Founded in March 1985 under the name Ganesh Machinery, within three short years Expand Machinery moved into a 4,000-square-foot warehouse, and has continued to thrive ever since.

Going for growth
Focusing on providing excellent customer service and fostering customer loyalty, Expand Machinery has since expanded into a cutting-edge 15,000-square-foot factory with a 40,000-square-foot warehouse, serving more than 12,000 machine shops, manufacturers, and technical institutions in a variety of industries with sales and servicing of equipment.

In 2019, Expand Machinery acquired the GENMILL, GENTURN, and Ganesh product lines. The company’s dedication to delivering top-notch, well-engineered machinery and exceptional post-purchase support to all its customers means each machine is designed to offer the most advanced technology.

This year, in particular, is one the company has been looking forward to, with IMTS 2024 – Inspiring The Extraordinary, taking place Sept. 9-14 in Chicago. Managed by the Association for Manufacturing Technology, The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), first held in Cleveland, Ohio in 1927, features industrial machinery and technology including welding, lubrication, and materials engineering.

The largest manufacturing technology trade show in North America, IMTS provides a forum for creators, builders, sellers, and drivers of manufacturing technology to connect, find solutions, and get inspired. Participants from around the world gather to discover the latest innovations and technologies that are changing the future through advanced and traditional manufacturing, robotics, automation, and digital transformation.

“The show is one of the biggest in our industry,” says General Manager Ravjeet Singh. “We will not only be participating, but participating in an even bigger way than the previous times.”

“Made in Japan” on display
The company has been moving in a positive direction, he adds, particularly in its product line. “In our 40 years in business, this is the first year Expand will be selling products that are made in Japan. Our made-in-Japan machines will be highlighted, demo-ed, and shown at IMTS in Chicago.”

Singh encourages attendees to visit Expand Machinery at the event at booth 338187 in the South Hall, to view the products’ capabilities firsthand.

As the company has previously only sold products made in Taiwan since its founding, it’s proud to offer this addition to its high-quality line of machinery. “Our Taiwan products will still exist; nothing is being discontinued,” adds Singh. “But we have expanded into made-in-Japan products, and we’re excited for the first two key models to be represented at the IMTS show.”

Expand Machinery will have seven or eight machines in total showing at IMTS this year, which also features its partnership with one of the company’s biggest partners, Mitsubishi, for controls and robotics.

The two new Japanese model machines being launched at IMTS 2024 are the C42MYS / C52MYS (Twin Spindle Single Turret Live Tool Machine with “Y” Axis available with Fanuc OITF Plus Control) and the CW42MY / CW52MY (Twin Spindle Double Live Tool Turret Machine with “Double Y Axis” available with Fanuc OITF Plus Control and Mitsubishi M800 Control).

The new launch of the company’s best seller for the last 20-plus years, GENTURN 36CS, is now available with Mitsubishi M800 Control, while GENTURN SL-20Y2 SWISS 20MM Hybrid Machine can be used with or without guide bushing and Mitsubishi M800 Control.

Other models include GENTURN 52GTS (Twin Spindle, Twin Gang Machine with Full “C” Axis and Mitsubishi M80 Control); GENMILL 5X-8 with Mitsubishi RV-13 (13KG Robot); GENMILL 5X – 24 with Mitsubishi 80KG Robot, and GANESH GMV-2F Manual Milling Machine with Newall DRO.

“The 5X – 24 is also a newer product, but it’s manufactured in Taiwan and will be displayed at the Mitsubishi booth with an 80KG Mitsubishi robot,” Singh says. “Also our GENTURN 52GTS machine will also be displayed at the Mitsubishi booth. So those two sets of machinery will be at the Mitsubishi booth, which will be only three or four booths away from the Expand Machinery booth in the South Hall.”

Into the world
The company’s embrace of new and innovative technology was one reason it changed names from Ganesh to Expand in 2019, Singh explains. “We wanted to have the name Expand Machinery because we are venturing into different countries and globally into the world.”

While today the company is launching made-in-Japan products, tomorrow it might be launching something new and exciting from another region. Regardless, it’s the first time in 40 years that the company has added any product made in a different country. “Japanese-made is considered a very superior product in our industry,” Singh says.

“This is the first time we’re showing four new products in the IMTS show, which we have never done,” he adds. “One of them will be our GENTURN 36CS—our number-one seller for Expand Machinery in the last 20 years. This is also the first time we’ll be relaunching that machine with the Mitsubishi M800, which a lot of our distributors and customers are waiting for.”

And IMTS will certainly be the best area to showcase these products. With the event taking place only every two years, it was canceled in 2020 at the height of the pandemic and was poorly attended in 2022. This year, however, promises to be different. “What we are hearing is that everyone from different parts of the country will definitely be attending, so it should be a well-attended show this time in Chicago,” says Singh.

While COVID has adversely affected all businesses in the industry in various ways, Expand has continued to thrive, especially in its growth and its strategic move into the Japanese-made product lines.

“It’s an accomplishment, and we’re expanding in the industry with this new launch,” Singh says. “As for milestones we’re hoping to achieve in the upcoming years, that also includes growing and expanding as a company. As we’re a small business looking to grow into a larger-sized business, these higher quality and more productive machines will help us get into the tier-one category of customers in the United States; that’s what we’re hoping for ourselves and our distributing partners.”

While the company already has an impressive customer base with the likes of Lockheed, Tesla, Ford, and SpaceX, this will further enhance Expand Machinery’s capacity to serve tier-one customers, along with the small and mid-size shop market.

“We’ve also expanded hugely in our parts support,” Singh says. “We’ve just added a number of machines in our parts department to enhance the efficiency level of our parts service to our customer base.”

The company’s growth necessitated a search for additional space when it became apparent that too much floor space had been yielded to the recent expansion of the parts department. To keep up with its impressive growth in the industry, boost efficiency, and increase its part-storage capacity, Expand Machinery added five Kardex Remstar VLM machines to its parts department. These new automated vertical parts storage and retrieval systems were the answer to the space issue, delivering an effective solution for quick parts choosing and storage along with much better floor space management.

Having quick, easy, and dependable access to components lowers warehousing costs and lets the company’s parts department expand. “All of this, of course, is also vital for our launch of products made in Japan,” says Singh. “It’s about expansion, maintaining quality service, and moving to the next level of high-quality, productive machines. Our company’s diverse product line that offers unparalleled machines will also be reflected in our new made-in-Japan launch.”

An expansion into robotics is another area Expand Machinery has delved into. “With the way advancements are happening in the optimization of the industry, robotics are important to our growth—as well as our big partner being Mitsubishi robots.”

Impressive strides
Ultimately, Expand Machinery is making impressive strides in its growth and ability to grasp what’s most important to the industry at large and especially its customers: what they need now and what they’ll need in the future to remain successful and relevant.

“Everyone knows when they see ‘Made in Japan’, it means it’s high quality, maybe the highest quality product,” says Singh. And while this newest addition will absolutely help set the company apart from its competitors, Expand also boasts many additional qualities that help place it on the highest rung.

“Of course, we have competition out there,” says Singh. “Our competition is also bringing in and selling similar types of machines, but what sets us apart is the whole platform of being a family company.” What that means in practice is providing top-notch service to its customers, both before and after the sale, and all under one roof. Expand Machinery also ensures customers receive support and care for all applications, services, parts, and sales.

“That is what drives our customers to come back to us,” says Singh. “Not only do we provide high-quality machines to our clients, but we back them with an excellent level of support.”

Be sure to visit Expand Machinery at IMTS 2024, Sept. 9-14, McCormick Place, Chicago Illinois, Booth 338187.

The post Expand Machinery Is Living Up to Its Name<p class="company">Expand Machinery </p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The FDA-registered iWALKFree crutch provides unmatched mobility and freedom from the constraints of traditional crutches for those with non-weight-bearing lower leg injuries including sprained or broken feet or ankles, Achilles injuries, lower limb amputations, and other below the knee conditions. iWALK is the only crutch substitute offering a degree of mobility that allows users to carry out daily tasks, heal faster, and regain freedom.

This painless, affordable, and straightforward device is making waves in the medical community as more and more studies reveal its unique ability to expedite healing while mimicking the muscle actions of a normal unassisted gait.

“We’re constantly changing and evolving our design to make it work better,” says Hunter. “We have a staff of people dedicated specifically to improving the product.”

While version 3.0 is currently on the market, version 4.0 is already in prototyping. And before 4.0 goes into production, 5.0 will be in design.

New technology
Even though the company strives to make each version perfect, consumers continually provide feedback and suggestions for improvement.

“The problems we’re trying to solve on the newest generation of crutch are more refinements than actual issues,” Hunter says. “For any manufactured product, people have no concept of how difficult it is to make something that works every time and is defect-free.” He adds that when anything medical-related is at stake, it’s essential that everything works as it’s supposed to, which is why the company devotes so many resources to its total quality management system.

