Manufacturers in need of fine screening of metal and other powders have long looked to Elcan Industries for its technology and expertise. “We can find solutions for problems that are seemingly impossible,” says Bob Grotto, president and owner of the Tuckahoe, N.Y, company. “We can help companies find a screening or grinding solution that can help them make a product in a much better way, whether it’s a turbine blade for a jet engine or a 3-D printed body part.”
The company specializes in selling screening, grinding, and classifying machine from European and Japanese manufactures into the American market. Machines offered by the company are used in a variety of industries including chemical, fertilizer, building aggregate, food, plastics and pharmaceutical manufacturing. “We don’t have commodity technology,” he adds. “We bring high-end technology from overseas to America.”
Elcan’s specialty technology attracted Grotto to the company in 1993, when he began researching it prior to his purchase. The company at the time was using a tumbler machine manufactured in Germany that had features unseen in the United States. “American companies were all offering the same basic technology,” Grotto says. “We want to be at the forefront with companies who are advancing technology.”
Although the marker of the tumbler machine would eventually take the technology elsewhere, the company quickly rebounded by finding a similar machine. That product line, from the German manufacturer Minox, quickly caught on, doubling Elcan’s sales and leading to multiple installations. Elcan later supplemented the tumbler line with a screening machine developed by a company in Israel and manufactured in Italy. Elcan offered those machines through 2013. Today, the company offers the Minox line of tumbler screeners as well as a line of grinding machines from manufacturer STM Micron. The grinding line includes fluidized jet mill, cryogenic pin milling, since milling and air classification machines.
Elcan also carries RHEWUM type WA high-performance vibration screening machines used to classify bulk material in the finest to medium-grain size range.
The company recently added the Hi-sifter, a Japanese machines that can screen titanium powder to as fine as 10 microns, to its offerings. The company will display the machine in May dire the RAPID conference and expo in Pittsburgh.
The Hi-Sifter’s body and product contact areas are all stainless steel, making it ideal for the processing of powder used to produce parts for the aerospace and other industries. “The Hi-Sifter is the only machine in the world that can screen metal powders this fine and not have any come into contact with any contaminants,” Grotto says.
Problem-Solvers
Elcan Industries in the year 2000 expanded its offering in response to customer requests. “We had many customer buying these machines, but they were taking three to four months to be made, so we started processing materials in our lab for them,” Grotto says. The company uses the same high-quality machines it offers to clients to perform this work. These machines are less prone to being clogged than conventional machines.
This quickly led to the company offering toll processing services for materials including aluminum, graphite and glass powders; plastics; and cosmetics. “Our best customers are those who have a large return on investment from our abilities,” he adds.
Elcan’s screening work includes processing 5 million pounds of aluminum powder for a major metal powder manufacturer, as well as screening glass flakes used in electronics manufacturing. The company’s Tuckahoe facility includes ten bays dedicated to toll processing. Toll Processing services offered by the company include screening, grinding and classifying, mixing and blending, packaging and repackaging, and magnetic separation.
“This facility gives us the ability to take on products that are causing customers problems,” Grotto says. “We have enough technique and expertise working with our suppliers’ machines to know how to get them to go things above and beyond even what the manufacturer thought it could do.”
“People come to us when they can’t do something with conventional equipment,” he adds. “We can solve their problems and give them a permanent solution they can use in their factory and profit from.” Mt