Elmet Technologies, Metal magic

Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer US

Supported by decades of experience, Elmet Technologies explores new opportunities. Jenn Monroe reports

Even though Elmet Technologies has more than 70 years of experience working with molybdenum and tungsten, it is just beginning to explore its potential. “The universe of where moly is used is huge,” said Carl Miller, vice president and CFO. “We’re now entering marketplaces we haven’t been in before or were just on the edges, even though we’ve been in the business a long, long time.”

In January 2004 Elmet moved from serving Philips as a supply factory to being a private company. “There were markets that we knew used moly and tungsten that we were not serving,” Miller said. “Our customers are high-tech. We’re in a marketplace that isn’t driven by price, but by quality and delivery.”

When it was founded in 1929, Elmet focused on wire production. Molybdenum metal has a high melting point (4,730° F), excellent thermal and electrical conductivity, and low vapor pressure at elevated temperatures. Together, these properties make moly the perfect material for use in special lighting and electronic products. Tungsten too has a high melting point (6,170° F) and good thermal and electrical conductivity. Its most widespread use is for filaments in incandescent light bulbs.

Today, its products are used to manufacture flat-screen displays and data storage, and more. But Elmet is more than consumer electronics, serving the medical and aerospace industries as well as the lighting industry. In fact, Philips remains one of Elmet’s largest customers.

“We’re looking for customers with applications that fit our capability,” Miller continued. “The things we’re working on today with our customers are proprietary. As we go forward, we’re going into fields we haven’t served in the past. We knew we could do it; that’s why we came out as a private company.”

In its first two years on its own, Elmet has invested heavily in upgrading its capabilities. This included adding a number of computer-controlled vertical milling centers and lathes to the machine shop and implementing a new ERP system. “Philips had its own ERP system, but we’ve put one in to help us measure flow, look at efficiencies, and increase throughput,” Miller explained.

“We needed to reconfigure how the floor is measured, and we now have the ability to measure it,” he continued. “That’s been a significant change. We’re focused on things that benefit us as a private company.”

As a private company, Elmet has a smaller management team, which is making it much more flexible. “We can make decisions much more quickly, so we have a greater ability to go into new markets,” Miller said. “We don’t have to call headquarters—headquarters is here. It’s a good thing. We’re making real progress in where we are and what we’re doing.”

What Elmet does best is manufacture a wide range of difficult products in a timely and cost-effective manner. “We focus on engineered solutions to customers’ problems,” Miller said. “We shape moly and tungsten into whatever our customers need. We work very hard at the things that are hard to do.”

Making this a bit easier is the fact that the engineering group is integrated with the manufacturing team. “Customers come to us and say, ‘What would it take to make this?’ It’s not ‘If you build it, they will come,’” Miller noted. “We look at what our customers’ requests are. That’s how we balance the equation of demand and supply. That’s how we generally get it done—in collaboration with our customers.”

With lead times ranging from two to three weeks, Elmet is able to put inventories in place to maintain its delivery schedule. “We have inventory in place to handle those things that are more run-of-the-mill,” Miller said. “Things customers want immediately we have in stock. It’s a delicate balance to handle investment in inventory and delivery in a timely fashion.”

Repeat business is helping with this as well. “We’re able to take a look at what they wanted in the past, and that helps a lot,” Miller noted.

Delivering products on time is only part of the equation for Elmet. Quality is the other, and the company controls it tightly, as it is quite vertically integrated. Its manufacturing process begins with the conversion of raw material into metal. “We start with powder and reduce that to metal,” Miller said. “That’s one of the values we have in the business. We can control the metallurgy. We can ensure that our customers will be able to do what they want with the product once they get it.”

This is where Elmet’s experience in the business comes into play. It has long-term relationships with its raw material suppliers. “We’re a good customer, and they’re good suppliers,” Miller said. “We recognize the issues we could have, so we make sure our suppliers are reliable and provide good quality.”

For its consumables, Elmet is using vendor-managed inventory programs, and its tooling for the vertical milling centers comes just-in-time. “Those suppliers are in the factory two or three times a week, and they’re just up the street,” Miller said.

Once the metal is made, ingots are designed based on customer specifications. “From then forward it’s basically reduction,” Miller noted. “It goes into rolling mills; it can be bar-shaped or flat, machined or near-shaped cast. It becomes what the customers want. This is collaboration with the customers. They really get what they’re looking for.

“Moly and tungsten are very hard, very dense metals and have qualities that generally can’t be duplicated,” Miller continued. “They’re absolutely difficult to work with, but at the end of the day that’s what the customers want. They are very reliable materials, and the way the product reacts is very consistent.”

Elmet Technologies is planning to be just as consistent as the products it makes. “Where our customers want us to go with them is what’s going to drive this company for the next three to five years,” Miller said. “We want to be partners with our customers. We know our customers come to us for solutions. If you’re able to deliver, then you have a customer for life. Thus far, we’ve been able to deliver.”

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