Consumers, although often proposing valuable suggestions for improvements, don’t always understand how challenging it is to make even minor changes to the product, for example, in the case of a request for a shock absorber. “Unfortunately, it would add a lot of complexity, cost, and weight for not enough benefit,” says Hunter. “When your heel strikes the ground, that’s when your leg and hips and body feel the most force. We wanted to dampen that, but a shock absorber wasn’t really feasible.”

Instead, the company found a clever way of incorporating shock absorption into the foot of the crutch, similar to that in the heel of a running shoe, that was both protective and cost-effective. It’s in prototyping and has been “extremely well received.”

To get to that point, the team built prototypes which had actual active suspension with pivots and dampeners to determine exactly what they needed to achieve and found a clever and economical way to do it.

Proven right
The company’s successful innovations are getting noticed, evident in the fact that numerous imitations are now coming on the market.

“There’s an old saying that knockoffs prove you’re doing something right. We’re not afraid of them, except that the hands-free crutch is a relatively new concept, and if people go for the cheap knockoffs, their functionality is terrible,” Hunter says. “That can ruin the reputation of the hands-free crutch concept in general. But they’re not a challenge for us at all. If anything, it’s authentication that we’re doing it right.”

Fortunately, the imitations aren’t a commercial threat as the companies involved aren’t putting effort and resources into the product as they don’t specialize in it.

Conversely, “We only do the hands-free crutch; it’s our total focus. We provide the resources, the R&D, the quality control, and we meet the regulatory requirements. We also have technical support and customer service for iWALK customers. We have replacement parts, warranty, everything,” Hunter explains.

There is also the challenge of marketing, however, as potential users looking for crutches may not know the iWALK exists. “But because we’re the best-selling crutch on Amazon, they discover us when searching for conventional crutches,” Hunter says. “Online sales are good for us, because, again, people aren’t typically looking for an iWALK, they’re looking for something else. We’re still unfortunately at that stage of awareness.”

However, more and more doctors are recommending the device as they become familiar with its benefits, due in part to the copious amount of clinical research that’s been published. “For doctors, nothing is real unless it has the white paper to back it up,” Hunter says. “We have independent, peer-reviewed clinical research that is published in medical journals. And that’s the currency that doctors need to feel comfortable and know that the iWALK is legit.”

Better healing
The studies have shown that the medical benefits of the iWALK are numerous. “When the research came out, it validated what we already thought, but then actually turned out to be even better than that,” Hunter shares.

One of the studies included an electro-myocardiogram (EMG), where sensors are placed on the body to reveal muscle activity at the location of the sensor. “They ‘sensored up’ somebody’s leg walking normally,” Hunter says, “and then put sensors on the same leg walking with an iWALK. And the researchers were blown away.”

The study showed that with an iWALK, the muscles from the hip to the knee were doing the same thing as in a normal human walking action, but not only were the muscles of the upper leg active, so were those in the lower leg. Why is that important? It means significant reduction of the muscle atrophy that typically accompanies immobilized limbs. So although the affected leg has become non-weight-bearing, it has retained more muscle mass and your recovery will be quicker. “But even more significant is blood flow,” says Hunter. “And this is what’s mind-blowing.”

In simple terms, the heart pushes the blood out to the rest of the body with the furthest point being the lower leg. But the blood pressure from the heart pumping is not what brings blood back to the heart—what’s needed for that is muscle activity. The heart pushes blood out through the arteries and when the muscles contract, they push the blood back upstream through the veins to recirculate through the heart.

“If that muscle is dormant and has no activity, such as if using conventional crutches or knee scooters, then the venous pump—what this mechanism is called—is not activated. Essentially there’s a dam and the blood is blocked from flowing back upstream,” Hunter explains.

The most common place for this to happen is the lower leg. With no muscle activity, blood in the lower leg can pool, and nutrient- and oxygen-rich healing blood isn’t getting to the trauma site, meaning slower recovery.

“This can also lead to a blood clot called a DVT—deep vein thrombosis—and that’s nothing to fool with,” Hunter notes. It’s a serious, potentially deadly condition which is much more prevalent in people with non-weight-bearing lower-limb injuries due to lack of muscle activity. Ultimately, if you’re using crutches or a scooter, you run a higher risk of having a DVT than if you’re using an iWALK,” he says.

“It’s a lot to wrap your head around,” Hunter says, “but physicians understand it and fortunately, the research proves it. If there’s muscle activity, there’s venous pump activity. We all understand that muscle activity infers better blood flow, but because blood flow itself was not directly researched in the EMG studies, we didn’t actually prove the blood flow claim initially,” Hunter says. “So additional studies were conducted which specifically tested blood flow and researchers found that blood flow using an iWALK is substantially similar to normal unassisted human walking when you’re using not using a mobility device. And that’s huge.”

These studies also included surveys finding that fully 90 percent of people who use the iWALK, when given the choice between iWALK, conventional crutches, or a knee scooter, choose the iWALK. “Our primary problem is awareness and understanding. Awareness that this device exists and understanding of what it is, what it isn’t, and what it will do for you.”

Challenging the crutch paradigm
The company says that the biggest challenge it faces is changing a paradigm of thought.

“People have been using crutches for thousands of years and scooters now for 20 or 30 years. It’s just difficult to go against the mainstream, and it takes a lot of time.” But more and more people are saying their physician referred the iWALK to them, and more and more doctors are requesting brochures to hand out to their patients.

“So we’re winning, but we haven’t won yet,” Hunter says. “The biggest challenge, once again, is building a mainstream awareness of the device.”

Getting to the point of recognition and acceptance—as with knee scooters—is vital, he adds. “Because the device is so much better, the demand and the medical benefits are there. Our biggest challenge is educating everybody, including the physicians. We focus on the general consumer but also physicians because most people with a non-weight-bearing injury will go to a physician at some point. As a smaller company, we have a huge marketing challenge in building universal awareness of a new technology.”

Another challenge on a smaller scale is misconceptions. Because this is a new device and people have preconceived notions regarding blood flow and stability, ultimately, it’s the physicians who will have to provide sound medical advice.

“We identified a researcher who was the foremost expert in the field of angular momentum, which is the accepted way of measuring stability, and—surprise, surprise—the iWALK turns out to be way more stable than crutches, so it’s actually safer.” This debunks a common preconception that the iWALK might not be as stable as other mobility devices.

Quality systems
As iWALK has gained traction in the medical community and the company has grown, Hunter noticed the need for robust quality systems, both proactive and reactive, to be in place.

“I think we’ve done a particularly good job in that area, and this relates to the knockoffs of the iWALK. There’s no way they have the kind of quality control systems, with the documentation, that we have in place. You wouldn’t think this simple little device would have so much backing, but it does.”

The company also attends and exhibits at medical conferences, but right now its best salesperson is the customer who does a follow-up visit to their doctor and tells them how much they love the product.

“That’s still our most common referral source,” Hunter says. Social media is another excellent source of promotion where unbiased users in real-life situations share their experiences, photos, and videos.

“There’s so much user-generated content about the iWALK out there that’s building awareness organically,” he says. “And every endorsement and testimonial we’ve ever had was free, including 11 world champion athletes, gold medalists, and a list of celebrities including Harrison Ford. They may not know the medical benefits, but it’s all genuine.”

Tipping point
What the company is looking for is the proverbial tipping point of awareness, he adds. Scooters, for instance, weren’t advertised much, but the more people saw them “in the wild,” the more they started asking for them. “Ultimately, we want everyone to understand that this exists. Once that’s done, everything else will take care of itself.”

Hunter is convinced that as awareness and understanding of the benefits of the iWALK become more universal, the iWALK will become the first choice of mobility device, both by physicians and end users. “Once the medical community understands how significant the medical benefits are that this $150 device provides, one could argue that not having the iWALK as their primary recommendation subjects the qualified patient to preventable risk.”

The post Painless, Affordable, Straightforward – This Crutch is Made for Walking<p class="company">iWALKFree </p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

INSTI® HIV tests are innovative, user-friendly diagnostic kits for HIV infection diagnosis and are the fastest HIV rapid diagnostic assays available, taking only 60 seconds to read. The INSTI® HIV-1/ 2 Antibody Test is a quick and qualitative in vitro test that can be used to find antibodies against Type 1 or Type 2 HIV in human plasma, fingerstick blood, or whole blood.

“The U.S. is our largest customer, and even the Department of Health is using our tests and loves them,” says Rob Mackie, CEO. “And there are so many more applications to use them.”

Utilizing a self-test means not only the freedom to test when and where you want (without supervision, as the test comes with full instructions!) but also receiving your results instantly, allowing for faster access to medical intervention.

