Here’s how the sponsors describe the award: “The Leading EDGE Awards Program identifies and honors middle-market companies operating in Northeast Ohio that are generating the highest value for themselves and the Northeast Ohio community. Now in its sixth year, Leading EDGE seeks out great companies, like yours, deserving of recognition for the value they contribute to the local community. Value through spin-off businesses and meaningful job creation. Value through civic engagement and spending with local vendors. Value as a driving, sustaining force of the local economy.”

We are very proud of this accomplishment and look forward to attending the awards dinner and ceremony on May 18th at the University of Akron.  Congratulations to all of our fellow winners and thank you to Entrepreneurs EDGE and Crain’s for this amazing honor.  As always, our team is what makes American Roll Form a great place to work, so the full credit for this award goes to everyone at both plants for their hard work in making our success a reality.

More information about the award and Entrepreneurs EDGE is available at www.edgef.org.  More information about Crain’s is available at www.crainscleveland.com.

American Roll Form is an employee owner custom metal fabricator located in Painesville, Ohio.  We are proud to partner with some of the best brands in industrial manufacturing on projects around the world.  Learn more about us at www.arfpcorp.org or call us at 440-352-0753.

Our engineers began working with them to perfect the new cross sections they considered building. Many changes were made by ARF engineers in the cross section shapes, steel grades, galvanized coatings, holes and hole patterns, tolerances, fasteners, packaging methods, and the process of fastening two sections together.

How to fasten two box channels?

One of the most important problems the customer faced was how to securely fasten two box channels back to back to form a virtual I beam without disturbing the G-90 pre-galvanized finish. There were six different widths with the largest one being 9.8 inches wide and sections as long as 50 feet. This meant that when put back to back, the resulting beam could weigh as much as 400 pounds. These beams would be outdoors and under constant stress for a minimum guaranteed period of 25 years, so how we locked them together would be critical.

The customer suggested welding them together, then spraying the welded area. Riveting was also proposed. When ARF engineers saw the application and potential volumes that needed to be produced, it realized that both approaches would not be viable.

Tog-L-Locking gets it done

ARF used its prior knowledge of joining to recommend “Tog-L-Locking” the sections together. With Tog-L-Locking, there would be no disruption of the galvanized material. The process is quick, very strong, and durable. Plus no foreign fasteners need to be purchased.

The dies for Tog-L-Locking were made, and after only a few months the volume increased to the point where the customer wanted ARF to increase the output by six times. So, we needed to speed up the Tog-L-Lock process six-fold. To accomplish this, ARF and Samco Solar worked together to develop a completely automated Tog-L-Lock system that takes the parts off the mill, puts them back to back, Tog-L-Locks them together, and stacks them on a skid for packaging — all without being touched.

ARF has been instrumental in helping the customer achieve its production goals and continues to assist on new projects.

After a brief introduction to the company, the students donned safety glasses and ear plugs and set out to see the shop floor.  They were introduced to the basics of roll forming and fabricating including engineering, process scheduling, material flow, manufacturing, quality assurance, vendor-managed inventory programs, shipping, and plant safety.  The groups got to meet with members of every level of our staff and hear about paths to manufacturing careers on the shop floor, in engineering, in operations, in plant management, in finance, in systems and technology, in material management, and in marketing and sales.

The students concluded their 2 hour visit with a lively game of “match-the-part” and a delicious lunch before departing for the Manufacturing Learning Lab at Auburn Career Center.

Here’s a collage of the best photos of the day (click on the photo twice for a full size image):

More photos are available in photo galleries of each day at our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/arfpcorp.

Learn more about AWT: www.thinkmfg.com.

We would like to thank the members of our staff who helped with the event, the AWT staff for setting up the visit, and most importantly, the teachers and students from Madison Middle School that spent their time learning more about manufacturing.  Our sincere hope is that we encouraged at least one student to consider a career in manufacturing down the road.

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”  – William Butler Yeats

After an introduction by President Rob Touzalin, the Congressman will tour our manufacturing facility with a special emphasis on our work in solar power systems.  The Congressman will then meet with several members of our senior staff for a more in depth discussion about AFR in particular and NEO manufacturing in general.

Congressman LaTourette is serving his ninth term in the United States House of Representatives and represents Northeast Ohio’s 14th Congressional District, which includes all of Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties, and part of Cuyahoga, Summit, Trumbull and Portage counties. LaTourette was appointed to the prestigious House Appropriations Committee in 2009 and is the only member from NE Ohio. LaTourette continues to be actively involved in Great Lakes’ and environmental issues and served as Co-Chair of the influential Great Lakes Task Force for a decade.  In 2005, LaTourette was named co chair of the Northeast Midwest Coalition (NEMW) and its Manufacturing Task Force, which has oversight of the Great Lakes Task Forces.  NEMW focuses on economic competitiveness and environmental quality in the Northeast and Midwest states.

We encourage you to review his very impressive bio and current focus issues here.

American Roll Form, an Employee Owned Company, is proud of our products and our commitment to the community.

One of the things we’re most proud of at American Roll Form is our storied tradition of over 50 years of manufacturing excellence.  As President Rob Touzalin was looking through his office closet this week, he found a trade journal that goes all the way back to the start of the organization and points at the value oriented high quality solutions we still provide today.

The picture above is of the cover of the December 14th, 1961 Iron Age Magazine.  The story, posted below, gives a great overview of the history of the organization with a picture of our first machine.

