Custom Carbon & Graphite Machining

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...

15 Sep

Graphite Found in Iowa Corn Field

Add huge graphite “logs” to the list of unusual things, like magical baseball diamonds and crop circles, found in Iowa corn fields. That’s what we did when we received a call at Semco from an Iowa farmer who discovered a giant cache of discarded graphite on his property. At Semco, we specialize in precise graphite machining and offer graphite recycling services for the convenience of our customers. An added benefit of this service, of course, is its benefit to the environment. When businesses and individuals who have stored scrap graphite or old graphite machine parts want to clear space and...

04 Jan

Diffusion Barrier Coatings for Graphite Fixtures

Vacuum heat treating shops commonly use graphite fixtures on which to set parts to be treated. Graphite fixtures have excellent thermal stability, allowing them to be used again and again through multiple heat treat cycles. In addition to that, graphitedoes offer significant cost advantages, when compared to other materials used to make fixtures (high nickel/chromium or moly alloy type fixtures)Graphite Fixtures and Ferrous MaterialsIf you are using graphite fixtures, it is important to remember that graphite is carbon, and pure carbon likes to react chemically with metals containing iron, especially stainless steel, to form low melting eutectic compositions at temperatures...