID pandemic are reopening, and ProVantage looks forward to participating in trade shows again. The company’s reputation is its best marketing tool, and the team enjoys a great deal of repeat business and referrals from satisfied clients, says Jimmink.

Sponsorships are another vehicle used to highlight the ProVantage name and services. To this end, the firm recently sponsored a high school robotics team in a competition. Backing such events is “key to fostering curiosity in students,” and demonstrating the career opportunities presented by industrial robotic/mechanical systems, he says.

Going forward, ProVantage wants to enhance its data collection and system integration capabilities and build on the drives and motion elements of the business.

“Rather than expanding into more industries, we’re trying to make our core strong,” says Jimmink. “We’re seeing a very big uptick, especially this year, in retrofits. A lot of facilities are slowing down on capital purchases, and they are retrofitting machinery that is now 15 to 20 years old. We seem to be doing very well in that market.”

Five years down the road, he would like to see ProVantage as “a leader in drive solutions. When somebody wants to put in a large drive system in Ontario, we’re going to be the people they think of. We’ve already earned that reputation with some key clients.”

The post Same Keen Focus, Even Bigger Projects<p class="company">ProVantage Automation</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Uecker was brought on board eight years ago by third-generation company owner, Larry Uhlenbrock, who he describes as a “terrific guy and very generous to employees,” many of whom have worked for the company for over 25 years.

“I’m still a newbie here,” he says with a laugh. Nevertheless, he brings to the company the considerable expertise and experience acquired over a 30-year career in mechanical engineering.

“One of my early jobs was as a maintenance supervisor at an automotive assembly plant and that was a highly educational experience, not only from a personnel management stance but also from a technical standpoint, because there were over 100 machines that I was responsible for keeping running. I had to know a little bit about a lot of things, but I also learned to rely on skilled trades who have in-depth knowledge.”

This experience gives Uecker insight into the issues that his customers—industry maintenance planners responsible for the spare parts needed to keep equipment operational—must deal with. He and his team of experienced inside and outside sales associates interface directly with all their industry customers to make sure they have what they need on hand, ensuring that plants never have to be shut down while waiting for parts to arrive.

It started with a gasket
The roots of the Cincinnati Gasket and Industrial Glass Company, originally only a gasket manufacturing company, go back to 1907 when Cincinnati, Ohio was coming into its own as one of the premier machine tool manufacturing centers in the world.

As Uecker explains, gaskets are essential for machine tool manufacturers as well as every other major industry that involves liquids, gases, or steam flowing through pipes or vessels that need to be securely sealed. Because Cincinnati was in the heartland of industrialized America, it was an ideal location to establish a large gasket shop that could not only serve the needs of OEMs, who install them into equipment such as industrial compressors, but also of the maintenance, repair, and operations departments of industrial plants.

“We are considered a job shop and make individual batches of gaskets to order, in any size, shape, configuration, or quantity, from literally over 150 different materials,” Uecker says, noting that the company also supplies regular ANSI (American National Standard Institute) sizes that are used in pipe fitting applications. Approximately one-third of the 65,000-square-foot facility is occupied by the gasket shop, which uses manual presses for very small runs and automatic machines that can produce up to 1,000 gaskets per hour.

In the early years, the gasket company’s market was largely regional, but with the addition of industrial glass, particularly heat shield window systems, to its offerings, Cincinnati Gasket and Industrial Glass became the largest such company in the Midwest and now ships products around the world.

The remaining two-thirds of the facility is occupied by the industrial glass side of the business and includes TIG (tungsten inert gas) welding equipment and two 10-foot-long water-jet tables with state-of-the-art CNC cutting machines that efficiently cut round and non-linear glass and steel pieces.

“You can cut a lot of glass on a 10-foot water table,” Uecker says. “We can put two of our standard borosilicate sheets on there at a time.”

Seeing clearly
According to Uecker, it was the gasket business that led to the company’s expansion into the industrial glass business in the middle of the 20^th century.

At the time, companies were buying gaskets for their maintenance and repair departments, but for certain applications needed to purchase industrial sight glass from a third party and have that installed between two gaskets so the interior of pipes, vessels, or furnaces could be monitored. Requests to purchase the gaskets and sight glass together in a single package from the same company “are what pulled us into the glass business, which has evolved incredibly from those days until the present,” Uecker explains.

Industrial—or borosilicate—glass, he tells us, is created by the addition of boron to the mix of silica sand, soda, and lime which is used to manufacture standard window glass. The benefit of borosilicate glass is that it has a very low CTE (Coefficient of Thermal Expansion), meaning that it expands and contracts very little when heated or cooled so it won’t shatter with sharp temperature changes, like standard glass.

This glass is used by the company to produce anything from tiny pieces of glass that might go into after-market carburetors in high-performance engines, to large heat-shield windows and protective window systems for cranes, pulpits, or mobile equipment in steel mills, where they’re close to large vessels filled with white-hot molten steel or slag.

The company also produces synthetic or fused quartz glass parts for various applications such as lenses for UV curing lamps and for sight windows that need to withstand extremely high heat and chemical applications. According to the company, it has high chemical resistance, good thermal shock resistance, and a low thermal expansion coefficient. Since quartz glass transmits ultraviolet light well, it’s useful for lenses and optics for the ultraviolet spectrum and ideal for precision mirror substrates.

