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Industrialist Looks to Expand Into Diverse Enterprises

Technical challenges abound at Weldmac Manufacturing.

There? the question of how to get a sheet of metal to bend and contort, yet retain its thickness. There? the trick to making good welds on a hard-to-handle variety of metal.

Then there is the challenge of growth.

While familiar to players in the defense industry, Weldmac is looking into new vertical markets ?and trying to pinpoint executives with the power to buy.

The metal-forming shop is looking for more customers in manufacturing and heavy industry. It wants to put its wares into chemical plants, cryogenic labs, food processing outfits, pharmaceutical plants, refineries, steel mills and water treatment facilities.

Recently, the El Cajon-based business took on the new specialty of manufacturing bellows. They are accordionlike ducts made from multiple sections of metal, with the ability to curve like a snake. When exposed to shock and vibration, the bellows move, absorbing the shock.

It can make the product up to 100 inches in diameter.

Customers include Solar Turbines, a San Diego-based unit of Caterpillar.

Weldmac President Marshall Rugg and two co-owners ?his brother and sister ?recently invested $400,000 in custom machinery to manufacture bellows.

It made the machinery itself. It? not unusual for Weldmac to build its own tools.

And unlike Henry Ford? assembly line, it? not unusual for Weldmac to make a single example of a part for a good customer.


Soaring Sales

Weldmac is family owned and does not reveal financial information. Sales have grown 100 percent in the past couple of years, says Rugg. It? grown at least 20 percent annually during the past five years.

Founded in 1968, the manufacturer has expanded its plant on North Johnson Avenue in El Cajon, near Gillespie Field, during the past two years, bringing its interior space to 100,000 square feet. Weldmac started with a 1,000-square-foot shop, according to its Web site.

Growth has come on the foundation of military contracting.

One multimillion-dollar deal involves sheet-metal components for Boeing? Apache helicopters. Both the prime contractor and U.S. Army call the new components an improvement over original equipment. Boeing has refitted 350 Apaches with Weldmac components and may do all 600 in the Army inventory, says Kal Geiler, a senior design engineer for Boeing.

Geiler called the Apache project ? very short fuse program,?saying Weldmac came through ahead of schedule and on cost.

Geiler, who has worked with vendors on the Apache project for 25 years, says he? a happy customer.

?hat this has done to them is open the door into the Boeing helicopter procurement world,?Geiler said from his Arizona office.

A titanium fabrication project for the Apache has followed.


Welding Navy Components

Weldmac also welds components for the U.S. Navy? Standard missile. The surface-to-air missile is part of the Aegis weapon systems aboard Navy cruisers and destroyers. The Weldmac shop is a subcontractor to Rockwell Collins, a communications and aviation electronics developer, which in turn does work for missile manufacturer Raytheon.

On a recent Monday afternoon, one of Weldmac? 140 employees was working at a large metal-forming machine under the eyes of a second employee. Cross-training gives the company flexibility, Rugg says.

The business also offers laser-cutting and welding for metals such as aluminum, Hastelloy, Inconel, stainless steel and titanium.

?e can machine up to a 12-foot cube,?Rugg said.

But it? not just capital equipment that sets the manufacturer apart, says Geiler. ?he knowledge among Weldmac? employee base is another of the company? assets.

??l call them just for ideas.?enews_Column=-1

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