ARF was founded in 1960 by former tube salesmen James Tavenner and tooling superintendent George Hascher when the two purchased a 10 year old Tishken roll forming mill, some used welding equipment, and a secondhand lift truck.  After beefing up the machinery to handle more complex shapes, the two started making parts for OEMs in a variety of industries, including auto parts, toys, building products, and housewares.

The “infant firm” grew incredibly quickly, experiencing over 600% growth in the first 18 months of operation and purchasing several additional used machines that solidified the business and allowed Mr. Tavenner to add staff.  The business was originally located in Cleveland, Ohio where it remained for several years before Mr. Tavenner purchased the facility and assets of Alden Manufacturing in Painesville and moved the growing business to the current Walnut Street to allow for continued expansion.

This was  such an exciting find for the ARF team and got us all wondering what our successors will think when they find our April 2011 Green Manufacturer Cover Story.  Here’s hoping they’re as proud as we are of the foundations of their success and amazed at how far they’ve come.

Article after article has come out touting the growth of manufacturing efficiency and profitability in America (you can find many of them posted on ARFP’s Facebook and Twitter pages).  Companies that are thriving have developed a renewed focus on producing custom made high quality products in an environment that’s customer service oriented and are committed to the well being of the employees in the shop.

Even with the positive news, many consumers are left wondering what they can do to help the American manufacturing economy along.

ABC News created the “Made in America” series to try and address that question.  This clip highlights the efforts of a builder in Montana who set out to build a home wholly comprised of components that are made within the United States.  As of this segment, he was well on his way to that goal.  Watch the video to see this amazing story:

ABC News Made In America Home Building

As the video points out, if every builder in America used 5% more American goods in their construction project, that would equate to 220,000 more manufacturing jobs.  Imagine expanding that to every manufacture buying 5% more from US suppliers and American consumers buying 5% more of their household goods from the US.  The impact would be massive.

As you see on the video, there are nails made in Indiana, sinks in Pennsylvania, caulk guns in Georgia, and duct tape right here in Ohio.  Opportunities surround every business and consumer to be more aware of the origin of their purchases. Even though we source a large majority of our materials and supplies from the US, we’re trying to be even more conscious internally about where our purchases come from.

If we all do a little, it’ll add up to a lot.

The visit started with an overview presentation in the Callendar Blvd. conference room followed by a comprehensive tour of the Calendar Blvd plant.  The group then returned to the conference room for a roundtable discussion of the challenges and opportunities facing Ohio manufacturers and some possible ways that the officials’ respective government bodies could help.  Special attention was paid to programs that put veterans into manufacturing roles, our advances in green manufacturing, and our desire to explore Ohio content requirements for state funded construction projects.

From all indications, the visit went exceedingly well and allowed the officials to learn about a new process and see first hand a company that’s focused on leading the way in the renaissance of manufacturing in Northeast Ohio.

During their afternoon visit, the dignitaries met with President Rob Touzalin, CFO Jeff Laturell, VP Phil Misch, Director of Sales Engineering Randy Myers, Director of Technology Joshua Perkins, and Director of Marketing Chris Schmitt.

We would again like to thank Senator Eklund, Rep. Young, and Commissioner Troy for their time and enthusiasm during their visit and for their continuing support of Ohio manufacturing!

State Senator John Eklund (18th District) – View Bio

State Representative Ron Young (63rd District) – View Bio

Lake County Commissioner Daniel Troy – View Bio

After an introduction by President Rob Touzalin, the group will tour our manufacturing facility with a special emphasis on our work in solar power systems.  The group will then meet with several members of our senior staff for a more in depth discussion about AFR in particular and NEO manufacturing in general.

American Roll Form, an Employee Owned Company, is proud of our products and our commitment to the community.

We recently spent a day meeting with one of our larger accounts regarding one of their existing products that they have been running at our facility for over a year.  The purpose of the meeting was to identify opportunities to produce the same part (or a better part) for their final application that reduced the overall cost.

During the conversation, we learned that this customer had spent tens of thousands of dollars to hire a 3^rd party engineering consultant to help them with this issue.  While there were some mediocre suggestions offered by the consultant, our customer admitted that they had wasted several months and way too much money for a series of misleading suggestions that provided little value.

In contrast, our one day complimentary meeting with the customer identified several opportunities for cost savings, including reduced material content, a modified finish type and coverage area, reduced assembly time through a design modification, alternative packaging, a review of end user expectations, and a consideration of alternative processes for portions of the final part.

The customer was thrilled with the suggestions and admitted that they should have involved American Roll Form in their discussions from the very start of the redesign process.  Had the customer included us from the beginning, they would have saved tens of thousands of dollars in consultant fees, saved several months of time, and reduced the cost of the part much sooner.

We are currently working with the customer to improve the part and reduce their overall costs based on the suggestions we offered in the meeting.  Even better from the customer’s view is our ability to utilize our in-house engineering talent to work on the part improvement, eliminating their additional engineering costs and preparing our staff to easily implement the changes that are identified and approved by the customer.

One line from the customer’s Director of Manufacturing Engineering summed up the whole day: “We should have called you first.”

If you have a part that you would like to review for potential cost savings, please take the advice of one of our top customers and call us first at 440-352-0753.  We’re here to help you improve your parts, reduce your costs, and create a great lasting partnership.

This year, we used the time for all of the above with a primary focus on the installation of a new SEYI press for one of our busiest mills! With the addition of the press, we expect to be able to increase our up time and decrease material scrap in our continuing effort to provide low cost, high quality products for our customers!

We welcome you to come tour our plants and check out our new press and the rest of our state-of-the-art equipment.