Heat shield glass
Uecker says his favorite aspect of the business may be the heat shield sector. Besides providing increased heat and blast protection for operators, these window systems, featuring steel or extruded aluminum frames and intended for heavy industry, are designed so that if one or more layers of glass does break, it can be quickly changed by in-house maintenance personnel with minimal downtime.

The quick-change window systems have been well received by a variety of industries, not only because of the ease of replacement but for the protection of mobile equipment operators, such as crane operators that operate in close proximity to electric arc furnaces, blast furnaces, BOFs, and similar hot, hazardous environments. A wet charge in a furnace will cause a minor explosion which could result in a blast of heat and material splattering out with some force, creating a potentially life-threatening hazard to the operator. Not only does the company’s window system provide vastly superior protection, it can be replaced quickly—unlike OEM windows, for which such an event renders the crane inoperable until a contract glazier can be brought in to replace the glass.

But with a window system from Cincinnati Gasket & Industrial Glass, a new one can be installed in a matter of minutes, eliminating the majority of the downtime.

The company thus has a long-standing relationship with the steel and slag industries where equipment operators, the people running the front-end loaders, cranes, and furnaces, must be protected from the hazardous materials they handle in tough conditions. But now, a variety of other industries that don’t handle such dangerous materials are looking to use these window systems too, owing to their ease of replacement.

Looking ahead
Uecker shares that offshore manufacturing has hurt the business as it has so many others, shrinking its customer base over the years. The advent of LED lighting, which generates so much less heat than incandescent lighting, has also reduced the need for glass, with that industry now almost exclusively using plastic. But, he says, sometimes when one thing is taken away, another opportunity comes along, and now the company’s semiconductor business has grown due to an increased demand for borosilicate glass used in the manufacture of various chips.

Most of all, Uecker is encouraged by positive industry change which focuses on safety, and how the heat shield window systems have become an integral part of that. “That’s a big focus of my energy now,” he says, “to help those industries put our style of protective window systems into their equipment and keep their people safe.”

He recalls how, in the 1950s, it wasn’t unusual to have dozens of people killed in a year in the steel mills of Cleveland and Pittsburgh, unthinkable in the context of a mature industry and the changed attitudes of today. Now it is the companies themselves who are the drivers behind higher safety standards, who want their employees to have the best equipment to work with.

“When I started in the steel industry in 1987, they were pretty safety-conscious, but today I would say they are 100 percent more safety-conscious than they were then,” says Uecker. “The prioritization of safety has increased exponentially over the last several decades and that is a very good thing.”

The post Keeping Industry Running Smoothly and Safely<p class="company">Cincinnati Gasket and Industrial Glass</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The result is that this high-performing team and its innovative solutions provide clients with the wisdom of the ages—and not just metaphorically. The company has over a century of collective engineering knowledge, which the organization credits for its position in today’s industry. And this generational knowledge is passed on to up and coming staff members.

“I like to say that we have the reach and resources of a large manufacturer with the flexibility and service of a local one,” says Anja Taylor, National Channel Manager.

ARCH Cutting Tools is the go-to company for quality manufacturing and quick turnaround times, and this is reflected both in its many repeat customers and its industry awards. In 2020, for example, ARCH won the international ANCA Tool of the Year Award for its tooling manufacturing on the Australia-based ANCA CNC Machine. Rather than just looking at purpose and performance, the specifications for this award included considering aspects such as surface finish and the complex custom details that give the product a leading edge. For this entry, the team went all out to display its top-notch design talent in this combo tool that puts six cutting tools into a single, improved, better-lasting product.

Other specialty capabilities at ARCH Cutting Tools include inserts such as application-specific ceramics, cubic boron nitrate (CBN), and polycrystalline diamond (PCD). Strengthened with cobalt, these substances are attached to different metals through a process known as brazing, where heat is combined with a filler metal to achieve the desired bond. Along with manufacturing brand new inserts, ARCH also has the capabilities of servicing the customer’s existing inserts through value-add programs.

“Every time we work with our customers on a new project, it gives us exposure to new materials and components that allow us to create the most innovative designs,” says Taylor, underlining the company’s knack for challenging projects. With a deep-rooted history of manufacturing in America, she emphasizes, “I like to say that we are the U.S. manufacturer for U.S. manufacturers.”

With a roster of the industry’s leading minds and machinery, the ARCH Cutting Tools team is confident in its unique value proposition. “We see custom tools as the way of the future. And optimizing processes and saving our customers money while supporting them in filling the skills gap that our industry is experiencing is our goal,” says Taylor. Beyond custom engineering, ARCH also offers a sophisticated range of standard tools complete with a comprehensive service platform.

One of the company’s most notable differentiators is its approach to finding solutions. At ARCH, simply developing the correct tool for its own sake does not equate to a complete answer; instead, its engineers consider the end use of tools and how they will function in the customer’s entire system. In this way, the team develops solutions that align with final processes so that each component is thoughtfully designed to help achieve an overall goal.

