For over 25 years, Coast has been one of North Carolina’s premier providers of rigging, machinery moving, and end-to-end industrial services. Known for providing customized, dependable solutions and exceptional customer service, Coast has solidified its status as a trusted partner for businesses across the region. With an extensive inventory of specialized lifting equipment, including Versa-Lifts, tri-lifters, and mobile gantries, the company is uniquely equipped to tackle customer challenges across diverse end markets.

“We are thrilled to welcome the Coast team to the MEI family. Coast’s deep commitment to their customers, safety, and employees aligns perfectly with our values at MEI,” said Doug Dayton, CEO of MEI. “With Coast’s exceptional team onboard, we look forward to further enhancing our footprint in the Carolinas and exploring new opportunities for growth.”

This acquisition strengthens MEI’s operations in North Carolina and the Southeast, adding to MEI’s locations across Arizona, California, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

Bob Knosby, former Co-Owner and CEO of Coast, will continue with the company to support the growth of the integrated business.

About MEI Rigging & Crating, LLC

MEI Rigging & Crating, a portfolio company of Olympus Partners, is a leading provider of rigging, machinery moving, millwrighting, mechanical installation, industrial storage, crating, and export packing services across the nation. MEI has a growing team of over 1,400 employees in eighteen operating locations across fourteen states: Arizona, California, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. With MEI’s comprehensive footprint and expansive portfolio, MEI serves customers across the country.

Used for fixturing horizontal, vertical, and rotary operations, QL2 allows for a wide range of top tooling to be mounted and interchanged on base receivers. Top tooling is located and clamped to a base receiver in a single step when the pull studs are inserted into the receiver and the clamping screw is tightened. The simple and sure process provides fast changeover while holding critical tolerance.

“We’re seeing more and more customers with an assortment of vises and top tooling who need a common platform”, said Mike Antos, Jergens Workholding Product Manager. “The new Quick-Loc uses pull studs and grid patterns, including 52 and 96 millimeter, for machining of multiple workpieces accommodating different top tooling choices, and at the same time provides quick-change”, continued Antos.

QL2 features heavy duty, all steel body – treated with Jergens Mcoat for superior wear resistance and durability even in harsh environments. The system features a floating and opposing clamping wedge assembly (with sealed wedge bodies); an Acme threaded screw for increased strength and long life; O-ring lifters for positive separation of top tooling; and versatile standard mounting options. QL2 is Made in the U.S.A. and has a Jergens patented design.

About Jergens

Jergens, Inc. is a global manufacturing leader of CNC machining workholding products. The company is ISO 9001:2015 certified and committed to helping customers achieve leaner, more profitable manufacturing, and continues to add products and engineered solutions for an integrated approach to “Manufacturing Efficiency”.

The widespread applications for DLC coatings include performance automotive and racing to wind turbine shaft bearings and planetary gears; stainless steel cutting blades and piston pumps for food processing; and sliding components in filling and bottling operations. The coatings are also a proven technique for upgrading critical rotating parts in hydraulic drives, fuel injection systems, mechanical seals, pumps and valves.

For many, DLC Coatings are hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) coatings, but this is a misconception. Coatings within the DLC family can be highly engineered based on hydrogen content (hydrogenated or hydrogen-free), the selection of additional metallic and non-metallic doping elements, the presence of sub-layers and choice of deposition and bonding methods.

Together, these factors can be precisely controlled to create a broad range of thinly applied (typically 1 to 5 μm) DLC coatings with a hardness of 8 – 80 GPa or higher (diamond is the hardest known material at 70–150 GPa). In addition, the desired coefficient of friction, surface finish and even application temperature can also be manipulated.

Because of the broad range of customizable attributes possible within the category, DLC coatings can play an important role in component engineering from the earliest steps of the design process.

“A coating is very much a sophisticated design element with highly engineered properties, says Dr. Florian Rovere of Oerlikon Balzers, a company that produces specialized DLC coatings for components in North America and all over the world. “The properties can be tailored very specifically to meet the performance requirements of different operating conditions. As such, coatings should not be a design afterthought but a critical element of how a component is initially engineered to fully utilize possibilities for maximum system performance.”

Hydrogenated Amorphous Carbon Coatings

The most widely known DLC coating type, hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H), is most often applied through plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD). This deposition method causes a chemical reaction through plasma excitation and ionization that creates a coating hardness of approximately 15-30 GPa, which is on the lower end of the DLC family.

However, a hydrogenated amorphous carbon coating can be manipulated further through doping, which is a process of adding chemical elements to alter the performance properties.

Silicon, oxygen or metals can all be used as doping elements to achieve different results.

When a lower coefficient of friction is required for mated or sliding parts, or to assist in releasing items from cavities or molds, silicon doping can be a suitable approach. This creates an a-C:H:Si coating with a coating hardness of 15-20 GPa. With silicon and oxygen- doping high electrical resistivity and chemical inertness can also be achieved.

