When we hear the word ‘business,’ many of us invariably think of giant retailers like Amazon and Walmart, along with manufacturing titans like Apple, Toyota, Samsung, the Ford Motor Company, and others responsible for millions of jobs worldwide.

But conjuring up an SME would probably make more sense.

Small and medium-sized enterprises, commonly known as SMEs, play an important role in the economy; in fact, they make up the bulk of the world’s businesses. Although numbers and definitions vary, SMEs have fewer than 50 employees at the low end, and up to 250 at the upper. In the United States, an SME has a maximum of 500 staff members. While this is far less than major entities like Ford Motors and Google with about 173,000 and 174,000 workers respectively, the combined strength of SMEs is a force to be reckoned with.

Since SMEs are considerably smaller than the likes of IBM, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, and other Fortune 500 companies, they are sometimes at a disadvantage compared to their massive counterparts. While big and small companies have many of the same obligations—hiring staff, payroll, budgeting, and marketing—owners of SMEs sometimes take on more than one role out of necessity. Bosses and workers putting in long hours is not uncommon.

There is also the challenge of income instability, especially at the start-up stage. Sometimes, owners have to rely on borrowing money from the bank, dipping into their personal savings, or even asking family and friends for a loan.

Of course, there are plenty of upsides to having your own small or medium-sized business. There is the pride that comes from having created something from scratch and not having to report (or justify) your every move to others. In their nimbleness, SMEs are often able to work closely with customers and address potential problems before they become an issue.

Since SMEs typically have a much simpler structure than larger businesses or manufacturers, there is much less red tape; decisions that can take weeks or months for other companies can sometimes be made in minutes. Customer service is often personalized, and often, industry partners are considered friends more than clients.

Internally, SME management is usually better connected to, and more in touch with, their staff than at companies with thousands of employees. Since everyone is working toward the same goal, there is a greater feeling of camaraderie. This often shows itself in community initiatives generated inside an SME, such as fundraisers suggested by employees to benefit favoured causes.

Worldwide, small and medium-sized manufacturers play an important role. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), SMEs comprise over 95 percent of enterprises. In the 38 OECD member countries—which include Australia, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Costa Rica—SMEs account for 60 to 70 percent of jobs. Specifically in manufacturing, SMEs play a major role.

According to the OECD paper Small Businesses, Job Creation and Growth: Facts, Obstacles and Best Practices, “First, it is not surprising that small enterprises/establishments play an important role in the job creation process since they account for between 40 and 80 percent of total manufacturing employment.”

Globally, SMEs as well as MSMEs (that’s SMEs with the addition of micro-enterprises) are important to the growth of all nations, particularly developing and least-developed countries (LDCs), as these businesses create jobs and stimulate economic development. A recent study from the World Bank—which provides low and middle-income countries with loans and grants tied to capital projects—noted that “formal SMEs contribute up to 40 percent of national income (GDP) in emerging economies.”

Along with creating employment, SMEs/MSMEs help boost trade, which helps to further generate economic activity. This can include manufacturers producing parts for the automotive sector.

In certain nations, such as China and India, SMEs are essential contributors to economic vitality. In 2017, India’s ever-expanding SME manufacturing industries, led by mobile devices and tech service companies, were responsible for 17 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

As described by India’s The Economic Times in 2017, SME manufacturers were at an advantage because of the nation’s young demographic and widening Internet use. “The Internet can play to their advantage by incurring increased revenue, reduced costs, and higher productivity for their businesses,” stated the Times. “SMEs can reduce the cost of customer acquisition, provide better customer value propositions, and optimize their supply chains by going online.”

Fast-forward six years to August 2023 and the immense growth of SMEs in India: described as “crucial” to India’s economy, SMEs are now responsible for almost 45 percent of India’s overall industrial output, employing 62 million people and behind the creation of eight million new jobs every year.

In The Crucial Role of SMEs in India’s Economy and the Importance of SME IPOs, a report published on employment and business site LinkedIn, SMEs are a major contributor to India’s GDP, drive innovation, create new products and services, and offer “a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own businesses and become self-employed.”

From generating jobs to bolstering economic well-being, the value of SMEs continues to be recognized worldwide. There are about 33,185,550 small businesses in the United States alone, employing almost 62 million Americans.

Along with sustaining jobs and creating new ones, SMEs in the U.S. generate 32.6 percent of known export value and pay 39.4 percent of private sector payroll. And with some 38 percent of SMEs using specialized software, there is an added benefit to the suppliers of these programs and related tech services.

For investors, SMEs provide attractive opportunities because there is a significant risk-reward potential (compared to other investments). Since SMEs are less rigid and more nimble than large corporations, there is often more openness toward innovating new products, services, and solutions.

On the corporate governance side—which encompasses strategic planning, setting objectives, understanding risks and challenges and more—SMEs are often more transparent to investors. This encourages greater accountability and the development of appropriate, practical solutions to stimulate smart and sustainable growth.

Another key benefit stemming from SMEs is innovation. While large corporations have Research and Development departments, SMEs often encourage all staff members to contribute ideas for new products to manufacture or ways to improve existing ones. This ‘all for one, one for all’ mindset stimulates creative thinking and collaboration, which can result in groundbreaking solutions.

In a post-pandemic world, after supply chains were disrupted for years, SMEs have proven themselves to be reliable, resourceful suppliers of products and services domestically and internationally. Havens of innovation, SMEs are making their mark and making their presence known. In the future, small and medium-sized manufacturers will continue to benefit their local, national, and global economies, creating everything from kitchen cabinets to high-tech medical devices.

The post Small, but Not So Humble<p class="company">SMEs in Manufacturing</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The company also serves the military, agricultural and forestry, heavy equipment, and railway industries. More recently, it made a debut delivery to its first client in the medical sector. Alongside its work in all these markets, the company notes a marked increase in the demand for commercial firearm components.

As President Chelsea Lantto points out, blacksmithing is nearly as old as civilization itself. With an iron will and an even stronger commitment to continuous modernization, the company recently revealed impressive upgrades to its 100,000-square-foot production facility in Trenton, Michigan. While its five identical hammer lines traditionally formed the backbone of the company’s offering and made low-volume work possible, its leadership believes that remaining relevant trumps tradition.

As a result, and partially fueled by potential future labor shortages, robotics is now being employed to complete repetitive tasks in work environments unfortunately considered undesirable for a modern workforce. Despite the forging environment remaining as hot and loud as ever, automation has freed the company’s growing workforce to execute the complex tasks better suited to providing a more satisfying work experience.

“There is a lot of opportunity in new equipment and new technologies,” says Vice President Dane Moxlow of the art of thriving in an age of increasing volumes and higher costs.

The company’s heftiest investment rolls in at around $7 million, comprising a fully-automated forging system based on a 2,500-ton press that needs human involvement only for loading base materials and collecting the final product. To house all the new equipment of the system, the company built another facility on site, with specialized foundations to accommodate the weight and impact of the current process machinery plus two more planned systems—all in record time.

Built in less than 12 months—during the peak of the global supply chain chaos—the building allows the team to produce much heavier components consistently while adding a second shift to its production output. This is a dream that had been, up until now, prevented by local by-laws preventing nighttime noise pollution. In this way, Trenton Forging can now answer its clients’ need for repeatable, high-volume component runs, something the company has seen a significant increase in as some manufacturers return production to the United States following the supply-chain issues of recent years.

Unlike many others in manufacturing, Trenton Forging Company also has a growing staff of nearly 100, and its leadership is full of praise for the people that make up the team. “We can’t do what we do without our team members. They are the heartbeat of the company,” says Lantto. There is indeed a lot to be said for working in an industry that can be as tough and demanding as this.

“The culture around manufacturing as a career is not what it used to be. Many of our competitors are in the thick of having ongoing manpower issues. That’s not the case for us,” she says, confirming that the company is well-prepared for labor fluctuations through thorough training, ongoing development, and maintaining a positive company culture. Indeed, Trenton Forging Company’s reputation for excellence is such that a recent, urgent call from a Tier 1 customer in a bind saw the fully approved production parts roll out of its doors only four weeks later.

