Custom Carbon and Graphite Machining Blog

27 Jul

New Hire Matt Millard - Senior Saw Operator

When Semco posts a job, we are often looking for very specific qualifications in possible new hires. Often, we are searching for someone with a background in graphite fabrication. Other times, we need a person who can communicate knowledgeably with graphite suppliers and shipping companies. Recently, we needed someone who was expert in operating large saws like the ones we use on our shop floor. If that sounds like a simple qualification, think again. If you hear the word “saw” and what comes to mind is a wooden handle attached to a one-foot blade, like the one you use to...

05 Jul

Graphite Material Property-Coefficient of Thermal Expansion

At Semco Carbon, we are constantly thinking of new, relevant, and useful topics involving graphite materials and graphite applications to share with the readers of this blog. If something has to do with the manufacture of graphite products, we’ve probably got a lot to say, and a story to tell, about it. During a recent meeting, our application engineers were working on a specific issue that one of our customers was having. This customer had been experiencing premature component breakage in a new high temperature process they were testing. After thinking about the specifics of their application, we realized that...

10 Nov

Dave Myers Ten Year Anniversary | Graphite Materials Manager

We would like to take this opportunity to celebrate Dave Myers’ 10th anniversary as a Materials Manager at Semco. Dave is a key team member, responsible for much of the growth and success Semco experienced in the past 10 years. As a Materials Manager, he was instrumental in developing his department as we moved into the new building 10 years ago. As we’ve settled into our new facility, Dave has been key to the effective management of the graphite material that is the lifeblood of our company. When he arrived at Semco, though, Dave couldn’t have told one graphite grade...

27 Jul

What is Graphite?

We’ve written a lot in this blog about our primary material, graphite. We want to clarify that when we talk about graphite in most industrial applications, we are discussing synthetic graphite. Synthetic graphite is the crystalline form of carbon. It is a man-made material that is extremely resistant to high temperatures and acidic or basic solutions. Graphite can be engineered to obtain specific properties such as density, electrical resistance, hardness, porosity, compressive strength, flexural strength, coefficient of thermal expansion, and thermal conductivity. Below, we will detail the processes that go into making synthetic graphite and the different forms it can...

23 Jun

Carbon Fiber Composite Materials in Vacuum Furnaces

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. We’ve never bought into that adage, especially since many of us have parents or grandparents who have taken up new hobbies like gardening or bird watching with vigor. As a business, Semco also rejects the logic of the adage. Yes, we have been around for several decades, and our core business remains machining graphite materials. We did not become industry leaders by shunning innovation, though, and as we have grown as a company specializing in producing graphite components, the materials industry has devised new graphite composite materials, as well as...