The applications for this type of DLC coating include components subjected to sliding wear resistance or those that require a surface with greater lubricity. Silicon-doped DLC coatings are often applied to plastic injection molds and ejector pins, blow molding parts and semiconductor wafer handling equipment. All of Oerlikon Balzers’ DLC coatings are biocompatible and food-safe which make them an ideal solution for medical instruments and food processing.

“One of our clients in food processing changed the recipe for the crackers they produced to make them healthier for the consumer,” explains Rovere. “They were using an a-C:H DLC coating to make the punches and dies more wear resistant, but it started to stick more after the recipe changed and created some issues. We were able to solve the problem with another option, BALINIT DYLYN, which is a DLC coating doped with silicon and oxygen.

There are other coating architectures as well. When doped with tungsten, a more ductile tungsten carbide carbon (Me-C:H) coating is created that is ideal for gear applications, ball bearings and power transmission systems that are subjected to high surface pressure and where run-in of parts may be required. On the other hand, if a harder surface is required, Rovere says chromium can be used instead of tungsten.

Hydrogen-Free DLC Coatings

An alternative to hydrogenated DLC coatings is a family of hydrogen-free based coatings that provide even higher hardness along with a very low coefficient of friction.

These coatings can be applied in the most demanding environments, including high performance vehicles for high friction, wear and contact areas of the engine and valve train. The coating can be used on the fuel injection system, camshaft, piston pins, valves, lifters and finger followers, where there is high contact pressure and sliding speeds. In addition to vehicles, the coating is ideal for use for hydraulic pump parts, mechanical seals and high-pressure valve components.

Most hydrogen-free coatings are applied using a method of physical vapor deposition (PVD) by arc evaporation which produces tetrahedral amorphous carbon, or ta-C. With a high level of tetrahedral bonds (mostly 50-60%), substantially higher abrasive wear resistance is achieved compared to a-C:H alternatives.

With a typical hardness up to 60 GPa, ta-C coatings are an excellent choice for components that are exposed to extreme operating forces over the long-term, including shafts and seals that must work in tribological environments where friction can cause them to overheat and fail.

The challenge historically with hydrogen-free coatings and with ta-C deposition in particular, is that the application process produces small droplets that contribute to a rougher surface finish. As a result, coating manufacturers must complete secondary polishing processes to smoothen the surface. Because of its hardness, it is a time-consuming and expensive process the requires specialized equipment.

To address this concern, some hydrogen-free DLCs are produced using a filtered cathodic arc deposition method in which an electromagnetic filter removes most droplets. Although this creates a smoother surface, a secondary polishing step is still often required, and process times are longer for the same coating thickness.

When an even smoother surface is required, hydrogen-free DLC coatings can be applied utilizing a proprietary Scalable Pulsed Power Plasma (S3p) technology developed by Oerlikon Balzers.

S3p is a unique type of High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) technology, which can be seen as combining the advantages of the arc evaporation and sputtering methods. The very dense plasma yields hard coatings with high adhesion (at a level comparable to arc evaporation). At the same time, it results in smooth coatings due to the nature of the sputtering process, in which atoms are ejected from a target or source material.

The coating is applied at relatively low temperature, well below 200 degrees Celsius as compared to up to 350 degrees for other DLC coatings, which enables its application to a much wider panel of materials, effectively bonding to aluminum and steel substrates.

Hydrogen-free DLC coatings applied using the S3p process BALIQ CARBOS include tribological applications, high-end decorative parts, medical instruments and other small, precision tools.

At the top end of the scale are diamond coatings applied by a CVD process (chemical vapor deposition) in both micro and nanocrystalline options that are rated at 80-100 GPa. Such coatings are mainly used for highly specialized tools for cutting demanding materials such as carbon reinforced fiber materials and do not offer the benefit of low friction any more.

Coating as a Design Element

Given the number of variables involved with DLC coatings, Rovere says it is important that OEMs better understand the range of options so they can select the ideal solution for the application while also taking into consideration the economics.

“Coatings are effectively an architecture of layers engineered to achieve specific properties,” said Rovere. “A coating is built layer by layer focused on bonding, hardness and the surface. By modifying the properties of each, we can create an extremely wide range of surface solutions within the DLC coating family.”

“By applying components with DLC coatings, not only is the surface hardness and durability increased, but essential parts are far less likely to fail, if at all,” adds Rovere. “As a result, maintenance and unexpected downtime is drastically reduced, even in the most demanding environments with high friction, wear and contact pressure.”

Green Valley Manufacturing is now offering several customized options for their popular Titan heavy duty steel industrial saw horses (work stands), including capacity, width, height, vertical adjustment, surface material and color. Capacity ratings are 500 lb. to 40,000 lb. per pair and can be designed to most any height and width configuration. Steel, lumber or poly (UHMW) surfaces are also available. The spring loaded suspension system allows for easy and unloaded work horse placement and a stationary style is offered as well.