To ensure quality standards are maintained across all its markets, the company is compliant with the International Standards Organization’s 9001:2015 quality management certification. To this end, Trenton delivers in-depth quality checks on even the lowest-volume component runs, ensuring that longstanding customers repeatedly return for continuity on everything from simple to complex jobs.

In addition, strict data collection measures are in place, allowing detailed insight into every process. The company also has an integrated strategic energy management system to ensure power resources are used wisely.

“We lead an extremely successful company as a unit. Given the statistic that people love to throw at us about third- and fourth-generation failure rates, it happens, luckily, to light our fire,” she says of the tremendous privilege of teaming with a sibling to lead the legacy company.

Founded by George Moxlow in 1967 on land that had been a cornfield until he took up a shovel and dug the foundations of the original building himself, Trenton Forging Company is proud to still call 5523 Hoover Street in Trenton, Michigan home. Today, the historical footprint is contrasted by an ultra-modern forging outfit prepared to serve the United States and beyond with expert knowledge and technology to facilitate reverse engineering, forge tooling, forging, welding, machining, and more.

Forgers hot-work steel and other metals into components under high pressure, lending significant additional strength to such parts while keeping the grain structure intact. Thanks to Trenton’s intelligent and nimble set-up that includes an on-site tooling facility, the company is especially in demand for delivering custom work that is tough to come by these days.

By continuously expanding its capabilities and capacity, the company meets customers’ needs for low- and high-volume work at a price and value level that positively distinguishes it from other suppliers—despite heavy ongoing Asian competition. This work ranges from specialized, job shop volumes to high-volume, repeatable work. To further support its automation process, the company aims to hire another 40 staff members or so over the next five years.

“We are taking the onshoring opportunities extremely seriously—not just for Trenton Forging but for the forging industry in North America as a whole. Because it is incumbent upon all of us within the industry and supply chain to make sure that we avoid what happened in microchips with forgings,” Lantto says, pointing out that if it floats, flies, or rolls, it contains forgings.

“The world runs on forgings; they fuel the global economy. So we have to make sure that we do everything we can to keep that forging capacity, knowledge, and know-how stateside,” she continues. One factor that will continue benefitting Trenton Forging Company well into the future is its competency in planning—a characteristic its customers and staff have come to know and trust implicitly.

Leading with resilience, sustainability, and the ability to adapt rapidly, as was evident with establishing its new facility, the two young leaders are well equipped to take their family legacy to the next level with an ever-growing range of quality critical components, building on the five acres of land their grandfather dug with his own two hands.

The post Consistent, Competitive, Fast<p class="company">Trenton Forging Company</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

But don’t think these racers started out on those charged-up 500cc motocross machines. Almost all begin young on 50cc mini motocross bikes—small and fierce like their riders. And for many a present-day champion, the first ride was a yellow Cobra Motocross minibike. Little but mighty, these bikes were first built in 1993 in a tool and die shop in Ohio.

Cobra MOTO was first with race-worthy automatic motorcycles and had a monopoly on the market until global competitors got in on the game.

Putting the power into powersports
‘Powersports’ is the umbrella term for activities involving off-road vehicles like ATVs, snowmobiles, personal watercraft, and motorcycles. It’s also a market that was worth as much as $37 billion in 2022.

About 20 years ago, eyeing the powersport industry, an engineer named Sean Hilbert and business partner Phil McDowell put together a business plan that proposed transforming it with lighter, stronger, and faster engineering. The two partners bought Cobra in 2003 from the original owner and started work on higher-performance propulsion systems, building and expanding Cobra (now celebrating 30 years of building minibikes!).

Although for the first five or so years the new ownership focused on motocross, over time their transformation of the company has been sensational. They have evolved the business out of the original tool and die shop into a family of companies that manufactures roughly 2,000 propulsion systems used in everything from racing and firefighting to underwater vehicles and aerospace.

As part of their larger plan, Hilbert and McDowell also brought the Cobra Family of companies to Hillsdale, Michigan, where Cobra now runs all its operations. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation helped fund a move that would bring good manufacturing jobs to the state.

Making it in Michigan
“Michigan is a great place for manufacturing. I had a relationship with Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. I also knew, from a technology and a skill set standpoint, that this was a great place to manufacture,” says Hilbert, President of Cobra Aero.

“The skill sets around manufacturing and technology are second to none. There are more engineers per capita in Michigan than any place on the planet,” Hilbert says, and he should know, graduating from a joint MIT program with a degree in engineering as well as an MBA.

After Cobra’s move to Michigan, the company experienced the dizzy ups and downs that many businesses go through. “We grew like crazy for a couple of years and things were going well. Then the global economic meltdown happened,” says Hilbert.

Like many other industries during 2008 and over the next four years, Cobra’s powersport market shrunk by 80 percent. Three years later, the primary group of competitors in the market dropped from nine companies to two.

“We survived by very aggressively exporting and we were way ahead of the onshoring trend,” Hilbert says, modestly attributing the visionary strategy that put Cobra ahead of the curve to necessity. Looking at all the hard and soft costs of outsourcing, Hilbert and McDowell concluded that if the company was going to outsource to Asia, it had to cost 10 times less than what the product could be made for at home in the U.S.

As Hilbert saw it, “The easier calculation was that we could keep the men and women of Cobra working in Michigan, which not only was great for morale but also allowed us to very accurately fit what the market demand was.” This meant—for one thing—that Cobra did not have excess amounts of inventory lying around. “Our competitors were filing for bankruptcy because all their cash was used up in inventory while we were meeting the market demand as it came about,” says Hilbert.

The truth was that at the time, Cobra was still mainly committed to the production of mini dirt bikes which fell squarely into discretionary spending for most households, and that’s always the first spending to be cut when times get tough. And as with many manufacturers, the need to diversify suddenly became vital to the continued growth of Cobra.

Enter the military
With ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the demand for propulsion of small, specialized military vehicles was growing. Hilbert spoke to a U.S. Army general about this.

“He said, ‘So you’re an engine person? You have automotive experience and you know how to make performance engines?’ I said, ‘That’s what we do. Our background is automotive, but powersports is what we do now.’”

The army was using airplanes called ISRs, or ‘intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance’. Usually, when we think of reconnaissance, we think of something like fabulously fast, high-flying U2s. But small remote-control aircraft other than drones are also used as ISR airplanes. And these small planes are equipped with $250,000 camera systems to gather intelligence. The problem was that the engines in these planes were not much more sophisticated than a $300 hobby shop engine.

As the general told Hilbert, “I’m losing a million dollars of cameras every week because the engines aren’t performing.” So Cobra developed a solution, which resulted in contracts with the U.S. Navy and other militaries around the world.

Now, with aerospace customers on board, Cobra has also pursued new ventures made possible through electrification. “On the motorcycle side, we launched our first electric product this year. On the aerospace side, we have hybrid electric systems that are both electric and engine-powered. Those are two big transitions that the company’s going through and it’s happening as a result of digitizing our manufacturing processes.”

Powering into digital
Digital transition and Industry 4.0 are now very much at the core of Cobra’s manufacturing technology, with a particular emphasis on additive manufacturing and 3D printing. The business is rapidly transitioning from analog processes like injection molding and casting to creating products through additive manufacturing for both metals and plastics. Everything is printed versus being cast or molded, enhancing speed and creativity.

“In the aerospace business, we take additive manufacturing to the full end of the spectrum from product design to manufacturing,” Hilbert says. The many advantages include making prototypes a lot faster and providing the flexibility to completely rethink how a product is designed. The team is always thinking in terms of extreme lightweighting and consolidating the parts, and the efficiency gains have been game changers.

When the approach is applied to aerospace materials, costs are greatly reduced and as a result, Cobra does not feel the same cost pressure as in the consumer market.

Digitization has put Cobra in a position to stretch what it does for motorcycle manufacturing as well, says Hilbert. “Consolidation and extreme lightweighting features and forms allow function that you could never have with any other manufacturing technology.”

