Industry Watch: Business

MILLER ELECTRIC MFG. CO. (APPLETON, WI) . . .
partnered with Fox Valley Technical College to launch its new 26,000 sq ft Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center in Oshkosh. This new facility is outfitted with the latest welding, cutting and fume extraction equipment, as well as fabrication and testing resources from Miller. Fox Valley Technical College built the facility with the goal of expanding its welding curriculum to train a new skilled welding workforce for the region’s rich manufacturing and fabrication industries, including shipbuilding, truck fabrication, and numerous foundries and manufacturers.

“This facility came about based on the needs of the community,” says Dr. Susan May, the president of Fox Valley. “The metals manufacturing sector in the region was expressing that they simply did not have enough skilled welders and fabricators. We started working with a number of partners to find a way to quadruple our welding lab space, as well as our fabrication and robotics weld space. With this new facility and our partnership with Miller, we are now addressing that need. Fox Valley Technical College could not begin to deliver the high caliber of welding and metal fabrication it does without the support of Miller.”

“This partnership started with a unique problem we had 25 years ago,” says Mike Weller, the president of Miller Electric and ITW Welding North America. “Our technology was changing and we needed new skill sets in the organization. We needed help with electrical and mechanical testing capabilities. The college put a full-time instructor in our facilities and we graduated 65 employees on that program. That, to me, showed a real partner and what they can do to help us. This new facility offers state-of-the art welding and cutting training for the workforce in the area. We understand each other’s needs – they help contribute to our success, and we contribute to their success. It’s a tremendous opportunity for us to make a difference.” www.millerwelds.com

MAHR FEDERAL INC. (PROVIDENCE, RI) . . .
employees recently took time out from their busy schedules to celebrate the 150th birthday of their parent company. Founded by Carl Mahr as a small family concern in Esslingen, Germany, on the Neckar River in 1861, the Mahr Group has grown to become a global leader in precision metrology. Celebrations at the headquarters in Providence included a visit from the chief executive officer, Stephan Gais.

“The industrialization of the 19th century saw a rapid growth in both industrial productivity and the need for precision measurement in machining operations,” said Tony Picone, the president of Mahr Federal. “That need for quality is even more important today all across industry, not only in terms of precision gages and metrology systems, but also in terms of the know-how and applications expertise needed to apply them properly.”

Mahr maintains four production facilities in Germany, the Czech Republic, the U.S. and China, as well as a vast network of representatives and service centers throughout the world, and supports a number of calibration laboratories, like the Precision Measurement Center in Providence that handles Mahr Federal’s own calibration work. Mahr also offers commercial inspection and recalibration services for dimensional standards – including gage blocks, master rings, discs, plugs and balls, cylindrical form and precision reference specimens, and surface roughness standards – as well as for a wide range of gages.

Recognized worldwide for the quality, reliability and ease-of-use of its dimensional metrology equipment, Mahr is equally known for the expertise of its staff. Continually building on its history of innovation, the company offers a broad spectrum of handheld metrology, surface and form metrology, as well as systems for shafts, gears and tools, supplemented by software, training and service. As process-oriented application specialists, the staff works directly with customers to provide precision measurement solutions in industries ranging from automotive and aerospace to medical products, electrical, plastics, and optics.

“Quality assurance is playing an ever greater role in the world of production,” said Picone. “The more important repeatable precision becomes, the greater the importance of metrology to the final result. Our business is to ensure that those results are accurate. That should easily keep us busy for another 150 years.” www.mahr.com

LINCOLN ELECTRIC HOLDINGS, INC. (CLEVELAND, OH) . . .
recently acquired substantially all of the assets of Applied Robotics, Inc. (Reno, NV), a leading manufacturer of CNC cutting tables and accessories in North America that is known in the welding industry by its brand name, Torchmate. The company employs 44 people and offers a wide selection of CNC plasma and oxyfuel cutting tables and systems to small and medium- sized fabricators. Its trailing twelve months of sales are approximately $13 million. Terms were not disclosed.

“Metal cutting is closely aligned with arc welding and the addition of Torchmate will bolster our ability to provide cutting process solutions for our customers,” said John M. Stropki, the chairman and chief executive officer of Lincoln Electric. “These CNC plasma cutting tables provide an economic option to cutting solutions required by many metal fabricators. This product offering will enhance existing cutting options for our customers here in North America and around the world.”

“This union will significantly expand our ability to reach fabricators throughout North America and worldwide,” said Bill A. Kunz, the chief executive officer of Torchmate. “Our portfolio of products is perfectly aligned to service the cutting needs of these customers, and I am very excited to join their team.”

In other news, the crew at the West Coast Customs^® (WCC) garage will exclusively use welding equipment and consumables from Lincoln when restyling luxury autos on the Discovery HD Theater network’s TV show, Inside West Coast Customs, which airs each Sunday at 9:00 pm on Discovery Channel’s HD Theater. The team at WCC, renowned for their ability to transform vehicles from everyday autos to functional works of art at their high-end shop in Corona, Calif., named Lincoln as its exclusive supplier of welding products and personal protection gear, on-screen and off.

Each episode of Inside West Coast Customs features exciting and outrageous builds and restyles. Recently, the WCC team transformed an armored truck into a luxurious gamers’ escape for Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Gaming. Several of WCC’s other creations have also been designed for such celebrities as Will I Am, Mark Wahlberg and Sylvester Stallone. As the show’s exclusive welding products supplier, Lincoln not only outfitted the WCC garage with the latest high-tech welding and fabricating equipment, but it also provided stylish welding apparel for WCC team members. WCC fabricators will be wearing the company’s new personal protection line – Red Line™ Welding Apparel – during welding and plasma cutting operations.

Inside West Coast Customs producer Bud Brutsman is no stranger to Lincoln Electric, having worked with the company on TLC’s Overhaulin’ and other hit TV shows. It’s no surprise that he turned to Lincoln again to outfit the WCC garage. Brutsman, the president and chief executive officer of Brentwood Communications International, Inc. (BCII), also has produced several other series, such as Hot Rod TV, Payback and Forza Motorsports Showdown.

Ryan Friedlinghaus, the chief executive officer of West Coast Customs, cited the company’s long-standing track record for quality as a contributing factor for WCC’s exclusive use of the company’s welding equipment and gear. “The decision to go with them was easy,” he said “Bud knew our fabricators needed the most advanced, top quality tools, including welding equipment, to work on our customized projects. From his experience, he knew they were the best choice.”

Besides this current show on HD Theater, Friedlinghaus and his shop have designed exclusive custom builds for the MTV show Pimp my Ride, TLC’s Street Customs and Street Customs Berlin. Friedlinghaus and the team at WCC are world-renowned for their extreme vehicles packed with outrageous features. www.lincolnelectric.com, www.torchmate.com, www.westcoastcustoms.com