“We’ve come a long, long way. In the beginning, self-testing had a tough time gaining traction, because with every reactive result, it was felt that we needed to ensure an officially monitored link to care,” Mackie says. “But that didn’t work because no one would get tested, and they were losing the fight to HIV.”

Most people generally don’t randomly get tested for HIV (unless they’re in a high-risk population) because HIV still carries the stigma of promiscuity, he adds, which is why having a self-test for different diseases is so vital.

“When it comes to Hepatitis C, once you find out you have it via symptoms, it’s often too late. But if you find out through a test, there’s a 12-week treatment that used to be over $70,000 but now some treatments are under $5,000, and for 95 percent of people, the treatment works, and you’re rid of it forever.”

There are also many ways to contract Hepatitis C, which is why it’s so important that people have access to a test that can save their lives.

“One thing the pandemic taught us is to take our healthcare into our own hands,” Mackie says. “No one’s going to come and save you… you’ve got to take that responsibility now.”

The pandemic also meant three years of significantly reduced testing for HIV, pushing advancement in testing rates back many years, he says, with numbers similar to those seen 10 years ago. “Almost all resources for testing were put toward one thing, and that was COVID-19. Additionally, everyone was locked at home, personal encounters went up, and awareness of rapid testing, STIs, and knowing your status went down.”

Mackie explains that it is estimated that 60 percent or more of the disease’s spread comes from people who don’t know they have it. Upon learning you have HIV, you immediately go on antiretrovirals to suppress your CD 4 count, not only to avoid infecting someone new but to freeze your virus at a state where you don’t have flu-like symptoms, you’re not feeling lethargic all day, and symptoms won’t turn into AIDS, the actual disease.

“If every single person knew their status, and the people that were positive were on treatment, HIV would go away, but we just can’t seem to get a handle on that,” Mackie says. “The reason we’re now doing this chlamydia/gonorrhea duplex test is because, according to WHO, Africa spends close to $30 billion a year on healthcare, and people can’t get an appointment to see the doctor because STIs are taking up all the appointments with chlamydia and gonorrhea.”

There are one million new sexually transmitted infections every day—over 374 million new infections last year—so with everyone knowing their status regarding chlamydia, gonorrhea, or any STI, they’re far less likely to have an encounter and put themselves in a position to spread it, he adds.

“We know chlamydia and gonorrhea aren’t killers, but they’re so painful and uncomfortable that you will wait in a lineup at the doctor’s office to get your antibiotics or whatever’s going to get you pain-free, and it’s clogging their whole system,” Mackie says.

While there are new products and tests available now which weren’t before, nobody knew about them until bioLytical got test approval in Canada, and even now, unless the company spends a significant amount of time increasing awareness, many people still won’t know unless they’re in a high-risk community, actively doing something that puts them at risk.

“Our focus on the STI market with the RI (registered intermediary) status product is going to be just huge for our company because there’s such a need for it,” Mackie says.

As with many products, educating the general public is key to gaining trust and sharing knowledge. Today’s political climate, unfortunately, has fostered suspicion of information from scientific sources that is challenging to combat.

“We have to educate people, but it’s hard to educate people now because they don’t know what to believe,” Mackie says. “It’s not about them being ignorant, because I think they have valid reasons to be suspicious due to the world we live in, and that’s disappointing. But it’s hard for companies like us.”

bioLytical has high-quality products, he adds, and being Canadian-based means working under stringent regulations and audits from Health Canada.

“We have no choice but to put out a high-quality product, and that’s why everyone’s coming to us,” says Mackie. “We don’t have any of this controversy following us or any data giving false results.”

As much damage as the ongoing pandemic has caused, it has also forced companies—and governments—to learn. bioLytical, for instance, spent a million dollars trying to make its original platform work for COVID. When the company couldn’t get it to work for less than $25 a test, it developed a new platform out of necessity, and that platform will now be utilized against STIs.

While bioLytical already has approval for its Hepatitis C test in Europe, there are upcoming additional approvals, such as inclusion into the Australian Registry of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) and the WHO’s pre-qualification, which opens up all tenders in the developing world, including Africa and India, where NGOs working in those areas often can’t afford to buy their own product.

And receiving the upcoming self-test HIV approval in the United States will be a huge triumph for the company.

“HIV is more prevalent now than it was 10 years ago, with a significant increase over the last three years, largely attributed to the decrease in testing due to the pandemic,” says Mackie. “We’re still getting about 1.5 million infections a year globally, and we’re sitting at about 39 million people living with HIV. The U.S. has about 1.2 million infections total, a significant amount for a rich country.”

Catching up on years of missed testing and escalating cases seems daunting, but bioLytical has the skills and experience to handle the challenges.

“We’re a medium-sized company, and we’re growing into a good-sized company,” says Mackie. “And we’re nimble because we’re private; we’re not a public company controlled by a board. We obviously answer to a board, but I’m in the office every day, and I chair the board, so we don’t have to go outside for decisions.”

Keeping everything in-house is also important, he adds. “We don’t get to a point in product development where we have to negotiate something with someone that makes it not even economically feasible. If you have one component you have to buy from someone else, and they see you have this huge market and just need their one component, you can only imagine how hard it is to negotiate. We control our own destiny by having everything made in-house and decisions all made in-house.”

This also means controlling quality. “We’re only as good as the last test we made, and we have such a good reputation for quality that we wouldn’t put out our COVID test early until it was solid,” he says.

The company knew it was missing the market but refused to compromise its 20 years of quality by trying to take advantage of “low-hanging fruit,” instead staying the course and putting out a high-quality product. “For the sake of our integrity and quality, it’s very risky for us to outsource,” Mackie says.

This all results in high company morale as well, he adds, with staff feeling deep satisfaction from accomplishing everything on their own. “When you’re doing everything—from the science to the clinical trials to all the production to the solution manufacturing—no one else gets any of the credit when you do something good.”

Doing good also includes philanthropic work, such as working with the REACH program in Canada on syphilis and HIV; providing hurricane-relief funding; and continually spreading knowledge and awareness of the importance of self-testing across the world.

“There’s nothing pretty about Hep C,” says Mackie. “When it rears its head, you’re going to have a painful death on dialysis and cost the taxpayer a quarter of a million dollars. Or you can find out early—with no symptoms—that you have Hep C, and you just need this treatment, and it can save you, as opposed to not knowing and fully developing Hep C. What a waste! No one survives that.”

Again, he says, education is key to understanding that it can be caught early and treated completely.

“We have this great dream, and it’s not even a ‘suppression’ of the disease like HIV. If you’re rid of Hep C, it’s out of your blood. It’s quite amazing. There should be lineups to get heavily tested, but I don’t think there are lineups or even much awareness of the disease.”

Unfortunately, people will look for any reason to not get tested, he adds, even though bioLytical’s rapid tests are highly reliable, involve a mere finger prick, and give almost immediate results.

“I have four kids and when I retired, I could have done anything, but when the technology of bioLytical came across my table, I thought, ‘what a great legacy, to try to do well while doing good,’” shares Mackie. “I just thought that if we could be successful, it would sure be a cool thing to be successful at, and who knew it would go way beyond HIV. We’re getting close to 50 million in tests and probably have stopped 20 million new infections. That’s pretty awesome.”

The post Saving Lives with Science<p class="company">bioLytical Laboratories</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

StressMarq is regarded internationally for its high quality bioreagents which include antibodies, aggregated proteins, and assay kits, and the company’s academic and biopharmaceutical customers are using these technologies to make meaningful strides in diagnostic and therapeutic advances. These discoveries are leading to breakthroughs in the field that have enabled scientists to proactively model neurodegenerative diseases while working to slow, stop, and eventually, reverse them in their tracks.

A matter of heart and mind
For President and CEO Ariel Louwrier, StressMarq Biosciences’ focus on neurodegenerative disease research is a matter close to his heart. Having lost his father to Alzheimer’s and his father-in-law to Lewy Body Dementia, there is both a personal and professional drive to better understand and eventually mitigate the impacts of neurodegenerative diseases that were historically under-researched.

Now, in what Louwrier refers to as the “Age of the Brain,” a better understanding of the physiological processes that lead to neurodegeneration is being elucidated.

Neurodegenerative diseases occur when there is a gradual loss or death of cells in the central nervous system. Plaques—which are the result of self-catalyzing proteins that deviate from their typical biological function—aggregate and ultimately kill healthy cells, leading to neurodegeneration.

StressMarq Biosciences has artificially replicated this process across disease states such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and accelerated it, enabling researchers to conduct research to better understand the behaviors of the aggregating proteins and how to slow, stop, or reverse this activity.

“We’re the ‘tools’ people, but overall, these tools really lift the sector, regardless of what else is happening. While the products we make are for research purposes only, they are transformational for diagnostic and therapeutic advancements in the field,” Louwrier explains.