This commitment to 3D printing has led to impressive innovations. Cobra is making an engine cylinder for the U.S. Navy with improved cooling performance, for example.

“We want to be able to efficiently cool the engine under all kinds of circumstances, like in the hottest desert conditions. We have created these very small water passages that allow high coolant velocities inside the engine, and this cools an engine much quicker than any other way of doing it. But you could never cast that feature; you can’t machine that feature in because it’s internal to the engine itself.”

After taking a tool and die shop that specialized in minibikes and turning it into a multifaceted manufacturing company, the big question, of course, is what’s next?

“3D printing opened our eyes to a whole new range of ways to keep product lifecycle data. Suddenly it wasn’t just a material that you got from your supplier, but you can actually keep the entire manufacturing data as you’re creating this new part. You can look at temperatures, you can look at where they’re being built in the building chamber, oxygen content, and laser power.”

New vistas
Running the business today is also about managing more information for a fully traceable manufacturing system, all the way back to the very origins of a given part in Cobra’s catalog. Once again, Cobra is at the forefront of manufacturing. It’s creating databases that track the early origins of the part through additive manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing, assembly, and checkout. The team can even tailor efforts based on customer information. Big data has possibilities.

“Just imagine where that could go in the future,” says Hilbert. “We could mine those data sets using machine learning and get a full understanding of how our products are used in the marketplace and how we can make them better.”

The post From Kids’ Motocross to Military Intelligence – The Digital Transformation of a Motorbike Company<p class="company">Cobra Family of Companies</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Known for the best in enclosed multi-disc wet and dry brakes, mechanical and hydraulic calipers, and more, the company, based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, is also known for its high level of customer engagement. As a result, Ausco’s domestic and international clientele knows that as a private equity-owned family firm, the company does not entertain ideas of merging with any big conglomerates any time soon. That also means nobody is in danger of ever becoming just another number.

The company also takes good care of all its team members, who share in its profits annually, and handpicks its suppliers based on capabilities, quality, and service.

Thanks to its precision engineering and penchant for developing unexpected concepts that turn first-time customers into lifelong partners, there is nothing ordinary about this team or its work, as Kyle Harbison, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, points out. After more than three decades focusing on designing and fabricating some of the most specialized off-highway brake assemblies around the globe, Ausco’s range is expanding at the same rate as its innovation—fast.

As the team develops custom solutions for most clients, even its standard products can be adapted. With around 90 percent of its work based in customization, this is a team that courts challenges, figuring out solutions as a matter of course.

The off-highway vehicle industry moves comparatively slower than other vehicle industries. As full electrification of abnormally sized off-highway vehicles used in areas like mining and construction is still some way off, Ausco’s custom brake and clutch engineering continues to be popular amongst companies in possession of such heavy-duty fleets. This is why Ausco’s customers often return for more than unique brake assemblies; once the team has installed what customers originally purchased, it is not uncommon for them to continue onto other issues customers may be experiencing on their vehicles, investigating possibilities to optimize them.

Naturally, ensuring that its installations work optimally is also part of the service. “We test to some of the worst conditions these vehicles might see,” says Harbison, “and we do a lot of that testing in-house. We have a testing laboratory with three full-time engineers and a research and development technician,” he says. One product currently being tested is run for 1 million cycles to ensure absolute safety. In addition, as customers enhance the size of their vehicles, Ausco has even tested competitors’ brakes on their behalf to support the development process of new components as vehicles evolve.

This type of work can include modifying brakes to include other hydraulic components within the assembly, such as actuation components or oil tanks, with one such case becoming a years-long collaboration on a brand-new, unique product that is soon to be introduced to the market. “The more we learn about the customer’s application, the more we try to help them solve their problem. In the off-highway industry, there’s very little standardization, [contrary to] the automotive industry,” says Harbison. “In our world, nobody makes the same mounts, the same setup. There is some repetition in some of the more commoditized product lines, but mostly our industry is custom.”

One of the company’s new star products is spring-applied hydraulic caliper brakes. These fail-safe brakes release when a vehicle operator starts the engine or hydraulic system and apply when it stops—keeping tremendously heavy vehicles perfectly stationary no matter how rough the terrain or what degree of slope they are parked on. “We have extensive experience doing this with multi-disc brakes, but we are now including fail-safe calipers in our focus. We are releasing several new series of caliper brakes with the focus on them being fail-safe, alongside a few other products,” Harbison shares. “I always like to say that our volumes are between 10 and 10,000 [for complex components]. But that is not a limitation for us. On our mechanical calipers, we make 350,000 a year for a select group of customers,” he adds.

With innovation being a core value, the company has come up with a novel way of keeping its entire staff of 150 meaningfully employed. For the past year, it has been testing what it calls its 3-1-3-7 shift rotation, which has proven to be a tremendous success, allowing for more continuity and removing the frustration of machinists having to adjust equipment to suit their preferences every few hours. That allows for machines to remain in the same setup for seven days at a time, making for improved comfort and efficiency. Shifts are typically arranged to have one group working 12-hour shifts over two rounds of three days broken by a single-day weekend. This 3-1-3 loop then runs into a seven-day break. While Group 1 is hard at work, Group 2 is enjoying their seven-day break.

“Across all departments, we have great people who go above and beyond to support our customers. As we have introduced many new processes, equipment, people, products, and more over the last few years, the constant around Ausco has truly been ‘change,’” says Harbison, praising staff for their commitment to the company’s healthy future. To show its appreciation, the company goes all out to ensure that people have the training and certification opportunities they need to excel.

Opening its doors in California circa 1908 as Automotive Specialties Company, Ausco has been serving south Michigan for over 115 years, focusing on brakes since 1938. With its heavy focus on using North American-manufactured materials and components, the team is proud to do all its design, engineering, and fabrication on-site. Officially owned by The Cypress Companies, a group of industrial and manufacturing firms, Ausco is proud to have several sister companies, some of which it collaborates with at times. These include UP&R, a polymer and rubber expert; Tredit, a tire and wheel assembly fabricator; Riker, a custom tube fabricator; and Paragon, a tempered glass fabricator. Harbison is proud to be a part of the group. “It is really refreshing [how] our management company handles all of their companies, not just Ausco,” he says.

Comfortably set up in its 450,000-square-foot facility, ideal for optimal engineering and manufacturing efficiency, Ausco is ready to consider customer challenges beyond braking assemblies. While it has already actively catered to such situations in recent times, the company is upping the amps on its capabilities to improve this side of its operation even further.

“Nothing’s off the table here. If a customer has an issue and it’s not a brake, let’s talk about it anyway. We may not be able to offer something, but it may be something we are interested in getting into,” Harbison says of the boundary-shifting approach that has led to some exciting new offerings.

The $10 million in investments Ausco has made in facility and equipment upgrades over the past few years of course go a long way to supporting its capabilities. Its expanding portfolio includes exploring friction markets, with an interesting focus on NAO (non-asbestos organic) dry friction products like brake pads and paper-based wet friction products like clutches plates. It has also invested generously in 3D printing and scanning capabilities to improve and speed up prototyping and quality control. For the most recent CONEXPO, Ausco 3D printed its entire selection of display models, showcasing construction, dimension, and function. The approach proved very popular amongst visitors.

As I was recently reminded (yet again), the deciding difference between simplicity and simpleness is studied, accomplished sophistication. Ausco Products Inc. is a company that has harnessed that high level of sophistication, providing clients with outcomes so advanced it appears like pure simplicity in the end. The only way to achieve this is by giving free rein to the pioneering spirit and industry expertise its team is so well-known for. If there is one thing this team knows for sure, it is that there is always a solution. It just needs finding.

The post If You Have Braking Needs, Ausco Has the Answer<p class="company">Ausco Products, Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Impact Fab’s clients know that if they bring their concepts to Impact Fab, the experts there will find a way to build them accurately and on time, because for Impact Fab, “anything less than the highest quality is not good enough.”

