Custom Carbon & Graphite Machining

29 Mar

Turning Blocks of Graphite into Art

On rare but very fun occasions at Semco, we give our machinists (and our machines) a break from manufacturing graphite parts for industry and task them with turning blocks of graphite into art. The job of conceptualizing the pieces, of course, falls to artists -- our shop floor employees take these plans and machine graphite parts for these independent artists. On these occasions, artists provide us with shapes, profiles, and even solid models of their art work. Graphite is specified by these artists as the actual material for the finished artwork. While Semco prides itself on machining graphite parts used...

15 Feb

Storage of Graphite

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may remember a story we related about a farmer in Iowa who discovered giant graphite blocks (they were actually electrodes in the shape of logs) in his corn field. He called us and we went to Iowa and recycled the electrodes. They were in good shape! And that’s one of the miracles of graphite -- it’s basically impervious to weather and does not deteriorate if left outdoors. Despite this famous quality of graphite, Semco Carbon stores most of its stock of graphite blocks indoors on floorspace and racking. Why? you...

27 Jan

Appropriate 2020 Year End

As we marched through the last couple weeks of 2020, a year of great professional and personal challenges, “resilience” was the word that most came to mind to describe Semco Carbon. All year long we have persevered in the face of adversity (as most of the country did). Our graphite fabrication business has remained strong and our customers well served and happy. None of this came easy. We may have been forgiven, then, for hoping for a smooth year end. It was not to be. 2020 decided to throw one last curve ball at us.Beginning With A Burst!At the beginning...

15 Jan

Year End Round-Up

We’ve turned the page on a very tough year. 2020 wasn’t kind in many ways to the world or our country. The coronavirus pandemic took its toll on graphite manufacturing as well. Graphite shops like ours made many hard adjustments to ensure we could keep up with our customers’ orders for carbon graphite components. Looking back on 2020, there is actually a lot to be proud of at Semco. We want to use this blog to review the year and the many accomplishments of our company and its employees. Most of all, we want to celebrate the ingenuity, dedication, and...

04 Jan

Happy New Year from Semco Carbon

We deeply value each and every one of the customers and employees who make Semco’s work possible, and we have found this to be especially true in the midst of a year as challenging as 2020. Despite the year’s setbacks - which have affected the entire nation and world - our customers and employees have been flexible, gracious, and a pleasure to work with. This year, to reflect our appreciation for our team, we amended our year-end schedule by closing our doors on December 24th and adding one additional paid holiday to the Semco calendar. We hope that this well-deserved...