Noting a rapid evolution in machine tools, Taylor points out that the trend is for precision components to multitask on a level that has never been seen before, with revolutions per minute (RPM) going as high as 20,000 in contrast to the much lower rates that were the industry norm not long ago. The good news is that, as automation becomes increasingly common, ARCH Cutting Tools is perfectly positioned to provide customers with optimized systems that integrate seamlessly into existing setups.

Headquartered in Warren, Michigan, ARCH Cutting Tools also has facilities in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The company has built its reputation for integrity on the legacies of the companies it has acquired over the past 12 years. Alongside the skills and knowledge they bring are valuable relationships that span generations and include entire communities of industry specialists.

ARCH’s consultative approach to industries, applications, and methods continuously expands its capabilities, both in design and manufacturing. In this way, the company challenges itself to learn, innovate, and develop expertise with every project.

“We foster an environment of innovation and continuous improvement. We improve upon our designs by collecting data from testing,” says Jocelyn Oberlander, Marketing Manager. To this end, the engineers at each facility are encouraged to collaborate to create market-changing designs.

ARCH Cutting Tools also belongs to the Industrial Supply Association (ISA), of which Taylor is a committee member for its Emerging Leaders program. The team also has a presence at industry events and trade shows, including those of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), amongst others. These relationship-building opportunities allow the team to meaningfully connect with industry partners, machine tool builders, and end users alike.

In addition, ARCH Cutting Tools’ President, Jeff Cederstrom, is also a board member of the United States Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI), giving the team a front-row seat to future industry trends and outlooks while sharing its innovation at a high level. The institute works to represent, promote, and expand the U.S. cutting tool industry and promote the benefits of buying American-Made cutting tools manufactured by its members.

“We stand behind our tools. We partner with our customers and walk the road with them while they test the tool, before helping them implement the tool at their plant,” Taylor explains. Whether customers need additional tools to solve existing system challenges or new systems developed from the ground up, the ARCH Cutting Tools team is prepared and ready to assist.

ARCH Cutting Tools tailors its program around each product installation, keeping a direct line of contact between itself, the channel, and the end user to ensure that they enjoy the best after-sales care possible. Apart from maintaining lifelong customer relationships in this way, the company’s leadership focuses on operational excellence, ensuring that its facilities and capabilities remain state-of-the-art and ready to respond to customer needs.

That is part of why the company decided to buckle down and integrate its offering across all its facilities during COVID-19. To this end, the team introduced a central distribution center, allowing clients to utilize one touch point to get their standard tooling orders processed, resulting in an ease of doing business. The operations upgrade also meant that the business was ready to return stronger than before as soon as pandemic restrictions were lifted. The efforts proved successful, and the company saw impressive growth as a result.

Taylor attributes this can-do attitude to the company’s approach to surmounting challenges: “We really foster an environment of collaboration, and we do a really good job of making sure that everyone feels like they are heard,” she says, highlighting how different views combine to strengthen the company’s solution-finding power across its departments.

To ensure ongoing improvement and the professional growth of all its team members, ARCH Cutting Tools also makes it easy for staff to engage in continuous education to help them evolve and develop their skills further. Apprenticeships also allow the company to hire local talent and develop it in-house.

“Our company was founded on putting culture first, and our team exemplifies that. We’re also a flat organization where issues can be addressed at any level,” Oberlander says of the company’s openness and collaborative approach.

The company is equally committed to giving back to the communities in which it operates. Each location under the ARCH umbrella gets to support the charities and community projects of their choice, allowing staff to keep their contributions of money, time, and energy local and impactful.

Looking ahead to the future growth that is predicted for the precision tooling sector, ARCH Cutting Tools is choosing to increase its reach through additional mergers and acquisitions while working hard to expand its custom and standard tooling offer.

To be sure, this is not a company that waits around for things to happen; instead, ARCH Cutting Tools helps shape the future it wants to see. By educating the next generation of trades, the company is actively securing its future in engineered custom tooling. It is also looking to expand into developing products for emerging industries while continuously improving its scale, capabilities, and technology. ARCH Cutting Tools has established its brand as a trusted manufacturing partner. As Oberlander says, “Technology will continue improving our already amazing products.”

The post The U.S. Manufacturer for U.S. Manufacturers<p class="company">ARCH Cutting Tools</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Clean Air Industries manufactures genuinely made-in-America air filtration systems, as opposed to mere assemblies as many others do under the same stamp. From its recently purchased Trumpf laser flat metal cutting equipment for large, thick, steel sheets to its painting facility, electrical controls manufacturing capabilities, in-house testing, and air filtration, everything is done on-site.

As a result, Clean Air Industries is trusted by educational institutions such as vocational trade schools, where its proprietary WeldStation™ weld fume extraction technology is in high demand. The company also serves large industrial companies in the automotive and other manufacturing industries, with the ability to provide turnkey engineered air filtration systems that help ensure the health and safety of learners and employees.

While the company has a wide range of standard portable units and components that make up larger air filtration systems, every system it installs is custom-engineered to blend into customers’ operations as seamlessly as possible. Apart from the ease, the best part of buying an air filtration system from Clean Air Industries is that its facility is equipped with the most advanced technology and engineering available, demonstrating the benefits of its product ownership firsthand.