We spoke with Ross Haan, President, who co-owns the company with his brother Brad and their parents Dave and Betty Jo, who started the business in the family’s 400-square-foot garage with a welder, a drill press, “and a lot of hard work,” says Haan.

“After a while, we had four people working out of our garage, and that was when my parents thought they should make it an official business but decided to rent space first, to see if it would be viable,” he explains. “That was in 1994. My dad joked that he’d work hard for two years and if the business didn’t take off, he’d get a ‘real job.’ 30 years later, he still says that he’s never had to get a real job.”

30 years on
Today, Impact Fab operates out of two manufacturing facilities, one with 70,000 square feet of manufacturing space and the other with 10,000 square feet. Impact Fab offers waterjet cutting, laser cutting, metal forming, welding, CNC machining, and CAD engineering services to manufacturers, and employs 51 people.

Haan, however, prefers to call employees ‘team members,’ because they and their teamwork are what lift Impact Fab above the norm. “Our equipment doesn’t make us special, because we don’t have a single piece of equipment that’s unique. It’s our team members who make us special and unique because the skills and attitude they bring to work help our customers to excel.”

These fabricators and technicians, all expert craftspeople, have the skills to take on complex fabrication projects across diverse sectors, from initial design and prototyping to final assembly, working with an array of materials including metals, plastics, and composites.

Organic growth
Haan explains that the company has taken a non-traditional, organic approach to its growth by focusing on its customers, understanding their needs and challenges, and responding by investing in the appropriate equipment and capabilities. This has organically broadened its growth and naturally brought about a complete, one-stop job shop.

“We just wanted to be the ‘easy button’ for engineers, who don’t have to go to several shops to get their project done. They can send the entire project to us and we can do it,” Haan explains.

Operating from what he calls “an abundance mentality,” Haan is pleased to see the trend of manufacturing offshore reversing, with more manufacturers coming back or ‘reshoring.’ Once again, Michigan and West Michigan in particular is reclaiming its place as a hub of the U.S. manufacturing industry, with aerospace, environmental testing chambers, material handling, specialty automation, furniture, and automotive all part of it.

“We feel extremely grateful to be a small part of this larger community,” Haan says. “There are so many great manufacturers and so much opportunity here now that we don’t need to go out and compete and take work away from anyone else. But what we can do is keep adding value to the companies we partner with and serve, so that they can continue to grow. We’re not seeing anyone else doing that, so we stick to our core values of being curious and agile and applying those values to help our manufacturing customers succeed.”

Whatever you need
Does a manufacturer really need a 16-foot-wide by 14-foot-high by 20-foot-long chamber? Haan’s father’s motto was, “If we can’t build it, you don’t need it,” something that “customers will throw back in my face if I say, ‘we can’t do that,’” he laughs. “They reply, ‘What do you mean? It says that on your T-shirt.’”

And yes, it turns out that one manufacturer did indeed need an enormous chamber with some very specific design requirements to carry out in-house environmental tests, and turned to Impact Fab with only a rough concept.

“They said, ‘here’s what we need, can you help us get to that goal?’ That meant we were with them from the beginning, looking at material selection, panel sizes, weight requirements, and that early partnership allowed us to successfully build it for them and do it cost-effectively.”

This neatly illustrates Impact Fab’s culture of curiosity and agility—of the company asking itself, ‘How can we do this? How can we make this better?’

It’s about moving forward with innovations on a project-by-project basis, developing relationships with manufacturers, and becoming the resource they reach out to, to build the precision equipment or components they need, so they, in turn, can move forward, win bids on significant projects, and satisfy their customers with outstanding results.

Solution provider
Haan says that while Impact Fab is not a design company, it is a “solution provider” for many companies, among them Plascore Inc., a global manufacturer of honeycomb products used to strengthen structures in commercial, defense, and aerospace aircraft.

When they had a project that required six large heat-form fixtures for two jet engine nacelles (the streamlined enclosures that house the engines and components), they turned to Impact Fab, supplying only a CAD concept of the aluminum fixture they needed and its specifications.

A talented tradesperson led the team from there, recognizing that the entire project had to be thought through before the 3D machining could create the final shape, and all the specs adjusted including material type, thickness, tolerance, strength, welding type, and final inspection. Through Impact Fab’s solutions, the company not only delivered the nacelle components on time and budget, but with a 50 percent reduction in development time and thousands of dollars saved on material costs and machining.

Since then, Plascore has continued to partner with Impact Fab on similar projects. Writes Ryan DeMeester, Plascore’s Business Unit Manager, “The partnership with Impact Fab has allowed us to solve complex problems with reasonable solutions that work for both parties. They stand by their commitment to achieving their customer’s goals and staying committed to the lead times without sacrificing quality.”

Another company to benefit from Impact Fab’s solution approach is Dematic, which manufactures material handling equipment. This company’s large vehicle weldment required a large amount of extra machining after the frame was built. The technicians at Impact Fab saw a way to improve the design and the process, lowering the cost of each frame by $2,000 while still meeting all the project’s specified requirements.

A company to watch
It is success stories like these that led the Michigan Small Business Association to name Impact Fab as one of ‘50 Companies to Watch’ this past May. “We were surprised and honored,” Haan says. “We didn’t think we were even in the running.”

Underpinning these successes and recognition are those core values of culture and mindset to which Impact Fab has remained true since its inception 30 years ago, including the company’s care for the team, the environment, and the community.

“Competitive pay is a hallmark for us, along with a good benefits package which includes a six percent 401(k) match. We invest in our people’s future, paying for education and specialty job training, and we keep our facilities air-conditioned, so even in the hot summer months we work in a reasonable temperature.”

Concerning the environment, Haan tells us that since the beginning, the company has focused on reducing, reusing, and recycling, which he calls smart business, and shares that, “we’re always looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint, having recently purchased our first electric delivery vehicle.”

He notes that the steel fabrication industry is only just realizing how important environmental considerations are and turning to what is called ‘green steel’: using renewable energy and a cleaner process than has been the norm for a century.

The Impact Fab team loves to give back and contribute to the broader community as well. The company belongs to some local organizations that do fantastic work, Haan says, including the regional economic development agency, which has been instrumental in bringing jobs to western Michigan; the West Coast Chamber; and the Lakeshore Advantage, which are all helping to build the local economy for future generations.

Looking at what is to come, Haan says, “I would describe myself and our team as rational optimists. We understand that many headwinds affect us, nationally and internationally, but I have an extremely positive outlook about what the future holds—for both manufacturing and our people—because there are just so many good people here. It makes me realize there is nothing we can’t figure out.”

Find out more at https://impactfab.com/.

The post The ‘Easy Button’ for Engineers<p class="company">Impact Fab</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“It’s the fact that we’re kind of a one-stop shop. We do injection molding, chrome plating, and assembly in one building. I think that’s pretty unique for manufacturers; usually, it’s just one or the other. Raw material comes into our building, and finished parts come out,” he states.

The company’s made-in-America ethos also helps it stand out. “Over the last 10 to 12 years, a lot of injection mold and chrome parts have gone offshore. They’ve gone to Asia. As a result, there are a number of chrome platers that are not around anymore. Lapeer is not only still around and making parts, we’re growing our business. I think that shows a lot about the commitment of our organization,” notes LP+P Commercial Director Mike Hitch.

Founded in 2010 after a firm called DOT Industries restructured, LP+P maintains a 135,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Lapeer, Michigan. Space inside the company plant is divided by thirds. “A third of that square footage is for injection molding; another third is the plating line; and then the other third is assembly and paint,” Hitch explains.

For molding purposes, the company uses more than 30 presses ranging from under 140 tons to over 1,400 tons as well as robots and injection molding machines capable of handling an array of resins. Electroplating is done via a high-end plating line that can apply matte, chrome, and other finishes. The assembly division boasts multiple work centers and performs activities such as ultrasonic welding and heat staking—using heat to join parts, one or more of which is made from plastic. The LP+P facility also features overhead cranes, a wastewater treatment system, and wide aisles to make it easier to move and handle equipment.