Green Valley will be at FABTECH 2016 in Booth C46095.

About Green Valley Manufacturing
Green Valley Manufacturing is your industry leading source for quick die change (QDC), quick mold change (QMC), heavy load transport, handling, and storage systems. Our extensive engineering experience allows us to handle projects ranging from 250 lb. to 200,000 + lb. tools.  We service major automotive, aerospace, appliance, medical, and industrial equipment industries.

Our Titan brand line up of products include: single & dual station die carts, heavy load trailers, industrial free ranging transporters, die shuttles, die tables, rail cars, upenders, die & mold splitters, work (saw) horses, bolster extensions, die storage racks, ASRS (Automatic Storage Retrieval Systems), die lifters, coil carts, coil racks, coil handling equipment, platen and pre-roller brackets, and die common plates.

For more information, visit www.greenvalleyinc.com.

Access Online CAD Files for Vacuum Suction Cups and System Components Anytime, Anywhere

High-Capacity, Mechanical Vacuum Lifter Ruggedly Engineered to Lift Short and Narrow Metal Plates and Sheets

Available in diameters spanning 16 – 160mm, SP-BX1 Series Varioflex bellows suction cups have 1.5 bellows to compensate for material height differences, and stabilizing cleats that both enable fast acceleration and prevent the deep drawing of thin materials like sheet metal. Available in diameters spanning 16 – 77mm, SP-BX2 Series Varioflex bellows suction cups have 2.5 bellows to accommodate material handling applications that require both height and angle compensation, such as the de-molding of injection-molded parts, and feature an optional filter disk between the bellows for 26 – 53mm diameter suction cups. Filter disks are included with SP-BX2 Series suction cups with diameters of at least 77mm, and rated operating temperatures for both SP-BX Series span 50°F – 122°F.

de Man Automation + Service, a German automation company that specializes in developing customer-specific robotics, material flow, and material handling solutions, recently tested FIPA’s SP-BX Series Varioflex suction cups on a live demonstration of their Heron palletizer at the FMB Supplier Show for Mechanical Engineering, which took place November 4 – 6, 2015 in Bad Salzuflen, Germany, and was extremely pleased with the precision handling, rapid reset, and improved cycle times.

“Our Varioflex bellows suction cups deliver high-reliability, long lifetime performance that’s designed to expertly satisfy the needs of a wide range of material handling and packaging automation applications,” said Rainer Mehrer, president of FIPA. “Their excellent holding capacity, sturdy materials, dual-hardness construction, and outstanding recovery force enables the precise and surface-abrasion-free handling of materials with a variety of different thicknesses, shapes, and textures, and their ability to be both designed into a customFIPA material handling solution or an existing customer solution, like de Man Automation + Services’, only further increases the value they offer our customers.”

About FIPA, Inc.

Founded in 2006 as a fully owned subsidiary of FIPA GmbH, FIPA Inc. is an international innovator and manufacturer of advanced vacuum technology, gripper systems, air nippers, tube lifters, and End-of-Arm-Tooling (EOAT) for automated assembly equipment and material handling systems. Spanning components to complete systems, FIPA’s products are broadly employed in applications ranging from packaging, automotive assembly, and manufacturing automation quipment to material handling systems designed to move plastics, metals, glass, wood products, and, for printing equipment, paper and films. FIPA also delivers flexible, dynamic solutions on short lead times, and provides superior service and technical support.

Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Ismaning, Germany, FIPA GmbH has steadily expanded its global presence in recent years, adding representations in the United States, Thailand, Poland, Hungary, and Turkey. For more information about FIPA’s products, services, and news, please visit http://www.fipa.com.

For more information about FIPA’s Varioflex bellows suction cups for material handling and packaging automation applications, please visit http://www.fipa.com/en_US/products/217609-varioflex-bellows-vacuum-cups/25/1. To download FIPA’s complete Vacuum Technology Catalog, please visit http://ow.ly/STI3K. For all other inquiries, please visit http://www.fipa.com, call 919-651-9888, or write to 1855 Evans Road, Cary, NC 27513.

Download the extensive online catalog – searchable by cup attributes such as diameter, height, width, and more  HERE.

Vi-Cas can quote custom designs from customer-supplied drawings, or reverse engineer from customer-supplied cups.

About Vi-Cas
Vi-Cas has been manufacturing vacuum cups in various shapes, sizes and materials sine 1970.  They provide short or long manufacturing runs, with short turnaround times.  On demand delivery is also available.  In addition to large vacuum cups, Vi-Cas offers micro-cups and bellows, soap cups, grabbers, suction cups, tightening discs, and grippers, as well as accessories including level compensators, swivel joints, vacuum valves and fittings and adaptors to suit any application.

For more information, please visit:
www.vi-cas.com

or contact:
Rob Wagner
(513) 791-7741

8407 Monroe Avenue  •  Cincinnati, OH  45236