The past two years preceding the company’s most recent acquisition brought tremendous positive change and improvement. “With our new ownership group came a brand new culture, a renewed dedication to quality, and a commitment to world-class customer service,” says Head of Marketing, Theodore Rigas. In the process, the team has also developed new ways of providing customers with improved support and overall purchasing experience.

Rigas is full of praise for the new Russellville outfit. “Amtech LC has a track record of designing and developing great industrial air filtration equipment,” he says. “Combined under the Clean Air Industries banner, we can offer solutions for pretty much any air quality challenge in the industrial and educational sectors. It opens up doors to offer a lot more turnkey solutions.” Thanks to the amalgamation, Clean Air Industries now has access to Amtech LC’s invaluable skills and knowledge of industrial-power central collection units, popular for trapping a variety of airborne particulates.

Accompanying these acquisitions, the Company also built a new leadership team, appointing President Mark Salamone last year following a notable tenure at CECO Environment. He was joined by the Head of Engineering Kyle Bjork, who came over from Air Quality Engineering in the same year. Theo Rigas joined the team just under a year ago, together with Chief Commercial Officer Josh Hannah, both formerly employed by the Absolent Air Care Group.

“What makes our new leaders great is that they are all problem solvers who have a high sense of urgency. Because they have industry experience, the learning curve is not quite as steep,” says Owner and Chief Executive Officer, Part Willings. “Their experience is also helping guide our strategic and capital allocation decisions, ultimately making our time-spend more efficient,” he adds.

The company’s overall success is rooted in its employees’ expertise. Collaboration and satisfied employees who enjoy being a part of a healthy team that functions optimally are the mainstays of this reinvigorated company’s success.

The original acquisition of Clean Air America was completed in 2021 and Rigas ascribes the vastly improved corporate culture and remuneration to Willings. He “has done a phenomenal job of driving change and creating a family culture,” he says.

Alongside the evolution of its culture, several new staff members have been appointed in key positions to help set the company on a new and positive trajectory. Throughout this process, existing staff picked up the slack where necessary and helped support the change in every way they could. Of this, its leadership is particularly proud and grateful.

As part of this makeover, the team is reimagining its product offering by consulting with customers and working through what works well and what could work even better. “We are taking a high-level look at what kind of products we can redo or enhance,” Salamone says. Product issues are never ignored but instead studied and used to improve future iterations of every model.

This initiative will see the launch of a unique product at the beginning of October: the Defender Downdraft Table series—a series of next-generation modular workbenches with automatic ventilation. The Company put the new name out for its team to vote on, giving everyone a sense of ownership in this exciting new addition to its product line.

The ownership “wants people to know that everybody’s voice matters, and there are no bad ideas. It has made for a great culture and a great team,” says Rigas.

As a result, people here have built strong personal relationships in a comparatively short period. That sense of belonging has fostered a renewed sense of pride in everything the company does—something that has stood it in good stead so far. Part of the reason for this newfound strength that binds its team together is a monthly newsletter written by Willings himself, sharing significant moments in the lives of its staff members—be those personal accomplishments, big events and interests, or those of their immediate families. “The best employees do not need managing,” he says.

“You are at work more than you are at home. It is great that we bond and share fun times at and after work,” agrees Salamone.

Expertise is not all this company shares, either. The team also shares a commitment to doing good and contributing resources where they are needed, taking care of local sports teams in need of equipment, sponsoring community groups, and supporting welding organizations like the American Welding Society (AWS).

Having a team with such strong core values means that the company can effectively meet its customers’ increasing demands for shorter lead times. This capability is supported by continuous investment in equipment and technology to keep it in stride with customer needs.

As it remains focused on strategic growth, the company is ready to expand its workplace safety solutions throughout North America’s fabrication industry and beyond with the support of distribution partners while identifying new acquisition potential. “Most of our industrial customers were—and still are—working through significant backlogs, so the remainder of the year should be strong,” says Willings. “We are optimistic that 2024 could be exceptional, as our pipeline currently sits at a new record for both industrial and educational opportunities.”

The post Health & Safety Driven by Technology<p class="company">Clean Air Industries</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Selling original equipment manufacturing (OEM) products, the company grew, bringing on additional staff to fill key roles in sales, service, engineering, and programming. Bringing on others and creating a solid leadership team saw LPS build a solid client base. Looking for a new name that sounded rugged and would fit in manufacturing, the pair came up with ‘Viking’. And Viking it was, after clearing the new name with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, appliance maker Viking, and Viking Trailers. In just a few years, the company changed its name to Viking Packaging Technologies, Inc.

In 2006, the brothers partnered with internationally known packaging equipment giant Masek based in Vlasim, Czech Republic, and their company is today known as Viking Masek Packaging Technologies.

Vision and dedication
Today, the company that began as a two-man operation has expanded to encompass hundreds of staff spread across Viking Masek’s worldwide locations including its North American headquarters in Oostburg, Wisconsin, Viking Masek Robotics and Automation headquarters in New Berlin, Wisconsin, and the European sites, including Viking Masek’s Czech facility.

