Igniting company’s growth

Altronic continues to set records with new products and worldwide sales.

By DON SHILLING

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

GIRARD — A local company helps to provide the spark for the world’s booming oil and gas industry.

Altronic produces ignition systems and controls for engines that pump, process and transport oil and gas around the globe. Altronic products get these engines started and keep them running in some extreme climates — Middle Eastern deserts, Asian jungles and high-sea drilling platforms.

The high price of oil and natural gas on world markets has meant more drilling and more demand for Altronic products, said Sandy Winans, a logistics manager.

Altronic’s sales were up 8 percent last year, making it the fourth straight year that the company has set a sales record.

As orders have increased, so has the company’s work force and plant size. Employment has grown steadily from 90 about 15 years ago to 140 today. The Trumbull Avenue plant has been expanded multiple times in the past 30 years.

The boom in oil and gas exploration is just one factor in the company’s success, however. Altronic also has been adding new products and services to stay ahead of its competition.

“It’s a very fast-paced, demanding world,” Winans said. “If you don’t keep your engineering up to date, you will fall off the cliff.”

The company recently pushed ahead with new technology by introducing EZRail, which is a pre-fabricated wiring system that can be installed quickly. Instead of having to connect a series of wires to make an engine run, this product features a one-connection, “plug and play” system.

The system has helped cut installation time on a particular engine from two or three days to less than four hours, Winans said.

Altronic also started a new initiative last year that is adding to growth. Emergency System Services allows Altronic to be a one-stop shop for its customers.

Now, instead of just offering its ignition systems and controls, Altronic is offering all of the materials a customer would need to overhaul an engine. This would include switches, nuts, conduit and cleaning supplies.

Altronic has continued to grow even in the face of increased competition from China. A focus on quality and reliability has allowed the local company to beat back competition, Winans said.

A while back, an Austrian engine maker was lured into moving some business from the local company to a Chinese supplier. Then the engine maker asked for upgraded equipment and more reliability, but its Chinese supplier couldn’t meet the requirements. It didn’t even bid on the job.

Altronic stepped in six months ago and not only won the work back from the Chinese supplier but additional work as well.

In addition, a Chinese engine maker decided a few years ago that it would start making its own ignition systems. After two years, however, sales of its engines had declined so much that it returned to ordering parts from Altronic.

Winans said about 25 percent of Altronic’s products are exported although the company can’t track all of its products that are placed onto engines by original equipment manufacturers.

Winans said the advanced engineering, meticulous assembly and repeated testing enable Altronic to compete in a difficult global market.

The company has 10 engineers who develop circuit board designs. Many of the boards are assembled by operators who place individual components of the board by hand. Some of the boards are assembled by robotic equipment.

Other parts such as wires and meters are then added to produce a complete ignition system.

Altronic has two other U.S. plants where it makes parts for its systems. A plant in Texas produces the panels that hold the ignition systems, and a plant in Illinois produces the ignition coils. Both employ about 25.

Products are repeatedly tested throughout the assembly process because Altronic’s customers have large investments that are depending on the operations of these engines.

“It’s very, very critical that our products run,” said Chuck Cooper, technical and marketing communications manager.

The engines run continuously for months so Altronic offers diagnostic tools that show when an engine needs maintenance, reducing the likelihood of unscheduled downtime.

Winans said, however, that some of Altronic’s customers in the Third World aren’t interested in digital gadgets that allow laptop computers to diagnose engine performance.

They just want a simple engine that will run in harsh conditions. For these customers, Altronic still produces mechanical ignition systems that it first developed in the 1960s.

Altronic traces its roots back to a company created in 1955 by Leon Beeghly, the president of Standard Slag, to commercialize work that was being done on ignition systems. His grandson, Bruce, joined the company in 1964 and is company president today.

For nearly 50 years, Altronic was focused exclusively on providing ignition systems and other parts for engines that run continuously and are fueled by natural gas.

But in 2002, the company expanded by acquiring technology from a Florida company that allows generators to run on a mixture of natural gas and diesel fuel, instead of diesel alone.

The company now produces its GTI Bi-Fuel System at its Girard plant. The venture is doing so well that Altronic added a 12,000-square-foot addition last year because it needed more space.

Companies in Third World countries often use these bi-fuel generators as a primary power source because they can’t rely on the power grid, Winans said.

In the U.S., however, the system is sold mostly to hospitals or stores who are concerned about keeping operations running during emergencies. Natural-gas deliveries are more stable during disasters, and using natural gas allows generators to operate two to four times longer, Winans said.

The Florida-based Publix grocery chain is in the process of installing the GTI Bi-Fuel System in the generators in all of its 928 stores.

shilling@vindy.com