Custom Carbon & Graphite Machining

28 Jun

Maintaining graphite production operations during the Covid pandemic

Over the last year, many cherished activities ceased, at least temporarily. Music concerts, gone; indoor dining, gone; dinner parties with family and friends, gone; but graphite manufacturing, at least at Semco, hardly hit a snag. As the world begins to re-open and we assess our lives in this unusual moment, Semco would like to take time to congratulate our employees at every level for their nearly flawless maintenance of graphite production over the course of the COVID pandemic. We feel blessed as a company that the products we make are so integral to various industries, and we feel proud that...

16 Jun

New photovoltaic technology using graphite materials

If you produce graphite materials or machine graphite components, or if you work in the graphite electrodes industry, there are huge opportunities on the horizon. The revolution in clean energy production and electric vehicles is real, and it is here. To produce some of the most important raw materials for the solar and battery industries, such as mono- and multi-crystalline silicon, high purity specialty graphite is essential. At Semco, we have the capacity and capabilities to produce high-purity crucibles and heaters, as well as various components produced out of carbon fiber. We also specialize in graphite fiberboard and felt products...

02 Jun

Semco Carbon and Metal Fabrication Requests

Every machining shop has its choice material. At Semco, that material is carbon graphite. We know the ins and outs of this material and can talk all day about isostatic vs. extruded graphite, or about graphite’s conductive and heat-resistant properties. While we are experts at graphite machining, we generally do not machine metal. Nevertheless, Semco Carbon occasionally receives metal fabrication RRF’s, projects we are not equipped to produce in house. Conversely (if you are a metal machining shop), your facility might receive graphite or carbon RFQ’s, projects that you are not equipped to produce. We would like to start a...

28 May

Tariffs on Chinese Materials Under Fire

Among Semco’s graphite sources and graphite suppliers, China is one of the most, if not the most, important. Several countries, like India, the United States, Germany, France, and Japan produce graphite, but China is the world’s largest synthetic graphite supplier. For the past few years, graphite materials have fluctuated in cost because of the uncertainty in the market for synthetic graphite. This uncertainty was partly the result of the trade war with China begun by the previous administration. Near the end of 2018, we wrote the following about the trade war with China, the tariffs that were part of that...

17 May

Graphite: A Self-Lubricating Material

When people think about graphite applications, what usually comes to mind (well, besides pencils, which everyone knows about) are crucibles or other graphite components used in high-heat environments. Graphite’s heat tolerance is a well-known quality of this wonder material. But among the most common graphite applications in industry is the use of graphite as a lubricant. Lubrication in mechanical systems is essential to the proper operation of the system. Mechanical systems that are composed of components designed to interact with each other, through friction, will have to take into account possible issues such as heat build-up and wear. Designing proper lubrication...