Along the way, the business built and expanded its Oostburg facility, premiered innovations on the Discovery Channel, was named Sheboygan County Manufacturer of the Year in 2017, 2019, and 2020, and was awarded Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Top Workplace in 2020, 2021, 2022.

For the company and the Leonhard family, 2021 was full of highs and lows. That year saw Viking Masek make a 33,000-square-foot facility expansion and welcome the formation of Viking Masek Robotics and Automation. Sadly, it also saw the passing of Robb’s older brother Rick in July after a brief, bravely fought battle with cancer.

Serving as Executive Vice President until that time, Robb was the logical choice to take over as company President, continuing to fulfill Rick’s vision for the future, passion for the industry, and commitment to Viking Masek’s staff and customers.

“Looking back to when we started this journey 19 years ago, we were in a much different position and facing different issues, but the spirit was the same,” said Leonhard when his presidency was announced on August 21, 2021. “We were a small, driven team on a mission to bring simple, automated tote-to-pallet packaging solutions to customers around the world. Today, automation has become so crucial, but our mission remains the same.”

For Leonhard and the entire team at Viking Masek, it was crucial to carry on Rick’s legacy, keep advancing the business, and strengthen the company’s involvement in the community.

“One of the things Rick and I were passionate about was giving back, being really involved and a crucial part of the community,” says Leonhard. This included re-inventing the company’s café-themed lunchroom as a European pub, naming it in Rick’s honor, and using it as a venue for a free Thanksgiving meal for the less fortunate. “Rick was very passionate about that, and it’s something we continue to do.”

Diverse clients
Offering packaging solutions for virtually any industry, Viking Masek works with customers every step of the way to ensure success. If products are dusty, wet, heavy, or even sticky, the experienced team at Viking Masek is there to offer machines, service, and solutions custom-made to the needs of every client in food and beverage, health and medical, and non-food product sectors.

Just some of the products packaged with the company’s cutting-edge equipment include coffee, cheese, candy, individual quick frozen (IQF) items, cereals, nuts and snacks, pasta, beans and rice, pet food and treats, cannabis, pills and capsules, medical testing kits, and more. The California-based Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) is one valued customer, and as Leonhard describes, “That’s a market we’ve focused on since day one. We provide a lot of automated machinery lines to regional coffee roasters, from very small to very large, for packaging ground coffee, whole bean coffee, flavored coffee, and more. We love the coffee industry.”

Able to pivot quickly to meet market demands, “During COVID, our machines were used very heavily to package COVID test kits, along with other test kits,” he explains. “We sold a lot of machines for packing COVID test kits.”

Highly knowledgeable about the packaging industry, Viking Masek advises its customers on the best equipment for their needs. Coffee and tea, for example, can be packaged through Vertical Form Fill Seal (VFFS) machines, Flat Bottom, Quad Seal, Premade Bags, Stick Pack Equipment, or Bag-in-Bag VFFS Machines.

For cheese packaging, the company’s breadth of machines includes the Viking-8SD-235, the VFFS Solitaire, the VFFS Velocity, and more. Packing cheese through intermittent and continuous motion, Viking Masek’s line of VFFS Machines can package everything from small, consumer-sized, three-side seal bags with zippers to large pillow bags intended for restaurants and food service customers.

For the first-timer
As packaging industry experts, the Viking Masek team works with both longstanding customers and new ones looking to buy their first automated lines. Realizing that purchasing automated packaging machines is a big decision and a big investment, the company maintains an informative “First-Time Buyer” FAQ section on its website. To help customers with the process, Viking Masek has a downloadable PDF of consultation questions at https://vikingmasek.com/application/files/3616/5289/4274/Viking-Masek-consultation-questions-v1.1.pdf.

In the past decade, the company has partnered with clients embarking on their automation journey much earlier in the process than was the case previously, often in the pre-construction stages. Years ago, companies would call up asking for a vertical bagger; today, Viking Masek is doing much more full-line automation and becoming involved in the early stages of everything from plant design to room layout.

Becoming a one-stop shop was both intentional and driven by market demand. Building on years of combined experience, Viking Masek has the talent, technology, and skills needed to latch onto the process at the start and make valuable contributions through to the very end.

This approach includes not only engineering, design, programming, and automation, but also service, parts, and preventative maintenance packages. All pre-owned equipment sold through Viking Masek undergoes a minimum 25-point maintenance and safety check. Thoroughly inspected by the company’s certified technicians, all used equipment “is certified to perform to Viking Masek’s exacting standards.” And just like new pieces, pre-owned equipment can be modified to suit specific customer needs.

Automation for all
In the future, Viking Masek will continue its quality work with clients of all sizes—from those who need multiple lines running to those who need just one. And of course, the company will continue to develop new innovations. Its fast Twin Velocity VFFS machine is a unique offering, rated at over 500 bags per minute. First unveiled at the Pack Expo show last year, this September saw the company bring the popular machine back for this year’s show in Las Vegas.

“The businesses we deal with all require automation, automation, automation,” Leonhard emphasizes. “That’s been good for us because we’ve been ahead of the curve. We can do the whole thing—supplying that tote-to-pallet, fully automated line instead of just little pieces—so we’re a one-stop shop for customers who need automation,” he says. “Right now in the industry, automation is king. Everyone needs to automate because employees are getting harder and harder to find.”