Additional services include computer-aided design to develop products as well as engineering, painting and post-plating, and acrylic production, a process involving specialized presses. Hot stamping, mask-painting, and vacuum metalizing can be performed post-plating.

Most work is self-performed; the company is “fairly vertically integrated, and just about everything we do is done at our production facility. We have outsourced a little bit of injection molding because some of the parts require heavier machines than we have,” says Hitch.

Products are grouped into the categories of moldings and grilles, decorative trims, and emblems and ornamentation. Examples of wares in the first category are body side moldings, which are installed in car doors to add a level of protection from damage, or ornamental vehicle grilles that boost visual appeal. Decorative trims include chrome-plated interior trims, exterior decorative trims, and headlamp and tail light trims to enhance the look of a vehicle. Emblems (also called badges) are decorative components used by auto manufacturers to brand their vehicles and are usually assembled within a grille.

Other products in this category include such items as decorative nameplates stating the vehicle’s brand and name. These are often chrome-plated and placed on the back or side of the car. Other ornamentation includes pieces such as decorative accessories for the hood, rear, and side panel, to augment the nameplate and emblem.

LP+P primarily serves the automotive sector and counts huge OEMs such as General Motors as customers. The company recently decided to expand its market reach in the transportation sector.

“Our core business is still automotive, but two of the 10 new customers that we brought on [in the past few years] are commercial truck companies… We are selling exterior chrome mirror shells to Paccar, Daimler, Navistar, and Volvo, as a Tier Two supplier in that market,” says Hitch of the commercial truck sector. “We wanted to diversify our customer portfolio and add more customers. It made sense, given our capabilities and the parts we can chrome plate and decorate.”

While the client base has grown, almost all of LP+P’s customers are based is North America—which makes sense, given that it is located in Michigan, the historic epicenter of the U.S. automotive industry. Some automakers and part manufacturers have moved offshore, but the company retains a lucrative business with domestic clients.

Hitch says he does not typically attend trade shows to drum up new business; instead, the company’s recent growth has largely been accomplished via “market knowledge and aggressively going after new business that would be conducive to LP+P’s capabilities,” he says. New customers, such as the commercial truck companies now working with the company, were lured through strategic sales outreach efforts, not a flashy marketing campaign, he shares.

Indeed, all clients appreciate LP+P’s reputation for quality work. Lapeer has International Automotive Task Force (IATF) 16949:2016 certification for the production and decorative plating of plastic products, and the company maintains a series of quality objectives including on-time delivery, maximizing machine efficiency and productivity, and reducing waste and plant scrap. Continuous improvement is another goal.

“We want to be the supplier and employer of choice. We want to be the one that people choose when they need a decorative emblem or a trim piece, so we try to deliver the highest quality,” states DuBreuil.

As for being an employer of choice, LP+P is both an equal opportunity company and a place where internal promotion is the norm. “We try to promote from within when we can. We take entry-level team members and we train them in-house and move them up. Almost everyone here—our supervisors, our auditors, our technicians—all started at entry-level. So it’s definitely a place where someone can start with a limited skill set, learn on the job, and grow,” he says.

For all its success, Lapeer Plating & Plastics has also had to deal with challenges along the way. Like other Michigan firms, it was forced to close for a time due to a mandatory shutdown order when COVID hit in 2020. There were some proverbial silver linings amid the gloom, however.

“On a positive note, COVID did teach us to diversify our workforce quite a bit,” DuBreuil recalls.

After finding it difficult to attract new hires through traditional means, LP+P turned to “other avenues of recruiting.” The company partnered with organizations such as Goodwill, Job Corps—a nationwide career training program run by the U.S. Department of Labor—Michigan Rehabilitation Services (MRS), and the Lapeer County Community Mental Health agency to bolster its ranks. In a progressive move, the company accepted workers with mental disabilities or other challenges. Lapeer Plating & Plastics offered in-house training and arranged part-time or limited-hour schedules to fit the needs of workers it drew from community organizations.

For these efforts, it was recently honored at a ceremony in Lansing, the state capital of Michigan. LP+P was given an award from state legislators for its work helping clients from the Lapeer Community Mental Health agency and similar organizations.

In total, the firm has “just over 200 employees,” at present, up slightly from the tail-end of the pandemic, says DuBreuil. As for new hires, “I look for a positive attitude and positive energy and a willingness to learn. Most of the entry-level jobs here aren’t too difficult; experience helps but it’s not necessarily paramount… we’ve actually had quite a bit of luck being people’s first-time employer—kids fresh out of high school, recently graduated from college, attending college. We’ve had a lot of luck training them in-house, having them grow,” he continues.

Into the future, LP+P is “looking at upgrading our paint facility,” but is otherwise content to focus on its existing markets, says Hitch. The company’s focus on the automotive and, to a lesser extent, the transportation markets is based on a simple economic reality about mass production. “Our business is really suited to high-volume applications… So we’ll stay in automotive and look to complement our business with the commercial truck sector.”

The post Made-in-America Automotive Components<p class="company">Lapeer Plating & Plastics</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

So, too, is DYNA Products, headquartered in the village of Millington, Michigan. In business since 1998, DYNA has primarily focused on equipment serving the firewood processing industry. The company manufactures and sells a full line of wood processors, up to and including its newest model for 2024, the SC-16 Rapid Split.

According to Chris Wilcox, Industrial Sales Team Lead with DYNA Products, the features on these new machines show how DYNA acts on cues from the market. “We listen to our customers,” says Wilcox. “We brainstorm with the engineers and figure out the most valuable thing that our customers want. The SC-16’s auto cycle was one of those innovations.”

DYNA’s current product line spans almost the entire cycle of wood processing. “Not only do we do firewood processors, we do auxiliary units as well. We build everything from standalone conveyors to tumblers, splitters, bundlers, and grapple units, and we’re now getting into chippers as well. We encompass the whole wood processing market, from end to end.”

DYNA’s machines make difficult work faster, easier, and more profitable for end users. “I wish I’d had these machines when I was younger,” Wilcox laughs. “I wouldn’t have been out there with an ax and a chainsaw.”

In-house expertise
An expansion of the company’s facilities in 2022 paved the way for growth, adding a new fabrication area and a paint and blast area to DYNA’s 51,000-square-foot facility. That expansion helped DYNA secure additional manufacturing capabilities, including its most recent acquisition of Vortex woodchippers. According to the company, DYNA Products now has exclusive rights to manufacture and market the line of products using the patented Vortex design.

However, the growth of its wood processing product line is but one example of DYNA’s diversification. Wilcox was initially brought into the company to grow the industrial sales business. His role has expanded since then, translating into a broader range of both work and customers.

“We’ve got a tube laser, a sheet laser, and we have multiple CNC mills,” he says. “We have several lathes. We do custom electrical wire harnesses in-house. Fabrication, paint, blast, and of course, all of our own assembly in-house as well. We were outsourcing some of that work, but we’ve brought it back in-house.”

This in-house capability has allowed DYNA to take on work from companies in diverse industries, ranging from an infrared and gas heat-equipment business to large trailer manufacturers, to a high-volume pump manufacturer, to companies that make pool lifts and dock lifts.

Deep roots
The company’s foundations are rooted in the forest. DYNA was founded in 1998 by Nathan and Norman Miller. The brothers manufactured specialty log furniture processing equipment in their father’s fence post business. Their love for woodcraft evolved into an entrepreneurial drive to serve the wood processing industry.

Norman Miller later sold his share, and Nathan now serves as CEO of DYNA Products, owning the company with three other people who joined later.

The company is Amish-owned and operated, and unabashedly wears its beliefs on its sleeve. It begins with the company’s mission statement and continues with a set of 12 core values: teamwork, respect, personal development, integrity, humility, honesty, good communication, servant leadership, family, excellence, accountability, and solution orientation.

Wilcox stresses that these values aren’t just words on a page; they’re manifested in the way people work with each other, both within the company and with others. “Our mission statement is to be a blessing, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. That is who we are,” he says.

