Custom Carbon & Graphite Machining

12 May

Measures to Ensure Air Quality and Social Distancing

A little secret that we know at Semco is that machining graphite is both an art and a science. Graphite machining is a nuanced, complex process that involves collaboration between the client, our engineers and shop floor employees, and our state-of-the-art machines. As much as we thought we had our graphite machining down to a science, the coronavirus has caused us to take stock of and recalibrate some basic aspects of how we run our shop. We produce graphite components for several critical industries, thus we began working under two imperatives during this pandemic: keep up our production and, most...

01 May

Semco is an Essential Business

Semco would like to share an important status update with our clients: through the current crisis, our graphite production operation will remain open. With the COVID pandemic pushing federal and local governments to institute various closures and social distancing measures, we wanted to reassure our customers that Semco will continue producing graphite products that they rely on. With close to 50 years of graphite production experience, Semco machines many parts and components that are used in essential products and processes across various industries. To get our clients the graphite components they need to run their important businesses, our company has...

23 Apr

Graphite vs. Carbon--Distinct Materials

Here’s a quiz for you: which element occurs in the human body the most, next to oxygen, and is present in all known life forms? If you remember much about high school biology, you probably guessed carbon. And you’re right. Here’s another quiz: what industrial material conducts electricity well, tolerates temperatures up to 2800℃, and is shaped into thousands of useful tools and components on a shop floor in Lorain, Ohio? If you guessed carbon again, you’re close. Carbon and this material are sometimes referred to interchangeably. Try again. That’s right, graphite. But are graphite and carbon the same thing?...

14 Apr

Graphite Cement

It’s a Hollywood trope: the camera takes us inside a smelting factory or other metallurgical hothouse to establish an atmosphere of intense industrial heat and violence. In the center of these images is usually some sort of giant crucible bubbling over with what looks to be flaming magma. Think the orcs’ sword factory in the second Lord of the Rings movie. As huge as these factories appear, one imagines the even bigger factory that would be needed to produce that giant crucible! Sure, it’s the movies, but there is a real-world answer to that mystery of the giant crucible: graphite...

02 Apr

COVID-19's Effects of Supply Chain

As you have certainly heard, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the world economy, while thousands have died or lost loved ones to the virus. The effects of COVID-19 are being powerfully felt now in America. Most of us, for instance, have likely experienced the direct effects of supplier disruptions at our local grocery stores. The effects on trade continue to ripple and magnify as the virus spreads to all parts of the world. Semco is positioned in an industry that has already experienced serious supply chain disruptions well before COVID-19 overtook parts of Wuhan Province in...