Seeds of change
The biological tools that StressMarq Biosciences manufactures complement some of the pioneering work carried out by the Michael J. Fox Foundation and its Parkinson’s Progressive Market Initiative (PPMI), research that led to the development of what appears to be predictive technology (called the Synuclein Amplification Assay, or SAA). This technology is able to determine whether a patient has or could develop Parkinson’s with a significant degree of certainty.

“Part of the completed studies indicated for the first time that even if a person didn’t show Parkinson’s symptoms, there was a predictive element that suggested they were already on the path of developing the disease within a certain timeframe. That finding was completely new, because usually when symptoms appear, it’s generally too late to do a great deal in terms of returning the brain to normal health,” notes Louwrier.

When Parkinson’s progresses to the point of the presentation of symptoms, upwards of 50 to 60 percent of the brain’s dopaminergic neurons have been lost, which is a traumatic loss that will have significant impacts on a patient’s quality of life. Given the extraordinary ability of the brain to cope with this level of damage, if you could intervene at only 20 to 30 percent neuronal loss, the disease progression could be slowed, and a person’s quality of life could be greatly improved for a significant time period—possibly the rest of their life.

The method used to identify the disease requires the use of monomeric proteins associated with Parkinson’s disease—called alpha synuclein—which, when in their singular form, can aggregate. While this process is generally slow, it is greatly accelerated in the presence of existing natural aggregates, or “seeds” that are present in certain biological fluids such as cerebrospinal fluid from diseased patients. Using this method, the process can be accelerated to produce results in up to one to three days. Critically, these results would be assay-based, complementing or replacing existing cognitive evaluations alone.

As Louwrier explains, “The seeds, ironically, are exactly what those monomeric proteins become once they aggregate, so it’s kind of a circular accelerating event that doesn’t require any other form of intervention to occur, and the methods for detecting the aggregated proteins from their building blocks are simple and well established.”

There are, however, downsides to this technology. Because the proteins inherently self-aggregate, there is a tendency toward false positives, but StressMarq Biosciences has been working to create a monomeric preparation for this particular assay that removes the tendency to self-aggregate while still allowing for a strong positive response when seeded.

“It’s a bit analogous to a tug of war—you’re pulling in both directions, trying to find a sweet spot and set of conditions to create the perfect assay,” says Louwrier. To make things more complex, aggregated proteins and their precursors can exist as different variants, or ‘flavours,’ as he refers to them, and using different ones can produce very different outcomes. “We were trying to create this SAA assay preparation and I think we figured it out, so we’ll be looking to launch that for research purposes later this year.”

Breaking ground
StressMarq Biosciences always has something potentially groundbreaking in the product pipeline. Recently, the company worked to advance a patented antibody that showed great promise for diagnostic impact. At this point, however, it is being sold as a Parkinson’s research tool and is producing some very interesting data.

“We’re beginning to see some very interesting results with this antibody. It appears to detect specific disease states within the brain, so this is the sort of tool that could be particularly useful to researchers, because the results are not ambiguous,” says Louwrier.

He continues, “What’s really important about antibodies is that they are generally excellent binding agents. However, a given antibody may bind other things that are very similar structurally.” This can present a significant problem in that an antibody could bind to its target too indiscriminately to be useful. Since aggregated proteins are made of multiple units of identical monomers, there’s an unusually high degree of commonality between the two, be it the monomeric or aggregated form, which could produce an overwhelming background signal if both entities are significantly detected.

“We can detect aggregates in the gut of mice that were injected with artificial recombinant seeds in the brain weeks prior. While that’s not really novel, this is an area that will continue to be of relevance in the sector—that is, examining the connection between what is happening in the brain and how that translates to what is happening in the gut. This is referred to as the gut-brain-axis, or GBA.”

StressMarq has also developed a labelled monomeric protein that was used in studies in the United Kingdom, published in Science Advances, whereby the construct was used in cells to measure the beginnings of the oligomerization process in significant detail.

“You go from a point where there’s no signal, to signals being generated, so these proteins can be shown to interact with each other, forming aggregates. These can be readily identified using novel technology, so that was a very interesting study. It’s quite niche of course, but it’s another positive element in understanding and unraveling the mysteries of these diseases,” Louwrier says of that work being led by Dr. Matthew Horrocks from the University of Edinburgh.

There are a whole range of protein constructs offered by StressMarq Biosciences that are achieving fascinating results in different research applications worldwide and being published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. One of the more interesting ones from a physiological standpoint is tau, which is a protein that undergoes aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease. StressMarq recently launched a unique preparation of tau, designed to structurally mimic the aggregates found in patient brains.

“That has never been done before, and now that we know what that defined structure looks like, we have made it commercially available to scientists,” Louwrier says of the enabling nature of these tools for research purposes. “For the first time we can actually put something directly into the scientific toolbox for researchers that is designed to be structurally identical to what is seen in a patient brain.”

Making an impact
Unlike genetic techniques which take anywhere from six to 18 months to model in an animal host, StressMarq Biosciences’ recombinant protein aggregates can model the diseases in as few as 30 days, which not only saves time but also money. This is relevant in a sector where funding is dependent on the markets, institutional investors, and governments, where currently budgets are being tightened.

“I think the biopharma folks have been extremely receptive to the information that we’re able to give them in terms of our data and experience with these proteins because, and I’ll use the words from one of our clients in pharma, ‘you just saved us two years of work,’” Louwrier shares. In some cases, however, the two concepts have been merged: “You can have a genetic approach that creates a disease background, or a disease-prone background, and you take the proteins—the ‘seeds’ that StressMarq creates—and it accelerates even more.”

Through collaboration and education, the advantages of StressMarq Biosciences’ tools, plus the ingenuity and dedication of researchers, are taking neurodegenerative disease drug discovery to new places.

“We have a range of international collaborations going on at any given time—different proteins, different disease states—where we provide materials to scientists and in return, receive relevant data that we can show the rest of the world,” which serves to educate and advance the efforts of StressMarq and its customers.

One of those collaborators is Gubra, a contract research organization (CRO) that is utilizing StressMarq Biosciences’ proteins in new and extraordinary ways and providing valuable data. Louwrier refers to Gubra’s work as “visually arresting,” particularly the ability to develop three-dimensional brain imaging techniques that offer targeted imaging down to the single cell level.

“You can literally view something and delve into the brain. It’s extraordinary because it’s three-dimensional. Gubra has used experimental mouse brains, for instance, that have been stained with a particular antibody that diffuses into the tissue and binds to a target. They have used our materials to generate disease states in these experimental systems,” he says. “We are then able to visualize, in three dimensions, the impact of the pathology being generated, as well as other things that are relevant, including the dopaminergic neurons dying as a result. Gubra’s technology is outstanding—their visually arresting 3D video output feels like you are seeing what is happening inside the brain.”

Louwrier also highlights the work of additional companies in the drug discovery space that have used StressMarq Biosciences’ products. reMYND is a Belgian company developing best-in-class treatments using a proprietary drug discovery platform to restore function for patients with diseases caused by cellular dysfunction. Swedish company Cellectricon is another player doing interesting work, utilizing StressMarq’s proteins to seed neuronal cells grown in microfluidic chip-based environments.

Results-driven growth
For Louwrier, operating a successful business that offers employment opportunities on Vancouver Island and scientific research products of the highest caliber is a priority, and it is paying off in the form of company growth. But for him, the real reward of these efforts is knowing the products play a role in the scientific breakthroughs that are taking place, and that the company’s customers and partners are seeing results.

He says, “When I talk to a customer or collaborator and they say, ‘we just conducted trials X, Y, and Z and we can’t give you the details yet because it’s proprietary, but we want you to know that it worked,’ I walk home and that’s a really good day for me because somebody did something useful with our materials.”

Knowing that the products are effective is one thing but seeing the collective efforts to improve drug discovery in the neurodegenerative disease space—and hopefully patient outcomes—is a real source of pride, and one that continues to motivate the work of StressMarq Biosciences and its partners.

The post Empowering Research in the ‘Age of the Brain’<p class="company">StressMarq Biosciences Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Advanced Systems and Controls was founded in 1990 by Andy Zundel, who ran the business until April 2018, when Jagmohan Kohli took over as President. Before ASC, Zundel worked at Precise Technology and Electronics (PT&E) with Kevin Pray. Both Zundel and Pray were designers/managers, and their interests were more in the custom test equipment part of the business, a small percentage of PT&E’s revenue.

After a few years and many discussions, the two left PT&E and created ASC, where Pray serves as Vice President.

A global client base
Based in Michigan’s ‘Automation Alley’—an area renowned for technology and innovation—ASC is well situated for access to a large talent pool and world-class suppliers of commercial and specialized services. The company is centrally located near major freeway systems for easier logistics.