It starts when a new employee joins. Wilcox joined DYNA Products about two years ago from the corporate world, and he remembers the interview well. “This was the longest interview I’ve ever had; it took just over two hours. They were very thorough and asked some excellent questions. Not just about my skills and experience—about me as a person.”

Growing its presence
The business has grown far beyond its modest beginnings, with three dealers in the United States, located in Kentucky, Wisconsin, and California, as well as a dealership in Japan.

In addition to these sales dealerships, the company also has rental centers located across the United States. Some are DYNA-authorized, and there are also private rental centers as well; DYNA is a member of the ARA (American Rental Association).

“We’re always looking for new rental centers across the U.S. That’s something unique that we do; no other manufacturer rents this kind of equipment. We say it’s like buying a car—you can try before you buy,” Wilcox explains. Indeed, some long-term renters will ultimately purchase a machine of their own and rent it to others when they’re not using it, an additional source of revenue.

Most of the rented machines ultimately make their way back. “The majority of machines come back to DYNA. We take those machines and we go as deep as we need to for refabrication purposes. Then we put them back out on the market for sale, with a one-year warranty.”

Naturally, quality is paramount for DYNA Products. “DYNA is the only manufacturer that has a three-year warranty on a new firewood processor,” Wilcox says proudly. The industry standard, in contrast, is only one year. Some companies, he notes, have tried to offer warranties similar in length to DYNA’s, but have backed away.

The company’s values underpin every decision it makes, particularly when it comes to keeping its customers happy. Wilcox remembers an incident where a DYNA machine was sold with a defective motor (not made by DYNA but by a supplier). Most companies would have swapped out the motor; instead, Wilcox remembers, DYNA stepped up and gave the customer an entirely new machine.

Coming through
Even companies who always do the right thing, without fail, face headwinds, and DYNA is no exception.

Currently, the biggest single challenge facing the business is inflation. When the products you sell range from $30,000 at the low end into the six-figure range, interest rates have a significant impact on your customers. DYNA posted record sales for the first quarter of 2023, but the second and third quarters were challenging. Happily, Wilcox reports, the business is starting to see an uptick.

However, he says, everyone in the company remained positive, optimistic, and focused on the future through the challenging months. Good business decisions mitigated some of the effects: the used market and the rental market sustained DYNA’s business in a way that wasn’t the case for some companies.

Wilcox says that DYNA Products is a “blessing” to the community in which it operates, and vice versa. DYNA provides about 60 people with good jobs in Millington—a small village of just over 1,000 people—and in the surrounding communities. The local restaurant, at which many employees enjoy meals throughout the week, is also supported by DYNA’s presence.

DYNA means more to the community than just its direct economic impact, though. The company supports the local school through advertising and yearbook sponsorships, and participates in benefits in support of community members. Just last fall, remembers Wilcox, there was a benefit for a family whose daughter required major surgery, and DYNA stepped up to help.

“We want to do the right things,” Wilcox says. “That’s where integrity comes in. If you can give back to the community, it shows what kind of company you are.”

The post Deeply Rooted and Branching Out Worldwide<p class="company">DYNA Products</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Growing since it was founded in 1970, Temperform is now a member of the Lawton Standard Co. Temperform is Based in the Detroit suburb of Novi, the company today has 58 workers in a single shift and around 75 when running two shifts. Serving sectors ranging from cement manufacturing to aerospace, mining, iron ore manufacturing, paper mills, pump and valve, and heat treating and forging, Temperform has a 70,000 square foot main facility, skilled staff, quality machinery, and more than 700 years of combined foundry experience to meet all project requirements.

Winning awards and ongoing praise from customers, Temperform is known in the industry for exceeding client expectations and for its customization, innovation, and vertical integration. Certified ISO 9001:2015 for Quality Management and ISO 14001:2015 for Environmental Management Systems (EMS), Temperform is firmly committed to getting all jobs done right, on time and on budget.

Even with new innovations, producing sand castings is firmly rooted in history and dates all the way back to 1300 BC, according to company Industrial Engineer Nick Knotts. “Though the basic concepts remain largely the same as they were thousands of years ago, technology has allowed us to advance our understandings of the materials and processes associated with the casting process,” he says. “Our advanced understanding of those materials and processes has allowed us to make drastic improvements in terms of casting performance, quality, and production.”

As a result of Temperform’s ongoing advancements and casting capabilities, customers are demanding more integrity and functionality from their castings, according to Knotts. To meet client requirements, the company is leaning on technology more and more. This includes advanced simulation capabilities, data collection and analytics, and system integration.

While there are other casting manufacturers out there, Temperform continues to distinguish itself for many reasons, including reliability, quality, safety, and sustainability.

“Not everything is price-driven,” says Site Manager Gloria Webber, a 26-year veteran of the company. Another key factor is “the fact that you’re going to supply a high-quality product through your reputation and engineering know-how, and going to be that reliable supplier for them.”

At Temperform, ‘sustainability’ isn’t a word thrown around lightly; in fact, many people don’t realize foundries are huge recyclers. “We recycle everything,” says Webber, without hesitation. “We recycle our metal, our water, our air; I mean, everything gets recycled through our facility,” she says of the company, which even has a thermal reclamation system for molding sand, which is reclaimed and reused.

“There is a reuse for all of our waste streams so that they are not waste streams, but recycled streams,” she says. These and other waste reduction measures allow Temperform to remain a good environmental steward while remaining competitive. The company maximizes the amount of reuse materials put back into furnaces to make new product, and takes part in a scrap banking program with customers that sees the company buy back scrap to make new product, saving customers money and cutting out the middleman’s markup.

With Temperform’s five induction furnaces, each requiring cooling water and a closed-loop system, “we make sure we recycle every drop of water and are not discharging it,” states Webber, adding that the company also has a scrubber system for water and air.

To best serve all its customers, Temperform makes ongoing investments in its people, its equipment, and its technology. This includes manufacturing optimization through data analytics. As an industrial engineer, Knotts believes the key to optimizing a process is having an extremely detailed understanding of that process and the variables that affect it.

“Data is the key with which we can unlock that detailed understanding of the process, but just having the data is only part of the equation; where Temperform has set ourselves apart in terms of manufacturing optimization is how we utilize the data,” he says. “Temperform’s data is set up in a way that allows us to firmly understand how all the given input variables in terms of our product mix (we are a job shop) affects the number of molds/castings that we are able to produce. By using that data, we can pinpoint improvements to the process such that they are minimally disruptive but also maximally effective.”

Today, the world of Industry 4.0 is changing how companies like Temperform are using technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve, manufacture, and distribute all kinds of products. Through MAGMA software specifically designed to predict outcomes of new casting projects, and a plant simulation system engineers use to predict throughput of systems and plants, everything from plant layout to optimizing flow can be addressed.

“We are part of the Steel Founders’ Society of America, and we joined that group because they make big investments in Industry 4.0,” says Webber. Funded by the Department of Defense, there is help available for foundries who wish to remain on the front line of cutting-edge technology and innovation or who are facing a metallurgical conundrum with specific technical leads.

Through its role in the Lawton Standard Co., Temperform has become part of something greater than a single plant; rather, it is part of a broader platform. According to Knotts, this brings a host of advantages, particularly access to technical staff associated with other foundries on the platform. “The platform exists to support the sites, so the resources are meant to be leveraged by those sites, like Temperform,” he says. “The more technical people that are available, the more variety of valuable experiences, educations, and viewpoints there are available to leverage.”

Another platform benefit is the availability of increased financial resources from a larger corporation—especially advanced software tools for the designing and rigging of castings—which Temperform has readily available. “Advanced solidification software allows us to better predict where areas of porosity or inclusions may arise in our castings before we produce them, which allows us to add risers, gating, and chills to the part in an effort to remove the porosity or move it into a non-critical area,” Knotts explains.

At Temperform, creating high-quality castings and machined components comes from the experience, hard work, and skill of the company’s laborers and welders. On the foundry side, the company’s long-time site manager has 37 years of industry experience.