At present, the company’s Robotics and Automation Division is exploring other areas, such as food preparation machines. And even though the company keeps growing, it continues to uphold its foundational values.

“We have been very fortunate and blessed. We started as a family organization, and we’re still a family organization. We view our employees and teammates as family, and we invest in them. Some people just say that, but It’s important to us and we do it. Our machinery is only going to be as good as the people who design it, maintain it, train on it. Our machinery has come a long way since the beginning, and that’s a testament to the talent, determination, and drive for excellence of our people.”

The post Proof That Top-Class Automated Packaging Takes Top-Class People<p class="company">Viking Masek</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Dvele—”dwell” in Norwegian—was established in 2018 with the conviction that “home” is not only the foundation of a healthy society but that improving houses can also improve children’s futures. Determined to uphold a Scandinavian belief that spending more time in nature is good for our health, Dvele studies the science of homes, healthy living, and energy independence to address pressing issues in the housing sector and the natural environment. The company combines building material science and technology to create reasonably priced, less wasteful, self-sustaining homes.

“We work closely with suppliers and vendors such as The Federal Savings Bank, our preferred lending partner, to help position us in the marketplace to offer the best product possible,” says Kellan Hannah, Director of Growth and Marketing Strategies.

“Energy efficiency and the health of the home—the sustainability—was always important from day one, and it still is today,” says Hannah. “Like with most new products and new companies, the trouble is that a lot of these things don’t usually exist, or if they do, they’re enormously expensive. Very few people manufacture some of the products we wanted five or six years ago.”

It’s been a constant evolution, he says, adding the company is in its fourth version of its homes right now, and will never stop aiming to improve.

“It will always be a global, standardized approach to all of our homes, because we want to raise the bar on what the requirements are for homes and what each home should do,” Hannah says. “We’re always going to bring the same level quality of technology, sustainable materials, and energy efficiency to every home.”

Getting away from lumber in the houses’ framing was Dvele’s first priority. Because it’s predictable—and usually affordable—99 percent of builders use lumber to build on site.

“The first thing we did is move to recycled-gauge steel which in itself gives us a number of structural advantages that help protect the home from climate and environmental emergencies such as hurricanes,” Hannah says.

Dvele homes are Category 5 hurricane-rated, earthquake-rated and approved beyond the typical standard. Most earthquake-proof homes or buildings will not stand forever—they simply won’t fall down within the first hour after the earthquake, allowing residents to go back in and retrieve items. Dvele homes, however, will most likely remain standing due to their steel construction.

Another huge advantage of metal is the absence of pests and mildew, which is greatly beneficial to health and keeping people safe. “A lot of people’s asthma and respiratory issues come from the mold and mildew on the lumber of the home and the pests that eat it and leave behind waste,” Hannah says.

Other innovations include greater energy efficiency, moving into a new phase of manufacturing its own healthy materials and components, and integrating energy independence.

With the world facing multiple crises in housing availability and affordability, energy security, health issues, and a changing weather system, Dvele’s Self-Powered™, Self-Healing™ homes achieve an extremely high level of reduction of chemicals in the atmosphere. This is achieved by way of the custom-designed building envelope that prevents thermal bridging—heating and cooling gain or loss. The Self-Powered™ system provides clean energy production and storage along with continuous air circulation, reducing the draw on heating and cooling, and leads to a Dvele home being 84 percent more energy-efficient than a conventional home.

“It creates a self-sustaining, net-positive home that goes beyond meeting the daily or monthly needs of what most people use their homes for, and in fact can share energy with the grid to create micro-grids,” Hannah explains.

And potential clients are seeking the company out more regularly as they look to not only lower their own living costs, but help the environment as well. “There’s a big increase even in the resale market for green, energy-efficient, sustainable homes,” he says. “Sometimes they’re even selling for 20 percent higher than a normal home, so it’s becoming very favorable to people who want to live in a home for a long time.”

To keep the homes efficient and affordable, Dvele employs the use of cutting-edge automation. Much of what happens in home manufacturing is repetitive and can instead be processed via automation—not with the goal of removing people completely from the manufacturing, but to instead put experts where they will be better used.

To that end, the company now prints its own steel, which is then folded into beams and trusses for floors, walls, and ceilings, and punches out holes for conduit, plumbing, and electricity. The next phase sees all the metal components fitted together with robots on an assembly line and placed on a canvas, along with exterior and interior layers going to the home—essentially standardized, repeatable wall, floor, and ceiling assemblies.

This efficiency has all greatly sped up the entire process. While building a new conventional home can take from 18 months to two years, Dvele can now manufacture the entire home, to 95 percent complete, in just 12 weeks.

“When we put the modules together, it’s just a matter of connecting them,” Hannah says. “Once we’re fully automated and fully set up in our new factory in Montana—which will even include millwork for doors, molding, trim, and cabinets—we’ll be able to produce an entire home in five days.”

This could result in creating 2,000 modules a year conservatively, an amazing feat.

“We say modules because if you get a tiny home or an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) for your backyard, that’s one home, that’s one module,” Hannah says. “But if you build a 3000-square-foot home, that [might take] five or six modules. So on the low end, 2,000 modules a year, and on the high end, it could be upwards of about 6,000.”