ASC’s client base extends across the United States and other countries worldwide. Over the years, the company has done work in Mexico, Argentina, Austria, Uruguay, Thailand, the United Kingdom, China, Venezuela, and Brazil. Some of ASC’s clients include multinational CNH Industrial N.V., GKN Automotive, and Magna Powertrain. Some, like U.S.-based axle, driveshaft, and transmission supplier Dana Incorporated, have been local and international Advanced Systems and Controls customers since day one.

“We’re seeing an increase of robotic automation for assembly and welding and an increase in virtual commissioning and simulations prior to equipment build,” says Pray. Taking on projects for a large truck diesel engine manufacturer is seeing ASC making inroads into new applications. ASC has also recently worked for a combine manufacturer.

Tested and true
ASC operates with a full-time staff of 17, including mechanical designers, mechanical assemblers, machinists, electrical pipe and wire technicians, salespeople and estimators, and contractors as needed. Performing complete projects from design through assembly, test, and installation, the company typically comes on board after a facility and product are designed and ready for manufacture, but can get involved at any step of the process as needed.

Sometimes, clients are so comfortable with ASC’s work that they engage with the company very early on, even before they’ve defined their own processes. If a Tier 1 supplier is looking to get business from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) such as Ford, GM, or Jaguar, they have defined the process they are going to use to make a product; occasionally, they engage with ASC to help them as well.

“Other companies prefer to have their process well-defined before they come to us and say, ‘This is how I want to assemble and build my product, help make the machines for us,’” says Kohli. “But for most projects, we do the machine-specific work itself, and do our own design through build and integration.”

In either case, all ASC automation, robotic welding, module assembly, press, and end-of-line systems created in the company’s 24,000-square-foot facility are meticulously designed, manufactured, and tested before shipment and installation. Frequently, customers bring components to ASC, and parts are made on the assembly line during validation. This ensures functionality, cycle time, and quality. Project managers are assigned to all projects, and the same team that builds the machine is responsible for installation and customer support to ensure continuity.

To build a single machine can take 16 weeks or longer. Depending on complexity and size, full assembly lines sometimes require a year from the start of design to manufacturing and shipping. Along with installing machines and assembly lines at client facilities, ASC provides valuable training while on-site.

“We will usually install it and stay for the start-up process at the customer’s facility,” says Kohli. “During the start-up process is when operator training usually happens, along with maintenance and any programming changes that may be needed.”

Skilled staff
Along with technical skills, ASC looks for particular qualities in the people it hires, especially the ability to work independently. The company tends not to micromanage its people, relying instead on their industry knowledge and giving them clear direction.

“That’s an important aspect, especially when you’re making a machine,” says Kohli. “You don’t want to find a design issue six months down the road, because then it becomes very difficult to solve. You need independent people who can work on their own while collaborating with a team.”

Promoting the business through word-of-mouth for years, Advanced Systems and Controls is actively seeking to diversify to meet customer demand. The company recently hired a marketing firm to help it break into new areas and meet manufacturers wanting turnkey automation solutions, including test systems and robotic integration.

Planning to grow through acquisition as well as organically, ASC currently has a company under a Letter of Intent (LOI). Says Kohli: “I would say we are looking at something complementary, not necessarily the same exact business segment. The one we have under LOI does a lot of prototype-building, fabrication, stamping, and so on.”

Along with growth, the business team at ASC is focused on diversification. An established automation industry leader, the company is investigating new industries and focusing much more on robotic automation. This includes an increased focus on—and making inroads into—the food and beverage sector, aerospace, and earth-moving equipment opportunities.

“From our perspective, it’s similar to what we do for the automotive sector,” says Kohli. “Advanced Systems and Controls is always looking for new opportunities to expand our knowledge base and offer our customers high-quality automation systems to suit their needs. We’ve begun expanding into new markets and we’ll continue to do so to grow our business.”

The post Turnkey Automation Solutions<p class="company">Advanced Systems and Controls</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The business is headquartered in South Korea and has a presence in over 100 countries, with local subsidiaries in China, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Türkiye, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States.

Taking semiconductors to the next level
The company is enjoying strong growth within the semiconductor space. “Historically, Autonics is a Korean-based manufacturer, so our initial semiconductor growth was primarily focused within the Asian space,” says Regional Sales Manager Ray Freudenberg. “Since coming to the U.S., expansion has steadily been taking place. Proving your worth in the semiconductor industry takes time, so the focus of Autonics USA has been on getting our name out there as a quality supplier. We’ve relied on our core products to get noticed, and have furnished samples for testing and provided technical support to ensure project success,” he says.

“What we have discovered about our own product along the way is that we are more capable and flexible than we were aware of. This seems to be driving semiconductor wins as we go forward with our partners.”

How has the company managed to find success in this competitive space? “Partnership is the key, really,” Freudenberg says. “There are many products in the market, but the passion and drive to accomplish alongside and on behalf of our customer base is what has fueled our successes so far.”

The company’s offerings within the semiconductor space stand out for several reasons. “Autonics offers workhorse products that are easy to use, economical to purchase, and functionally robust,” Freudenberg says. “Our focus is on doing what we do well, often exceeding expectations, without complicating the process along the way. Simply put, we just work better.”

Navigating the semiconductor industry involves some unique challenges, which Autonics has addressed and overcome. “The semiconductor industry is a somewhat closed ecosystem,” says Freudenberg. “A lot of investment has been made on the status quo, which works well enough to produce a quantity of product. That’s a lot of headwind to power through. Autonics realizes that the industry as a whole requires time to process change, which we are willing to work through with our customers. Being flexible helps a lot, both in terms of product design and support. We work with our customers, not just for them, and we’re in this for the long term.”

The company’s MD5 product, a 5-phase stepper driver, is particularly popular. “It’s very robust and long lasting,” Freudenberg says. “It’s also been proven to be a capable product, displacing products that should have more power than we do but can’t actually work as well in the application space.”

The company’s Power Controllers for sensitive temperature applications are also popular. “Our DPU, SPR, and SPRM have the features needed to ramp quickly and hold temperatures with minimal operator intervention. Having three series of products that can modulate power with greater stability than a solid-state relay means that we can tailor a solution for the end customer.”

The TN Series Temperature Controller also deserves consideration. “Programmable, with two degrees of freedom and ramp/soak capability, this is the perfect complement for our power controller lineup. It’s a combination that gives fast response with stable control,” Freudenberg explains.

“Our newest products, the BWM and BWML, which are primarily designed to see the edges of glass in a cassette and map their locations, in addition to providing proper loading ‘flatness’ data, are our next venture in the semiconductor market,” Freudenberg says. “Having multiple channel outputs and network communications allow for individual components to be located without damage or breakage,” he explains.

“Finally, let’s not overlook our Sensor products. Having photomicro sensors, fiberoptic amplifiers and fibers, plus a full complement of photoelectrics allows us to complete the offer. Autonics has standardly accepted form factors for worldwide use which also include proximity sensors. We’re a complete package under one roof.”

Functional safety products
The company recently launched a new Functional Safety line, which helps organizations provide a safe working environment. “Autonics recognized how well some of our other products aligned with the implementation of Functional Safety,” says Regional Sales Manager David Upton. “It was a natural expansion of our product portfolio to add this segment of automation devices. Part of our company culture is to ‘Make Life Easy.’ We see Functional Safeguarding as a key component to this belief and take great pride in supporting our customers to provide a safe work environment for their workers to return home from each day without injury.”

The product line stands out in the market for a number of reasons. “Autonics has worked very hard to make our products as user-friendly and easy to implement as we can while still maintaining levels of Functional Safety equal to or exceeding market competitors,” says Upton. “Our management is very supportive of our products’ competitive pricing and availability. We maintain stock levels of the most common Functional Safety products at our USA office and warehouse in Mundelein, Illinois (North Chicago). Autonics manufactures our products ourselves, so we control quality, cost, and production rate.”

Specific products in this line include the Mechanical Safety Door Switch and Emergency Stop, Mechanical Locking Safety Door Switch, Non-Contact, Magnetic Switch, Safety Light Curtains, Safety Controllers, Safety Selector Switch, and Safety 3 position Enabling Grip Switch.

These products “are ever evolving and one of the only product lines whose use is governed by a government agency, OSHA,” Upton explains. “This oversight is expected to protect workers from interacting with hazardous equipment or tools as much as possible without rendering a machine inoperable or unusable.”

One product to highlight is the SFL and SFLA Safety Light Curtain. “This is one of our thrust products in Functional Safety and has been very well received in the market,” Upton says. “Some very large names in the machine tooling segment have adopted our Safety Light Curtains as their standard.”