Like other sectors, manufacturing continues facing hiring challenges, and to address this, the company seeks new workers at the high school and college levels as well as people with factory manufacturing experience who understand the importance of adhering to processes. “We bring in unskilled labor and train them, because you’re not going to find somebody who’s a skilled molder; you might be able to find some furnace operators out there, but typically, specific to our industry, you don’t have a lot of folks out there that would have this specific skill set, so we bring them in and train them,” says Webber.

On the safety side, all new staff members are immersed in a full week of training where they learn safety protocols firsthand, and why they are required. Every Temperform building has signage stating what personal protective equipment (PPE) is necessary, such as hardhats and safety boots with metatarsal covers in the foundry. And since silica sand is used in the foundry, workers are required to wear the right type of respiratory equipment, depending on the job.

“We invest in our employees on a daily basis,” adds Webber. “We make sure they are suited up head to toe, depending on the processes they are undertaking with safety equipment.” Protecting workers and the environment alike, Temperform has made about $1 million in relevant investments, including a new air scrubber system and bag houses, making the company more compliant and efficient than ever. Although based in a suburban area, many locals are pleasantly surprised by the company’s presence. “When you show up at our door, you will not smell a foundry,” states Webber.

This year, Temperform expects to see some significant mining projects in the works. Buoyed by its robust investments in technology, machinery, and safety, Temperform’s number one reason for success comes down to its talented team, from leadership to the molders, melters, and grinders on the floor.

“We are committed to making the highest quality steel castings on the market,” says Knotts. “Temperform also makes a name for itself on honesty and reliability. We deliver castings on time and in the condition that was requested; if we cannot, we will be honest and upfront about the obstacles we are facing and do whatever we can to make it right,” he says.

“Perhaps most importantly, the team at Temperform consists of experts in producing steel castings, and at that, experts who also have access to some of the most advanced tools in the industry.”

The post Where History and Technology Meet<p class="company">Temperform</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Comparable to the coating on parchment paper or release liners for labels, Chem-Trend release agents, lubricants, and compounds are a vital part of the modern manufacturing process. Through their varying chemistries, they help reduce waste, improve workflow, and strengthen output and product quality while reducing costs and impact on the environment.

This is possible only because of the culture of innovation that has been nurtured, the processes that have been optimized, and the emphasis on people and the environment that has been fostered at Chem-Trend throughout the years, as well as a commitment to meeting (and anticipating) its customers’ needs.

According to CEO John Lundin, “Customers can rely on us to reduce their costs and to deliver the kind of technology that they’re looking for today, but also the things that they don’t even know they need yet. It’s those kinds of savings and looking at their employees and saying, ‘wow, we just made your life better; it smells better, it works better, it’s easier.’ And we do that in all of our segments. That’s what we’re known for.”

Culture of innovation
From its founding in Howell, Michigan where it remains headquartered to this day, to 19 global locations including seven research and development and eight manufacturing locations around the world, Chem-Trend’s evolution has been remarkable.

The company was founded through the entrepreneurial vision and innovative spirit of founder Peer Lorentzen, a chemical engineer, and his wife Birgit, a chemist who crafted a revolutionary product in the comfort of their home’s kitchen.

At the time, the automotive industry was shifting production of some of their components to aluminum die casted parts and the couple saw an opportunity to create a new, water-based, release agent that would improve many aspects of the manufacturing process. To get the word out, the Lorentzens sent sample jars of their new product to manufacturers in the region hoping to get a bite. And that they did. The effort caught the attention of one of Michigan’s Big Three and they had to quickly pivot to meet the sudden growing demand.

From one order for five gallons to a second order of 150 five-gallon pails, their product, one application at a time, continued to answer the call of manufacturers looking for solutions to burgeoning issues with materials and applications that were being introduced.

Today, Chem-Trend’s next-generation technologies are specifically formulated to support composites, die casting, friction, paper impregnation, polyurethane, rotational molding, rubber, thermoplastics, tires, and wood composite applications around the world, and the company continues to push the limits of what is possible.

Doing better by being better
The invention of a water-based product eliminated the need for solvent-based products in many applications, and minimized the slippery mess left by the vapor that resulted when oil-based products hit the hot press. Chem-Trend’s water-based release agent improved working conditions, performance, output, and the bottom line for its growing list of clients, while also improving the company’s environmental record without the call of regulators to do so.

“Sustainability is a leading factor in our development process, starting with raw material sourcing. Making sure we’re using the most environmentally conscious materials for our solutions is the goal. Water-based solutions continue to dominate our global portfolio of products at 80 percent and we see this only continuing to grow,” says Vice President of Marketing and Technology, Amanda Pugh.

Chem-Trend is taking this environmental commitment a step further by eliminating per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) within its global heritage portfolio. Once again, these efforts have preceded the call of regulators to do so.

As Pugh notes, “Our road map wasn’t just to be sustainable for the sake of it… we have better products that go along with that effort. So, when we think about sustainability, we’re not just thinking about reducing our CO₂ footprint—of course, that’s important—but we also want to make [the industry] better, and we want to give our customers better choices.”

Chem-Trend has succeeded in eliminating PFAS from its solutions as of 2023 and continues to innovate with its non-PFAS product alternatives. The company works with its own suppliers to ensure that unwanted chemicals are excluded from its portfolio for the benefit of its people, its processes, and the environment.

Sustainability starts with innovation
At Chem-Trend, the teams throughout its many divisions worldwide are looking long-term at how they can remain at the leading edge of product development, sustainability, and performance.

“For us, when we look at sustainability, we think innovation: we want to make it better, we want to make it faster, we want to improve it. It’s not just about being sustainable; if I’m going to put a product out there that our team is saying is sustainable, it’s also going to be better,” says Pugh.

Backed by the investments and support of the company’s leadership, Chem-Trend continues to set the pace in the market by developing its own chemistries to meet the highly specific needs of each sector it serves. It does this by understanding its customers’ processes and applications through a hands-on approach.

“Our work is best done on the shop floors around the world—really understanding what the customer is trying to do, what they’re using, their industry, what they’re trying to achieve, and then developing specific formulations that help them produce and do so efficiently,” Lundin explains.

Pugh adds, “We look at the materials and the chemistries that go into our products, but coupled with that are the processes that our customer uses, which dictate what type of chemistry we use, what variables they have, how hot the press is, what the geometry is, what materials they’re molding, what chemistries they’re using.”

Even when Chem-Trend cannot physically be on its customers’ shop floors, the company has invested in digitization that improves the user experience wherever they are, in the form of DilutionIQ™ and SprayIQ™, digital devices that have revolutionized how customers operate.

Referring to the processes, Pugh notes, “DilutionIQ™ is for concentrates, and SprayIQ™ is for products that are sprayed. They help our customers better control how much product is applied to the mold, where they spray it on the mold, and it gives them a nice visual to be able to control the process remotely. So we’re venturing into the digitalization space.”

Other efforts are being made to improve the speed and agility of customer access to product resources and information, establish an online shop for existing customers for quick reordering, and offer more at-your-fingertips offerings. These offerings include improved visibility into customer accounts, orders, product data sheets, and other digital training tools and resources that will heighten the user experience.

Champion of people and environment
Chem-Trend’s approach to sustainability is two-fold, as Lundin highlights: “One aspect is reducing our footprint. We look at how our operations can be more efficient while still developing solutions that are proven to positively impact our customers’ processes. This second part is what we call maximizing our handprint. We make a point of educating our customers on the areas where they can see sustainability gains and how we can help.”

At the same time, the company is working to quantify its carbon footprint from a manufacturing and product standpoint, to better understand where it currently stands as well as where reductions can be made in the future.

“We’re working today to better understand what that looks like and target reductions in that space, too; from the materials we use to the transportation that we use, the energy that we can save by making our customers’ processes more efficient—all of that will be encompassed as well,” Pugh explains.