The company has also begun selling DTC—Direct to Consumer—and to make a bigger impact and truly make a dent in the housing crisis, it needs to be done at scale. This means working with developers, which does have some drawbacks such as expanding and creating more suburbs and the resulting impacts in those areas.

“We’re already mitigating that by changing concrete foundations to using our light-gauge steel, so we’re significantly offsetting the amount of carbon that would have gone into the intense developing processes, and it’s growth to help more people,” says Hannah.

The Dvele team is experiencing a huge influx of developers approaching them, with about $250 million generated in the sales pipeline since the Montana launch. In response, the company has plans to have about 10 foundries running at full capacity within the next decade.

“When we speak about developers, we’re not just speaking about new, fresh land being developed on the edges of cities; we’re actually creating triplex and multiplex models that will be built within the city where there are old properties and buildings that need to be torn down and rebuilt. We can do that.”

The company is also working closely with an enterprise level of developers, typically hospitals, educational institutions, and other large manufacturers or companies with a large employee base. Instead of having people commute across town, a lot of these campuses have land that’s ready for development.

“We’re creating some really unique opportunities with hospitals and universities and other large tech companies, developing mini-home communities within their campuses to help provide their employees with affordable housing,” says Hannah. By doing this, they’re creating an asset and helping the environment, he adds. It’s a whole package of health and financial security wrapped up into what companies are already doing to attract and remunerate employees.

“It helps average, hard-working Americans,” says Hannah. “A lot of people that make up the population of people working and in homes are typically working in these types of institutions, so instead of making a commute across town or from outside of town, we thought, ‘why not have these little mini communities set up within them?’”

With homes operating at full capacity from the day buyers move in—solar panels producing clean energy for immediate use or recharge when needed, purified airflow and water, and exceeding the Passive House airtight standard—it’s difficult to fathom why this type of building won’t be the way of the future. Not only are these homes more efficient, they’re also designed to be more conducive to spending time together, lingering at home and having everything you need.

“We’re finding more and more people are okay with the size of homes we’re offering,” Hannah says. “It’s very rare that we get someone who wants a 6 to 10,000-square-foot home. I think a lot of people are learning that what was once luxury—space—is now having a climate-resilient home of self-power with barely any maintenance. Those now are seen as the cutting-edge, ‘luxury’ items that Dvele just produces as a standard.”

Just because homes have been always produced one way doesn’t mean they can’t be done differently, he believes. “We have to educate people on how there is another way to manufacture homes.”

In fact, Dvele is actively pursuing raising the standard of all homes with the U.S. government through the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) authority. Just as all cars have seatbelts and safety features, healthy homes can also help protect people living within them. Additionally, raising the standard of all homes being produced will result in efficiencies and innovations that will not only allow more builders to do it, but will drastically lower the cost of all homes.

“Once we’re fully online with our innovations in robotics, we could see 30, 40 and 50 percent cheaper homes. If more people were doing that, more people would be able to take advantage and have these technologies, and we’d actually be able to fix the housing crisis,” Hannah says. “We could spend $50,000 on a home and be very happy.”

With 42 percent of global emissions resulting directly from the home construction industry, Dvele’s processes aim to not only drastically lower the carbon impact on the environment, but to create long-lasting, sustainable dwellings filled with environmentally friendly building materials that are recycled or sustainably sourced, with no VOCs and no off-gassing.

“Part of our main value is that we always want to be creating a healthy home that’s good for people, good for the environment, and something that raises the standard of quality for people.”

The post Healthy Homes for a Healthy Planet<p class="company">Dvele</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

It stocks concrete pumps that will “fit any application you have,” from residential to commercial and beyond, according to Vice President of Operations, Wayne Allen.

Truck-mounted line and boom pumps are DY’s main products. Line pumps feature a compact, stationary pump mounted on a truck or trailer and a long hose, and are nimble enough to access tight spaces and provide concrete pouring that is relatively easy to direct. Such pumps are well suited for creating driveways, swimming pools, hill stabilization, and other residential projects as the hose can reach backyards that would be inaccessible for a truck to pour into directly.

Boom pumps feature high-volume capacity and long booms that reach over obstacles to transport concrete anywhere on a job site. Larger than line pumps, boom pumps can pour out vast quantities of concrete in a short period. They are commonly used on large infrastructure projects like airports, bridges, dams, tunnels, highway overpasses, parking structures, high-rises, and building foundations.

This pumping equipment requires less water than concrete mixer trucks or bucket mixing systems. The resulting concrete has excellent long-term structural integrity with minimal shrinking and cracking which, in turn, means lower repair, replacement, and maintenance costs for property owners.

Pumps and parts sold by the company are manufactured by DY Innovate (DYI), a South Korean firm that also makes cranes and hydraulic cylinders, among other types of industrial equipment. DYI in turn is part of the larger Korean corporation, DY. Concrete pumps made by DY Innovate are shipped across the ocean and transported to DY Concrete Pumps in Texas for finishing touches.

