Custom Carbon & Graphite Machining

24 Nov

Teflon: Not Just for Cookware

Graphite Components When graphite components need protection from oxidation or highly reactive chemicals, they are commonly coated with a Polytetrafluoroethylene-based formula with a familiar name: Teflon. Most Teflon is used in industry for purposes from graphite element coating to insulation for coaxial cables. It is even used in valve oil for trumpets. Despite the diverse applications for this useful material, you may never have heard the word “Teflon” outside of the context of cooking. The truth, though, is that Teflon is not just for cookware. A product’s commercial applications will usually be more widely known than its industrial applications, especially...

21 Nov

Outsource of Graphite Machine Work From Metal Shops

Buy Graphite? Sometimes, metal machining shops receive orders for graphite components. If the metal shop buys from graphite sources and machines the graphite themselves, some problems may occur. We explain here why it’s often a bad idea to buy graphite and machine it on equipment meant for machining metal, and why graphite machining is best done on proper equipment by experts in carbon materials. Graphite Sources From the outside, metal machining shops and graphite machining shops are similar. For instance, both use CNC machines that can cut these materials into virtually any shape. However, in metal machining, cutting fluids are...

04 Oct

A Closer Look at Carbon Recycling

At Semco, we are the graphite machining experts, but one overlooked aspect of our business is our sustainability effort around graphite recycling. Recycling used graphite materials has environmental and economic benefits. We work with individuals and businesses to realize those benefits while increasing their storage space and saving them laborious and costly trips to the landfill. Does Graphite Degrade Naturally?Graphite is unlike many substances found in landfills—it does not easily degrade. While organic matter, or even plastics, will either decompose or break up into smaller and smaller pieces over the years, graphite holds up for a long time, and thus retains...

29 Sep

A Semco Success Story

Our Sales Manager Filip learned everything he knows about graphite manufacturing through working at Semco – literally everything. An American Success StoryFilip is from Romania where he worked in the Quality Control/Assurance field. While Romania was the land of his birth and the place where he met his wife, the southeastern European nation offered little economic opportunity for Filip, even with his engineering degree. He and his wife turned their eyes to America, and Filip set out on what he calls his “typical American success story.” Lucky for us and our clients, Filip landed at Semco and is now an...

22 Sep

The Pitfalls of Improper Tolerancing

Imagine a Semco clients sends blueprints to us for an R&D mold that’s never been manufactured before. We would like to assume that the blueprints are accurate, that the tolerancing is correct, and that all specifications have been reviewed by the client. However, Semco has been in business for decades and we know better than to make assumptions about the manufacturing process. Manufacturing flawed molds, for instance, where the tolerancing is off even by a miniscule amount, means wasted time and money for us and the client. To avoid these costly situations (and all the headaches involved), we encourage our...