The company’s sustainability efforts were validated last year when it achieved EcoVadis Gold rating, placing in the top five percent of all rated chemical companies who were evaluated on the grounds of sustainability, procurement, environment, ethics, labor, and human rights. And it doesn’t stop there; together with its parent company, Freudenberg Group, Chem-Trend’s goal is climate neutrality by 2045: a lofty goal, but one that is in sight because of Chem-Trend’s unending commitment to innovation.

Chem-Trend has been under the ownership of Freudenberg Group since 2004, and it has proven a highly compatible marriage that has afforded the company greater capacity and scope to maximize the value of its operations and charitable outreach on a greater scale across its ever-expanding global presence.

Living its values
Lundin’s take on what the relationship with Freudenberg brings is enlightening: “It’s a family-owned, values-based technology company that’s spread out all over the world with 50,000-plus employees. They’re very tight to their values and their guiding principles, which fit very closely with the direction and the values that Chem-Trend has always had, but Freudenberg adds size and scope and scale that have been remarkably helpful.”

This is echoed by Global Director of Human Resources, Nicole Mason, who says, “We have this very strong global community that’s focused on collaboration cross-regionally: we’re well connected, very collaborative, making sure that we’re sharing best practices around the regions.”

So, despite its growth, Chem-Trend continues to live its values, which makes it a great industrial partner as well as an invaluable member of the communities within which it operates around the world. Chem-Trend contributes to countless causes that are meaningful to the regions it serves, from women’s shelters to improved access to education and leadership development.

Looking ahead, and empowered by exceptional processes and standards, the team at Chem-Trend remains laser-focused on innovation to keep bringing the finest products in its sector to the market: to be the best by doing its best in every way.

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A family-run business since 1977, Metalumen strives to merge the science and art of luminaire design to create fixtures that add visual interest to any commercial space.

“My grandfather founded the company,” says Eric Stocker, Regional Sales Manager. “He emigrated from Germany, had some schooling in radiator repair, and had a machine shop doing that. He had a friend who was in lighting in Toronto, so they partnered to develop some lighting, and then they grew the business. They became partners to really develop across Canada and then expand into the United States.”

From then, Stocker’s dad took over, focusing on the operation side, as opposed to his grandfather who was more invested in the sales side.

“He was developing us into more standardized products we use today,” Stocker says, which includes having well-automated machines used for specialty products.

While continuing to find its niche in the market, Metalumen is determined to avoid cheaper components and continue to sell quality products that will last for decades. “If you buy something cheap, it’s a small price now, but in a couple of years you’re probably going to replace the whole thing,” says Stocker.

By maintaining a high level of quality, Metalumen can confidently supply its clientele with exemplary service and product. While the company is always looking forward, it is also determined to continue to improve its daily operations and maintain its core values.

“For right now, we’re really focusing on these specialty products and finding our niche,” says Stocker. “It seems to be really adding to our brand of who Metalumen is and how we’re a family-owned company that supplies these specialty products for these environments, and we’re seeing the growth internationally.” International growth, he adds, has included setting up partnerships to increase its presence globally.

Other core values for this company include sustainability, which is achieved by integrating environmental, social, and economic practices and procedures into all its strategic planning and initiatives. With an extensive recycling program to divert scrap metal, wood, cardboard, paper, and lamps, the company has reduced its natural gas consumption by 30 percent and electrical usage by 15 percent, and has effected a 50 percent reduction in the amount of waste headed to landfill.

Given that lighting accounts for a startling 19 percent of global electricity consumption and 25 to 40 percent of all commercial energy consumption, Metalumen uses a multifaceted approach to promote sustainability at both the manufacturing and consumer levels. Even its packaging is composed of at least 85 percent recyclable materials, at least 65 percent of that coming from post-consumer sources.

Along with these impressive initiatives, keeping the business in the family has also played a vital part in its success and longevity, says Stocker.

“I think it does add to it. You have that expertise adding to the industry knowledge and being able to really focus and connect,” he says. It is an advantage “having that ownership, connecting with the customers, and being able to rapidly innovate.”

Streamlined third-generation family ownership has also allowed Metalumen to continue its dedication to providing a supportive and positive company culture, which included having employees work from home during the pandemic.

“We’ve tried to make sure we retain a lot of our key employees and make sure they’re happy,” Stocker says, “by creating a welcoming work environment, maintaining positive behaviour and attitudes toward team members, and also supporting continuous improvement.” Any team problems or challenges are shared using technology, planners, and task boards, and once a week are reviewed and discussed to see how they can be resolved.

“We also focus on adding value to the employees and make sure we can make their job as easy as possible so there are no headaches or any issues [for them] Stocker adds. “We do have a lot of communication, and want to be supportive of all team members, making sure everyone’s able to be well supported and understands the scope of a project.”

This approach includes regular project meetings and feedback, along with factory tours to show new products to customers given by team members who have the chance to demonstrate the equipment they’re working with.

“It’s one thing for me to talk about it, but it’s getting those team members who work on the machine to really share their passion for the equipment to customers,” Stocker says. “We’ve gotten feedback from those customers saying they can see how invested they are, how excited they are to really talk about their job, which is great to hear.”

Along with its commercial and educational sector work, the company has also recently pivoted into office space manufacturing, where it can provide optimal lighting to foster productivity and collaboration as well as aid employees in maintaining task focus while maximizing energy efficiency. While it’s still a slower market, Metalumen is seeing key projects moving ahead, particularly those planned years before the pandemic.

“We’ve had to look at more government investments and we’ve had to shift and develop products that are more suitable for those environments,” Stocker says. “One thing we’ve seen success with more recently is a lot of public transit. We offer specialty lighting that’s wet-location rated, so external products that are outside and high-impact while still having an architectural look to them.”

The company has subsequently completed transit projects in Ottawa, Boston, and New York City. “Taking that success, we’ve been able to brand those products for other applications as well, such as exteriors of buildings that maybe don’t have commercial tenants moving into them yet. Our strength is providing those products and then being able to diversify to other applications as well.”

The over-capacity healthcare industry is another area of focus for Metalumen, with the government investing in and revamping many facilities or even building new ones.

“We’ve had patient bed lights and rooms that we developed and marketed,” Stocker shares. “We’ve also had MRI-compliant lighting that we’ve promoted; even some of our standard interior parts we’ve been able to promote to those health care applications, and have seen success from those as well.”

Along with navigating COVID, other recent challenges have included addressing company culture and shifting to focus on player retention, especially in the face of economical external factors. “There is a lot of competitiveness, so it’s really [about] focusing on supporting employees and being able to retain them,” Stocker says. “But we feel we have a strong strategy now that’s able to really support us.”

There are several milestones the team is looking forward to as well, including retrofitting more of its office to a more modern standard in hopes of bringing in more customers from across North America. “We could provide training to them on our products, but also information about the fabrication process and the whole cycle of what Metalumen does, from the design phase to the actual production phase to where it ships.”

The company also plans to focus on expansion and has recently signed up a new sales partner in the Middle East to develop a more prominent presence there.

“We’ve previously sold two hospital projects there,” Stocker says. “Our new partner there seems to be quite strong, and they’re expanding to Saudi Arabia. We’ve been seeing all their unique buildings and large hospitals and universities, and we want to make sure that we’re a partner that’s ready to be able to support that growth market.”

When it comes to setting itself apart from the competition, Metalumen realizes that, along with its unique, high-quality products, its strategy of understanding how to be responsive to events such as the pandemic and helping employees navigate various challenges has resulted in greater retention and lower turnover. “We’ve seen ourselves be more productive as well,” Stocker says. “And we’ve also been able to really leverage other products due to the sales shift, too.” This has included using a data-driven approach to pair successful products with new industries.

What really makes Metalumen stand out and shine bright, however, is understanding and embracing what it does best, which is providing personalized attention and innovative solutions to each customer and project.

“It seems there are a lot of large conglomerates in our industry that are not as quick to be innovative or provide value to customers,” Stocker says. “We understand small niches and are really able to provide value and provide solutions to those small niches.”

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