The company receives “a completed concrete pump with a boom mounted on it. Once it gets here, we assemble it; we mount it on the truck; we weld it into place; we do all the electrical and driveline work. Anything as far as moving axles, adding axles, things like that, we do in-house. We also paint in our facility. I would put the DY paint job against anybody’s in the industry, period. Our guys are the best out there,” states Allen.

The company then subjects its pumps to a rigorous quality control process. Pumps are inspected, scrutinized, and put through various tests, including a procedure in which they are made to pump water to ensure everything is working as it should. Only after the quality control team signs off on a pump is it ready to deliver to a customer.

While DYI sells its equipment around the world, DY Concrete Pumps concentrates on the North American market. DY mainly sells directly, but also has dealer representatives that distribute their products. The company has a branch in Calgary, Alberta, and a dealer relationship in Dundee, Ohio.

In addition to pumps, the company offers a wide array of spare parts and excellent customer care. The firm maintains an emergency contact line and can also repair concrete pumps manufactured by other companies. Repair and replacement work can cover booms, hydraulic pumps and motors, electrical systems, drivelines, and other elements.

“We’re very proud of our service center,” notes Marketing Director, Braden Huggins. “It’s one of the only dedicated concrete pump service centers in the country.”

Customer care is central to what the company calls ‘the DY difference’—a set of values and services built around “the personal touch,” he adds.

He cites the case of a customer in South Carolina who ran a small concrete pumping company. The customer managed to “plug it up entirely with concrete. So that concrete set inside all forty meters of pipe, and he had a job that could not be missed 48 hours from then,” recalls Huggins.

The client’s other truck was busy, so he raced nonstop from Charleston to DY in Texas, just to get serviced. While it would have been more convenient to hire a local company to work on the pipe, the customer preferred to deal with DY. Within 24 hours, DY manufactured a new pipe system and changed the pipe system on the client’s truck, and the customer made good on his scheduled pumping job.

“We’re not a small company, but relative to our competitors, we are smaller in terms of manpower,” explains Huggins. “But we use that to our advantage to have that personal interaction with each customer,” he says.

“There are other concrete pumps out there that do the job, but when you call DY and you buy a DY product, you buy the family,” adds Allen.

The company’s impressive product line and services are all the more remarkable given the rather modest circumstances in which the company was launched in 2015. “The original building that DY started in—the entire building where parts, mounting, and service was happening—was smaller than our current parts warehouse. The building was around 5000 square feet and our parts warehouse today is closer to 7000,” says Huggins.

The current parts warehouse is housed in a new facility that includes “the largest paint booth in the South. That’s another thing we like to hang our hat on—an absolutely massive paint booth,” he adds.

The booth in question is big enough to accommodate an unfolded 63X-5RZ—a five-section, 63-meter RZ-Fold boom pump that is the company’s latest and longest pump. Previously, its boom pumps ranged from 33 to 57 meters. The RZ’s foldable arm is divided into five sections and is recommended for large-scale commercial construction. “As with everything, everyone wants bigger and better. So, now we’re punching in what they call the big boom class,” says Huggins.

The CTY-100 concrete line pump, meanwhile, is DY’s main concrete line pump. The pump weighs just under 19,000 pounds, boasts a hopper with a 14.1 cubic foot capacity, and is mounted on a pickup truck. The CTY-100 is a good choice for urban environments and tight workquarters.

Indeed, trade shows like World of Concrete are central to DY’s promotional efforts as it allocates a majority of its marketing budget to participating in such events. The company also maintains a lively social media presence, sharing engaging photos, videos, and interesting posts.

The company currently has over 80 employees, up from roughly 60 last year at this time. The increase in personnel is being driven by the fact that, “we still have a fairly strong economy. The construction industry hasn’t slowed down as a whole; if anything, it’s picked up in some aspects. Our customers still demand new equipment to get the job done,” says Allen.

Huggins says growing name recognition has also helped boost revenue, allowing DY to hire more staff. When it launched, some potential customers adopted a wait-and-see approach; would the fledgling firm succeed or go out of business shortly after it opened its doors? This question has since been answered, and clients now feel secure purchasing pumps from the thriving company.

As for new hires, Allen says, “We’re looking for people who care about what they’re doing. It’s not just a job; it’s a quality product that we put out. So they have to be dedicated to putting out a quality product and care about working in an environment in which everybody gets along.”

A good work ethic is another prerequisite. “It doesn’t matter how many hours it takes [to complete a job]. If you have to work overtime in our group, you work overtime, and we work as a team,” continues Allen.

COVID had a curious impact on DY. The company’s sales increased during the worst years of the virus. The team followed health protocols and managed to avoid the worst of the pandemic, although the disease is still causing supply chain bottlenecks and delays.

Other challenges include the industry-wide labor shortage. As has been noted in recent years, young people seem reluctant to enter the blue-collar workforce, making it difficult to replace existing workers, many of whom are approaching retirement age. It is a problematic situation, but DY remains eager to expand and optimistic about the future.

Going forward, the company is “always looking for new products,” and will maintain its focus on concrete pumps, says Allen.

“We want to double in size. We have plans to expand and build another manufacturing facility the same size as this one on the other side of the property, so we have plenty of room for growth. We will build a stronger team and take care of our customers.”

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