Seco looking to build portfolio inside, outside of rail industry

NORTH CANTON, Ohio—To paraphrase an American folk song, Seco Machine Inc. and particularly its parent company, A. Stucki Co., have been working with the railroad for plenty of live-long days.

In fact, A. Stucki has been manufacturing parts for the rail industry for more than 100 years, and, according to the company, developed the use of urethane in suspension components for freight cars in the 1970s.

North Canton-based Seco, meanwhile, has been contract machining parts for the rail transportation market since the firm was founded 31 years ago. After A. Stucki acquired Seco in 2009, it began to machine and manufacture a variety of urethane-molded products for the sector, and it now specializes in custom cast urethanes and compression molded parts.

While the relationship with the railroad industry continues to chug along successfully, Seco not only has taken steps to develop what it believes is a milestone product for rail cars, but it also has begun to develop urethane products for other industries.

“We've taken the knowledge and experience we've had with designing the urethane for so many years in the rail to the concrete industry, oil and gas, the piping industry, and water treatment industry,” said Jon Kaufman, product manager, urethanes and polymers, for A. Stucki, headquartered in Moon Township, Pa., in suburban Pittsburgh. “Now we're trying to go after the consumer market for firearm targets.”

The targets, which measure roughly five inches square, use a urethane blend that Kaufman said is strong, resilient and self-healing.

“Where you put a round through whatever shape or embodiment of the target you have, the hole actually sucks back up because of the viscoelastic nature in the long chemical chains,” he said. “So for the first time ever, we're really gearing up to go after a consumer product line, which is definitely presenting some unique challenges to us.”

The two companies are taking a very pragmatic approach, according to Seco General Manager Steve Seccombe, whose father, Richard, founded the firm.

“You need a lot of luck entering a new market,” Seccombe said. His brother, Tom, also serves as a general manager at the plant. “We do our own molds. We pour the urethane. Jon designs the part. We design the molds.

“So because of that, we have a very production-oriented process from start to finish.”

Seco also manufactures pipe test cup seals used during hydrostatic pressure testing of pipes in the oil and gas industry. Water is pumped through the pipes to check if they will burst, and the urethane seal acts as a seal and bumper between the pipe and die where the water is supplied. The pipes come in various sizes, from 2 3/8 to 19 inches in diameter.

“The urethane is great for this application because it is tough and will not tear easily if a pipe has a rough or burred edge,” Kaufman said.

In the concrete/mortar industry, Seco is developing internal wear components in progressive cavity pumps made out of urethane, which offers flexibility and wear resistance. In addition, the firm manufactures mortar mixer blades of tear-resistant urethane material; the company said the initial parts have lasted three times longer than their rubber replacement parts.

Kaufman said urethane has proven to be a good material for these applications because of its toughness and fatigue resistance.

“We're really trying to look within our specialties: What we can do and what we can offer to other industries, more so than ever?” Kaufman said.

The company isn't overlooking the rail industry, the backbone of its business. According to Kaufman, Stucki developed the use of two main suspension components for freight cars—a side bearing and a friction wedge.

Seco continues to manufacture the friction wedge, a sloped metal case with a urethane surface that is inserted into iron or steel casting. The product rides in the part of the suspension below the springs.

Stucki developed the process in which urethane is used in the side bearing, which originally was a cast steel or iron roller whose function is to prevent lateral rocking, Kaufman said. Using urethane, the executive said, improves the suspension by absorbing the energy.

“It completely revolutionized the industry,” he said. “It basically made the suspension work so much better because it was damping energy out from the lateral rocking of the freight car.”

The success of molding and machining the urethane component helped to drive the development of new products that company officials believe will improve the industry: urethane couplers, the mechanism that joins rail cars.

“There's an enormous amount of force there,” Seccombe said. “We have been replacing internal steel springs in the envelope that is the draft gear (housing) of the train with urethane pads, because obviously they have that fantastic dampening mechanics to them.”

The metal-on-metal friction doesn't dissipate the energy as well as urethane, Kaufman said, and the new product is viscoelastic and lasts longer.

The product is being tested under guidelines set forth by the Association of American Railroads, the governing body that oversees the industry. Kaufman said the product is close to being on the market. “We're at the cusp of the prototype stage instead of full-fledge sale point,” he said.

While that product develops, Seco continues to handle a variety of machining, primarily milling, turning and grinding. Other services it provides include production sawing, light assembly, heat treatment, coatings and specialty packaging for drop shipments.

That work, which also includes manufacturing products such as axle end caps, backing rings, bearing cones, center pins, plugs and yoke bearings for the new and repair markets, is done at its facility in North Canton. Seco, which has a work force of 58, ships from 1,500-2,000 orders across the globe each month, and Kaufman said A. Stucki uses just under a million pounds of urethane each year.

Company officials said the relationship between A. Stucki and Seco has laid the groundwork for a promising future, both in the rail industry and beyond.

“We can control the whole process flow of a project,” Kaufman said. “We have a research and development lab in our corporate office where we can do fatigue, abrasion and tension testing, so we can do initial material science and prototype testing in-house.”

The mold and machining work also is done in-house, so “if we have a model of a part, we can make a mold in a day or two, machine it within a week, and then pour a part the next week,” he said. “We're talking about prototyping and testing parts within weeks, whereas in the injection molding industry, you're waiting months for your tooling. All aspects of the projects, control and design, we can do in-house.”

Since the consolidation of the machining and urethane at Seco's facility in 2012, Kaufman said Seco has increased the firm's mold capacity sixfold.

The current facility in North Canton has grown in phases, from 65,000 square feet to 75,000 to its current 86,000. Company officials say expansion and/or relocation could occur sometime in 2017.

“We're watching things blossom amazingly fast,” Kaufman said, “and we probably are going to outgrow our space again soon.”