people standing in front of plating tanks

Armoloy Continues Growth with New Finishing Innovation and Fulfillment Centers

Jacob Meier and Nolan Hannan like the fact that they can walk into any Starbucks or fast-food chain in the world and know exactly how the food and drinks will taste, no matter where they are.

Which is why they purchased the Armoloy Corporation in Illinois several years ago to “franchise” what had been perfected in the company’s approach to finishing and coating applications.

“Repeatability in the finishing industry is a very big component of everything you do,” says Meier, an owner and Chief Business Development Officer for Armoloy. “That is what customers want: the same great finishing on that part every single time.”

Denser Chromium Structure with Armoloy TDC

Armolyhas various licensee locations in the U.S., as well as six overseas.Armoly has various licensee locations in the U.S., as well as six overseas.And when it comes to thin dense chrome — where the electroplated chromium has a thickness of about 0.0001″ to 0.0003″ with a denser chromium structure and a hardness up to 78 Rc — the company believes its proprietary Armoloy TDC is worthy enough to be shared with other like-minded applicators.

“We feel we’ve perfected the science and processing for TDC over this time because of our relentless pursuit of improvement,” Meier says.

Meier and his partner Hannan — the co-owner and Chief Operating Officer of Armoloy — now have 19 licensed applicators in seven countries; they have switched from calling the locations “franchises” to now being “fulfillment centers” that can replicate the Armoloy TDC application and several other finishes.

Other changes are afoot, as well. The Armoloy Corporation is the headquarters of the operation and is now also the Innovation Center of the Armoloy hub, where research and development, process development, tooling development, supplier approval, and fulfillment is housed for use by the other fulfillment centers.

The Armoloy of Illinois location and Electrolozing of Rhode Island — which Meier and Hannan own and run — are the two Process Development centers, as well as full-fledged Licensed fulfillment centers.

Becoming a Valuable Partner to Customers

armoloy 11“We really want to get away from the perception of most job shops and start to become a valuable partner to all of our customers, and at all levels,” Meier says. “The idea of the Innovation Centers is to work with our customers on the front end, both with the proactive market and the reactive market.”

Armoloy defines the proactive market as those where Meier says they are reaching out to potential customers and “planting oak trees for future opportunities; the reactive is where problems are occurring with finishes or metal failures, and Armoloy is asked to come up with a solution.

“These are markets where they are in production and, maybe it’s with injection molding, and they are running some unique media through it, and its failing,” he says. “That’s where we work with engineers to create solutions in the reaction mode, which also works great in the preventative maintenance world, and in the Six Sigma world where they are trying to reduce the cycles they have to do maintenance on.”

The Armoloy headquarters in Dekalb, IL, applies various proprietary applications, including Armoloy-TDC, XADC diamond chromium coating, Bipro-A, and Bipro-X for electroless nickel and TDC, EN mid-phos, Nyflon EN and PTFE, and citric passivation.

Numerous Locations in U.S. and Internationally

Other Armoloy locations in the U.S. include:

  • Armoloy Illinois (Process Development and Fulfillment)
  • Electolizing Rhode Island (Process Development and Fulfillment)
  • ME92 Operations Rhode Island
  • Armoloy Ohio
  • Armoloy New York
  • Armoloy South Carolina
  • Electrolizing South Carolina
  • Armoloy TX-Houston
  • Armoloy TX-Lubbock
  • Armoloy TX-Fort Worth
  • Armoloy PA - Philadelphia
  • Armoloy WPA - Turtle Creek
  • Armoloy CT

All of the locations apply Armoloy TDC, but the WPA Turtle Creek and CT locations also apply XADC. Licensed fulfillment centers outside the U.S. include:

  • Armoloy - Germany
  • Armoloy - UK
  • Armoloy - Swiss
  • Armoloy - Singapore
  • Armoloy - China
  • Armoloy - South Africa

Armoloy was founded in the early 1950s in Fort Worth, Texas, before moving to Illinois 20 years later. Its TDC was known for not containing the microcracking related to traditional hard chrome, which improves the corrosion resistance. They applied the coatings at very thin deposits that didn’t affect part tolerance or balance and eliminated the need for post plate machining.