Customers can choose which version best fits their needs. “We have worked to keep our Safety Light Curtain product as uncomplicated as possible by having two versions to select from,” he says. “Our SFL is our entry level Safety Light Curtain yet remains feature-rich, on par with some competitors’ mid-range products. The SFLA is our more advanced Safety Light Curtain, with even greater features and capabilities.”

Autonics’ atLightCurtain is the company’s dedicated software for SFL/SFLA series Safety Light Curtains that monitors operations and sets functions. “The software is free even though it contains some very powerful features,” Upton says. “[It] is designed for ease of use and intuitive operation.”

Smart packaging solutions
The company also provides solutions for packaging machine OEMs and end users around the globe. “Autonics products are used in every aspect of the packaging process,” says Regional Sales Manager Warren Grasheim. “Photo-electric, fiber optic, proximity, and vision sensors, as well as rotary encoders, are used on conveyors to ensure that a product is in position to be processed for packaging correctly. This packaging process may include sorting, sealing, cutting, folding, labeling, and even shipping.” In addition, the company supplies stepper motors and drives, HMIs, I/O systems, counters, and timers, which are utilized in numerous packaging applications. And Autonics offers a broad line of temperature controllers for packaging machines that require precise temperature control.

The team has worked hard to overcome the challenges inherent to the packaging industry. “For end users, other manufacturers may already have components installed on their machines and we are often asked to ‘cross’ to our equivalent (or better) component,” Grasheim explains. “Fortunately, we’ve had very little disturbance in our supply chain and most of our products are available to ship from stock, enabling us to capture market share. With OEM packaging machine manufacturers, every machine designed has a product ‘life cycle’ and once a component is spec’d in, it is often difficult to displace. However, timing is everything and when we are able to demonstrate the features, benefits, cost savings, lead times, quality, and customer service behind every Autonics product, we are having our products spec’d in at these OEM manufacturers and it is our competition who now has the challenge of displacing us!”

With market-leading products for a range of industries, Autonics has solidified its place as a global leader in automated solutions. But the company has not stopped there; this team looks at the big picture, focusing on the customer to ensure a strong future for both the company and the consumer.

“At the end of the day, the best product in the world loses its shine if it doesn’t come with help and support,” says Freudenberg. “Autonics USA has assembled a group of technically sound personnel who bring various experiences and ideas to the table. We’re more than just good product—we’re good people, who are interested in our customers’ success.”

The post Creating Convenience<p class="company">Autonics</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Samuel Automation was created when three separate businesses—Systematix and RAMP of Waterloo, Ontario and CAID Automation of Tucson, Arizona—were united under a single identity by parent firm, Samuel, Son, and Co., a venerable metal and industrial product manufacturer, distributor, and processor, based in Oakville, Ontario.

“We are formed by three independent companies that were acquired by Samuel,” says Octavio Gonzalez, Vice President of Operations at one of the locations. “When you look at the differences between the three companies, they are almost non-existent. Each shares the same goal of providing high-performance automation solutions to help our customers,” he adds.

Smart solutions
Samuel Automation’s solutions cover a wide range of areas in industrial automation, including testing, packaging, inspection and quality control, component assembly, material handling, Autonomous vehicles (AGVs), and mobile robots (AMRs). Depending on client specifications and intended use, solutions might encompass advanced motion, high-end vision, high-speed conveying systems, a wide range of sensors, software, and data collection tools including remote monitoring.

The company self-performs the majority of the work. “We do most of the engineering ourselves,” says Gonzalez. “We might buy some off-the-shelf components for integration, but the core of the engineering is done here within our companies. We cover all stages of design and machine building, including mechanical and electrical design, machine assembly and wiring, programming, debugging, performance tests, and final installation. Although we rely on previous experience and designs and we use that experience as we execute new jobs, it’s always custom automation,” he adds.

Transportation/automotive, life sciences, consumer products, and alternative energy are the main markets served by the company. Its transportation-related work ranges from systems for complex automotive assembly lines with a focus on screw driving, part marking, pressing, part feed systems, gasket, and seal insertion to inline quality management solutions, a category that encompasses vision inspections, continuity testing, leak and flow testing, and part track and trace.

For the life sciences sector, the company offers process management solutions, new product launch scale-ups—involving creating semi-automated, value-engineered modular systems that can be scaled up as production or demand increases at the client’s plant—fully automated assembly, and testing.

In the consumer product realm, Samuel Automation excels at complex assembly automation solutions. The firm has the requisite experience and equipment to build machines capable of assembling “products of almost any size.” Specific areas of automation expertise for consumer products include gauging and calibration systems, cleanroom systems, labelling and packaging solutions, dispensing, and filling solutions, laser welding and marking systems, and turnkey assembly systems.

When it comes to alternative energy, the company is venturing into hydrogen fuel cell assembly and electric vehicle (EV) battery assembly, a wise strategy, given the importance of renewable energy and the emergent trend among corporations to set sustainability goals.

An eye on expansion
While the company’s existing offerings cover a wide array of sectors, the team is eager to expand its reach even further. There are plans to consolidate the firm’s presence in certain industries and enter into some new ones.

“Samuel Automation has been growing in the AMR market,” notes Gonzalez. “As a company, we have been able to present ourselves as the better option for our customers. There have been situations where customers, who have deployed AMR projects with competitors, have reached out to us for re-engineering and [re-deployment].”

In addition to this, the company is “venturing into the mining sector with a couple of projects being executed at the moment,” he continues. “Additionally, the company has also started work on a line for carbon capture technologies.”

Partnering for success
Each business within the Samuel Automation fold has its own particular specialities. Systematix, for example, excelled at complex assembly and advanced vision solutions for manufacturing or industrial operations; CAID does a great deal of automation work for medical and pharmaceutical clients; and RAMP is heavily involved in AMR and carbon capture technology.

The firms work together on occasion or even partner with companies within the wider Samuel, Son, and Co. group. This arrangement benefits everyone: clients can take advantage of the collective services instead of having to farm out different elements of their project to multiple companies, while sales staff can offer the one-stop shop capabilities to draw new clients and increase revenue.

Much of what Samuel Automation does is intended to enhance plant floor productivity and efficiency, but the firm has a broader vision in mind. Its solutions can also boost workplace safety, says Gonzalez, citing examples where operators have been manually handling heavy parts while offloading machines. In a case like this, the company has provided solutions to eliminate human exposure to hazards with the use of robots and automation, “addressing operational safety risks in this way,” he points out.

Leading-edge tech
While Samuel Automation purchases state-of-the-art devices and components to be integrated, the firm has also developed some technological innovations of its own. In-house solutions include MAVIX Machine Vision Software, which uses a multi-camera setup, AI algorithms, and advanced proprietary software to conduct high-speed part inspections to detect qualitative or quantitative flaws on production.

SPMX is another proprietary creation that employs process monitoring software, reporting tools, and data collection for quality management. As well as establishing new markets, Samuel Automation is eager to develop more in-house solutions, says Gonzalez, some of which might involve artificial intelligence (AI). To this end, the company has been exploring the use of AI in its vision systems and has “successfully deployed AI for a couple of projects already within the vision realm.”

A strong team
All told, the company employs roughly 150 people across all the firms within Samuel Automation. Anyone looking for work here needs to have the proper educational background and technical skills, plus a few other traits: beyond academic achievement and expertise, the company is interested in what drives the new talent. “Are they up to the challenge of learning, solving, helping, and making the organization stronger?” says Gonzalez.

Commitment and loyalty are greatly appreciated too. The company understands the importance of “developing our own talent,” and advancing gifted people up the ranks, he says.

New and veteran employees alike are expected to embrace the company’s core values of integrity, respect, agility, courage, and ownership. Clearly, staff members have been receptive to this message, as the company has been earning industry kudos. In 2022, two company employees made the ‘Top 10 Under 40’ program compiled by Manufacturing AUTOMATION magazine; two other employees also made the list last year. Winners are selected on the basis of work ethic, leadership abilities, enthusiasm for education and training, involvement in industry associations, and commitment to safety, sustainability, and innovation.

Besides recognizing some of Samuel’s youthful employees, the magazine bestowed a lifetime achievement award on Senior Controls and Vision Integrator Michal Goc last year. This award is intended to “celebrate trendsetters and legends in the industrial automation space,” according to Manufacturing AUTOMATION. The publication noted that Goc was a driving force behind the MAVIX machine vision solution.

Hiring had been the company’s biggest challenge, and to this end, Samuel Automation worked hard to “develop our own pool of resources by getting younger blood into the organization and helping get them trained. It’s an investment for us; it takes years to get people to where they need to be, but it’s paid off,” says Gonzalez.

The firm has apprenticeship programs for hands-on positions such as electricians and machine tool builders, and participates in co-operative education programs as well. In a co-op program, university or college students spend time working for the company while completing their studies. Co-op programs allow students to gain real-world experience, earn money, and possibly secure a future full-time job after graduating.

Samuel Automation plans to remain in growth mode for the foreseeable future. “We have a very aggressive plan of growth, and that’s what we are focusing on,” says Gonzalez. “We are hoping to become a more recognizable name since we have transitioned from three individual companies to Samuel Automation.”

The post Enhancing Productivity, Efficiency, and Safety<p class="company">Samuel Automation </p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Focusing its energy on delivering ingeniously designed, cost-effective solutions, Prime has been remarkably productive, serving clients in a range of industries including life sciences, food and beverage, automotive, and packaging and palletizing since its founding in 2017.

With its headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Waterloo, Ontario, and a staffed Underwriters Laboratories (UL) rated manufacturing facility in Clearwater, Florida, Prime continues to grow. The company has expanded its team to 35-plus employees across all three locations. And, with the hire of senior software developers and experienced mechanical designers, the company is expanding the custom machine-building and process automation parts of the business.

From design, assembly, and installation to Programmable Logic Control (PLC), Human Machine Interface (HMI), and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Prime has quickly become the leading choice for customers seeking vision systems, safety upgrades, plant-wide integration and control, and other automation services.

Distilling, food, and beverage
In the past year, Prime Automation has doubled down on its verticals in the food and beverage sectors, particularly the automation around distillation of premium spirits.

“What that entails is custom automation equipment to assist with the growing automation trend within the distilling sector,” says one of the company Directors, Mike Taub. “Distilling is becoming more and more automated each day, and we continue to develop exciting solutions.”

For Prime Automation and its customers, a greater emphasis on distillation makes sense. Since the beginning, Prime has taken on projects for several well-known premium spirit distillers and created long-lasting relationships within the distilling world for process automation across North America and abroad.

Technology hub
Ontario’s Waterloo Region is home to many of the world’s best-known high-tech giants, who benefit from the area’s proximity to the Canada-U.S. border, respected academic institutions, and available talent pool.

“There’s also the reputation the area has built for our skill sets,” says Ryan Bauml, Director of Automation. “When you hear about automation companies, Waterloo seems to be where the highest horsepower is in Canada and maybe [all of] North America. All the big companies are here, and they’re here for a reason.”

According to Waterloo Region, the area “has one of the world’s fastest growing tech sectors and the world’s second highest start-up density after Silicon Valley.” The region is also home to The Accelerator Centre and Communitech Hub, two world-class commercialization hubs “that turn great ideas into successful businesses for talent and acquisitions.”

Educational institutions driving technological innovation include Conestoga College, and the University of Waterloo (U of W).

Ranked the most innovative university in Canada for 30 of the last 32 years (as per Maclean’s 2024 university rankings) and number one for hands-on experiential learning in Canada (Maclean’s Student Voices Survey 2022), some of U of W’s departments include the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Software Engineering, and Systems Design Engineering.

The region is also home to Conestoga College. Known for its apprenticeship training and career-focused education, the college’s 270-plus programs include Computer Science, Mechanical Systems Engineering, Electro-Mechanical and Automation Maintenance (Optional Co-op), and Mechanical Engineering Technology – Automated Manufacturing (Optional Co-op).

Serving industry
Bauml also sits on one of Conestoga’s Program Advisory Committees (PAC). Consisting of industry experts, school board representatives, employers, and government officials, PACs meet several times a year to assist Conestoga faculty with understanding industry needs “to better train a qualified and skilled workforce,” according to the college.

To date, Prime Automation has several graduates from the local universities and colleges on its staff and is active with Co-op opportunities for Conestoga College students. The company has a section on its website (https://www.primeautomation.ca/Testimonials.htm) dedicated to Student Success Stories.

“We can serve our Ontario clients better,” says Taub. “There’s a big knowledge pool up here with the surrounding Universities and Colleges. The region gives us access to high-level people for this industry, which is good.”

Along with being named an Employer of the Year (Co-op) by Conestoga College, Prime has been featured on The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business list of Canada’s Top Growing Companies, with revenue growth of 144 percent per year. In addition, Prime Automation is also featured in Waterloo’s Robotics and Automation Ecosystem as a controls system integrator.

Range of clients
In less than a decade, with impressive and sustained start-up energy, Prime Automation has emerged as one of Canada’s leading automation solutions companies. With expertise in areas that include project management, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), mechanical and electrical design, throughput optimization, installation and service, instrumentation, and more, clients know they can rely on Prime for their automation needs.

Since its founding, Prime has reached new clients mainly through word-of-mouth recommendations from existing customers and partnerships with other companies. As the company makes inroads into the food and beverage sectors and distilling, it plans to have more direct contact with interested parties.

Also working on revamping its branding, Prime will unveil a new website in a few months which will include specifics on projects, the types of machine builds Prime can provide, and success stories from previous projects.

Continuing to serve clients in areas as diverse as metal forming and automotive, the team at Prime Automation envisions continued growth in all sectors. In life sciences, this includes pharmaceutical packaging and distributed control systems (DCS), which automate industrial equipment.

“Food and beverage and distilling is going to be the big path forward,” says Taub, “and life sciences and pharmaceutical is another good path for us moving forward.”

The post Driving Innovation<p class="company">Prime Automation Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Proud of its entrepreneurial drive, the company has now superseded its goals from a year ago and continues pushing forward with impressive and stable speed from its modern, 13,000-square-foot facility in Barrie, Ontario. Black Controls Company offers custom, turnkey industrial and robotic control systems, with design, engineering, fabrication, mechanical, and programming services.

The company is also well-equipped with operations, engineering, manufacturing, assembly, and development departments—all engineered for optimal output. Growing from around 20 permanent staff members to 25 in a year is a sign of more growth to come.

The company hit the market at precisely the right moment when it opened for business in July 2019. Today, its capabilities include complete systems and software engineering, industrial robot systems, and advanced human-machine interface devices. These enable reciprocal communication between humans and machines. The team also develops and builds programmable logic controllers, executes upgrades to and retrofits of existing systems, performs quality checks, and more.

It has been an industrious year for the company. Building its market presence with a growing sales team and service network, it has also identified the need to expand its engineering and mechanical design departments. Moreover, the company recently received its International Standards Organization (ISO) 9001:2015 certification and is also in the planning stages of implementing a resource planning system, enabling the team to make their systems, workflow, and processes even more efficient. The company also remains a proud member of the Canadian Tooling & Machining Association (CTMA).

Alongside all its training activities, the company also continues to be supported by the Career-Ready with CTMA: Expanding Opportunities program, which runs for four or eight months, with several assessments throughout. “It’s exciting to track each individual’s growth throughout the program,” says Mike Lake, Electrical Team Leader. Black Controls is also a member of the WSIB Excellence Program, a group of over 2,000 employers representing businesses of all sizes and industries who are dedicated to workplace health and safety.

With a regular supply of new students from its local cooperative college, Georgian College, the company has a solid workforce as students coming to it from the Electrical Technology Program or the 309A electrical apprenticeship program. Recently, a member of the Black Controls team attended a Horner Canada Programming Course, while two others completed the G2/G3 Series Robot Basic Operations Training Course. Two members of its programming team also passed their mobile industrial robot (MiR) 2024 expert training not long ago.

Maintaining excellence is crucial, considering the stakes, and so is safety, so Rick Black, owner and winner of Manufacturing AUTOMATION’s ‘Top 10 Under 40’ in 2021, ensures that everyone is prepared for the job. Packed with practical, useful information, recent training includes a course by supplier Hills and a seven-day TÜV Reinland Certified Machinery Safety Expert training attended by five design team members. The team benefits handsomely from this training. “We appreciated the opportunity and Rick’s eagerness to let us go and learn. It was very technical and very beneficial to everyone who attended,” says Jon Ferrier, Design Team Leader.

The company also ensures that its leadership team gets all the support it needs to make the right decisions. Leadership, culture, and strategy training is regularly attended by five of its members and for this, the company contracts a professional leadership coach from Cohesive Strategy Group. With a thorough understanding of the organization’s inner mechanics, the analyst/coach assists in protecting, developing, and maintaining company culture. “This mentorship is a good fit for us because everyone has a busy schedule,” says Lake.

In addition to its full-time staff, the company’s co-op student employees from Georgian College pass through its departments throughout the year. In May this year, two new students joined, adding to the outfit’s mechanical and administrative capacities. “We are growing but we’re also stabilizing. Our young staff made huge strides in the past couple of years,” says Ferrier. He points out that training younger staff is a priority during this time.

Having younger employees to follow in the footsteps of seasoned staff members gives the company the tiered knowledge and experience it needs to maintain stability long-term. Ferrier notes that the entire team values professional growth as everyone commits to the continuous development of expertise. “Everyone takes pride in their work and in keeping quality paramount,” he adds.