Instantly Captivated by the Finishing Process

Hannan had been with Armoloy as general manager since 2015.

“I became instantly captivated by the process and the industry as a whole,” Hannan says. “It’s an incredibly hands-on and complex process that requires knowledgeable and highly skilled workers to do it the right way.”

When the owners told him of their plan to sell the company within 5-to-7 years, he knew he wanted the chance to take over the company along with Meier. They purchased the Armoloy Corporation, Armoloy of Illinois and Electrolizing of Rhode Island in 2017.

“We discussed what it would look like in terms of purchasing the company if the stars aligned and that five- to seven-year plan quickly became a one- to two-year plan for them,” Hannan says.

The company has both open market and captive market franchises.

“The captive market allows OEMs and Tier I suppliers to take Armoloy in-house,” Hannan says. “It’s proprietary to their product and allows them a competitive advantage because the product performs very well.”

Abiding by Processing Parameters for Quality Coatings

Serving the oil and gas industry are Armoloy of West Texas owners, Kevin Medley and Jason Claborn.Serving the oil and gas industry are Armoloy of West Texas owners, Kevin Medley and Jason Claborn.The Armoloy process does not allow for a high degree of variation within the processing steps, so all of the fulfillment center employees across the network must abide by the company’s processing parameters to ensure the quality of the coating. Armoloy of Illinois serves as the hands-on training facility for the Licensed Fulfillment Centers that can send employees at any time to receive initial or supplemental training in all facets of the process.

That is where Jason Claborn and Kevin Medley, the new owners of Armoloy of West Texas, spent several months in late 2019 learning all about plating and running a finishing operation. The duo opened their Lubbock, TX at the start of 2020, timing it just before the pandemic shut much of the country down.

“It wasn’t the best timing,” says Claborn, who had a career in the oil and gas industry prior to buying the finishing company. “We had just started getting things started when the pandemic hit, so that set us back a lot. But we kept working every day with the work we had.”

Medley, who was also new to the finishing industry when he partnered with Claborn, says it was very beneficial to have Meier and Hannan available to them, not only for technical questions but also to lend some moral support.

“There were weeks when we talked to them three to four times a week, which was very helpful to us,” Medley says. “Just having them check on us to see how we're doing, and sort of commiserating with us, we knew we had supporters in Jake and Nolan.”

Providing National Customers to Licensees

armoloy pump partsOne of the benefits of owning an Armoloy licensed facility is that the parent company can often direct national customers to the licensees, which is what happened in 2020 and which helped the Armoloy of West Texas stay afloat while they weathered the storm.

“We are the furthest location west in the U.S., so when someone from California or the West Coast needs work, we often get the call instead of them shipping parts all over,” Claborn says. “We are working our own accounts, too, but it helps to have those referrals coming in for customers who want the Armoloy TDC.”

Both Claborn and Medley are active in the shop, running operations and lines themselves along with one other employee. Both men say that has been a benefit because they have gained significant experience handling the plating lines themselves, as well as directly overseeing operations.

“It certainly helps to see every part go out the door and know that we helped finish it, and it is absolutely meeting specification,” Medley says. “Eventually, we will be bringing new people on, but just knowing what it takes to do this job right and to handle these parts ourselves is a big plus on knowing how to run a finishing business the right way.”

Better Serving Customers and Licensees

Meier says that with the Armoloy reorganization into having the headquarters as the Innovation Center, two Process Development Centers and the various Fulfillment Centers Worldwide, they expect to be able to better serve both their customers and the licensees.

“The manufacturing professionals want consistency, repeatability, and quality systems,” Meier says. “They want to qualify locations and put us on their roster. Electroplating is not necessarily a difficult process, but having that repeatability of where manufacturing sees value, and Armoloy has always been known for getting into the tight cavities and protect those parts.”

Hannan says Armoloy and its licensees have seen incredible growth over the past 20 years.

“Engineers talk to other engineers about how our product works,” he says. “They provide true testimonials about how the product performs and how we take care of our customers. We plan to continue to improve on that process by utilizing the best available technology, futureproofing, market innovation, and educating.”

Visit https://armoloy.com