Black Controls Company continues to develop itself as an industry leader in autonomous robotics. The team recently created an entire robot cell—from design and fabrication to wiring and programming—all in-house before disassembling and reassembling at the customer’s facility. The project was a tremendous success, and now others await completion.

New and existing business is on the rise at the company, and this summer will be marked by much global travel, mainly to conclude sophisticated conveyor systems projects for one of its biggest clients. “While we are focusing on our growth and diversifying our customer base, this partnership remains strong,” says Ferrier. The team is also building industrial-sized material handling robots for a project—a specialized task that will further hone its capabilities.

As well as building its new customer base, the company has also welcomed short-staffed manufacturing customers from its immediate surroundings and the Greater Toronto Area that are in need of expert wiring and controls assistance. Black Controls visits client facilities to provide support to increase output during high-demand periods until re-staffing is possible.

This indispensable service has seen its people integrating seamlessly with customer operations, helping when needed and turning such situations into beneficial situations for customers. “For us, it’s not just a job; it’s a true partnership,” Ferrier says, noting that the company helps clients “hit their goals, and build good relationships that hopefully last for years.”

While the company certainly prizes its customer relationships, it also cultivates a positive spirit amongst its own staff. “I like the energy of the team. Most people are still at the beginning of their careers, so they have a bright future ahead of them,” Ferrier says of watching colleagues reach their highest levels of professional capability. Watching co-op students completing trade school and becoming quality contributors to the Black Controls team is a genuine pleasure for him.

This team does know how to have fun, however. The company makes its mark on the tradeshow front, attending its first one just last year. Collaborating with the Cities of Barrie and Orillia, the County of Simcoe, Georgian College, and Lakehead University, the Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show (CMTS) provided great excitement as just about every employee got to represent the company at its booth. The opportunity to gain even more exposure for its latest projects was a welcome boost.

Hannover Messe, the world’s second-largest tradeshow of its kind, was also attended by the company “as a vendor in the Canadian Pavilion hosted by Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen) from April 22 to 26 this year. The fair typically sees 130,000 visitors welcomed by around 4000 exhibitors, a significant and exciting achievement that brought us tremendous exposure,” says Cheney. “But this show took us further toward becoming a true global integrator.”

The company’s charitable contributions are now also stronger than ever. Showing its support for the Barrie Baycats baseball team’s camping activities, the entire company also participates annually with Christmas Cheer, pooling ideas, time, and money to support families in need. Then there is its sponsorship of a fun activity book for hospitalized children, which has become another proud tradition.

As increasing sophistication, speed, and automation drive market evolution, Black Controls Company is ready for action, and considering its expertise in medical and food sterilization processes, it is also poised for notable expansion.

“As a company, we want to continue to build and foster the culture of trust, support, and continuous improvement that we have now,” Cheney says. “We love what we do. We challenge ourselves to [work] outside of the norm.”

With a dedicated team that hears customers’ needs and answers them in ways that deliver above and beyond expectations, it is exciting to watch this young giant step into the future.

The post New Technology Expert<p class="company">Black Controls Company Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

This custom CNC machine shop manufacturer based in Neenah, Wisconsin knows that being fiscally conservative is the key to long-term success. Innovative Machining’s financial security has given it the solid foundation on which it has built a nearly 30-year-long legacy of excellence. Everything companies could need both before and after ordering their custom machined components and fabrications has already been thought of, including modern prototyping. This team serves a range of industries which include paper, packaging, defense, off-road vehicle manufacturing, and marine and other automation giants.

The firm’s customers can be found across the Midwest and throughout the United States and Mexico. More recent customers come primarily from the agricultural and medical industries, and orders for specialized components are coming in fast, the result of a lot of word-of-mouth business.

The company’s quality has become well-known, landing it the 2010 Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year Award. Since then, it has continued improving to achieve its most recent wins. “We are currently looking at having close to 100 percent growth after next year,” says Seth Johnson, Marketing Manager.

That is no exaggerated estimate, considering that the company is working from a 125,000-plus-square-foot facility with the capacity to contain equipment heavy enough to turn components measuring up to 80 by 22.8 inches on a Mazak Quick Turn Nexus 400-II lathe and machines large enough to render components weighing as much as 44,000 pounds.

Innovative Machining’s work is underpinned by its ISO 9001:2015 certification and quality control provided by five state-of-the-art metrology units, including a selection of Brown and Sharpe CMM Global S machines—guaranteeing customers excellent outcomes. Its capabilities also allow for cutting metals up to eight inches thick thanks to two flow waterjets. Its impressive portfolio also includes 10 (13 if including the Palletech system) horizontal CNC centers, another nine vertical CNC centers, three boring bar units, and more. Most of these machines are run by sought-after industry experts who are also in charge of developing the talents of a new generation of professionals.

To ensure its facility can handle the new workload, the company recently invested in two new fully automated Mazak HCN 5000/50 horizontal CNC machining centers in its machining department for high-volume, non-stop production machining, achieving volumes as high as several hundred thousand units and more annually. A pair of new robots by Fanuc is also on the horizon to deal with loading and unloading the parts carousel and the CNC machine.

While selected machines will focus mainly on components linked to agriculture, other units will be linked up to the company’s MAZAK Palletech system, which is being boosted with another Mazak 6800 NEO, another 10-pallet capacity and 160-tool capacity magazine. The improvement will bring the overall capacity to thirty pallets, four machining centers, and 720 tools across the entire Palletech system.

“With that entire system, we can keep various projects ready for when they roll in for their production cycles,” Johnson says. Whenever an order comes in, the pallets and tooling needed for machining are prepared and ready to go because smooth workflow depends entirely on thorough preparation. Adding to these high-tech units, the company offers specialized assembly in 60,000 square feet of space dedicated to this purpose. Other services include product preparation, powder coating and painting, fast set-ups, and tremendously tight lead times. On the rare occasion that a service is unavailable in-house, a trusted third-party partner is prepared and ready to complete the job to exacting standards.

The Innovative Machining team of around 75 people is also prepared for this demanding moment as the company expands production. To further support their work and ease the tasks at hand, the facility is seeing an overall upgrade as equipment and workspaces are optimized.

“It’s created a lot of new projects within the project, and that’s exciting,” Johnson says. To ensure its lead time promises are honored, work shifts are arranged to increase output, with weekday shifts running from Monday to Thursday between 5 a.m. and 3 p.m., supported by a round of nightly second shifts from Mondays to Wednesdays between 3 p.m. and 3 a.m. Weekend shifts run between Friday and Sunday from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The firm continues to hire new staff. Because it has a limited talent reserve in its immediate area, Innovative Machining invites CNC machinists qualified to read prints, machine set-up, and component fabrication as well as operator candidates to apply.

“It is a very competitive labor market to draw in top talent,” Johnson says. To secure only the best people, the company’s new Director of Talent, Myriam Obregon, also handles human resources functions. Obregon has a keen sense for spotting and bringing in the right people to fill vacant positions, and the firm is significantly benefiting from her talent.

Certainly, Innovative Machining has a satisfied team, and accountability and camaraderie are highly prized. For people who display a strong team focus, this close-knit, can-do culture is welcome. While tasks are assigned to specific people, the helpful group supports each other when the workload is intense.

“Honestly, I love everyone that I work with here. Everyone is very personable. A lot of people here have a go-getter attitude and are willing to help you out,” Johnson says of this goal-driven team.

In return, the company invests in its people through benefits like continuous training that includes complete machine tool apprenticeship programs at Fox Valley Technical College for novices—while providing them with study compensation and salaries for full-time employment. In this way, while it diversifies its customer base, its staff members gain the latest knowledge and technology to meet volume and quality demands.

As it has a history of working extensively in the medical industry, the company is well-versed in medical frame assemblies for MRI machines and the like. One of its favorite projects, these assemblies are welded from raw steel at the company’s facility before being machined, painted, further finished, and installed at medical facilities.

The company was founded by President John Malinowski in a plant of just 3000 square feet, and its legacy of frugality extends to how its offices are managed. By being conscious of wise resource management, waste is minimized in several ways. With that in mind, the company is also in the process of gradually going paperless across its administrative department.

But being as lean as possible does not mean its operation is tight-fisted. As a board member of the Children’s Cancer Family Foundation, Johnson and the company fully support the group’s fundraising efforts for local families facing pediatric cancer. Funds raised go toward ensuring parents can cover their basic living expenses while battling such ordeals with their children, giving them hope for a better future.

Beyond being committed to doing good in the world, the company is positive about the future and about automation enhancing rather than replacing the human contribution in its manufacturing shop. “It is exciting to hear that, despite possible economic downturns, we are still chugging along and managing to grow,” Johnson says. Since its current new projects are set to run over half a decade and are likely to be renewed, Innovative Machining is now in the perfect position to continue its strategic expansion.

The post Automating the Future, Preparing for Growth<p class="company">Innovative Machining</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.