Twenty-one years, four standard elements, and a supplier eight miles down the road: how MAAC Machinery keeps the heart of its thermoforming machines running.
“The oven is the heart and soul of our machine. The whole machine is built around it.“
Jerry Bundy, Purchasing, MAAC Machinery
For a thermoforming machine, everything depends on the oven. Sheet has to reach forming temperature evenly and repeatably, or the part is scrap. MAAC designs its machines around that requirement, and it has sourced the infrared elements inside those ovens from Tempco Electric Heater Corporation, twenty minutes away in Wood Dale, for more than two decades.
Paul V. Alongi founded MAAC Machinery in Union, Illinois, in 1982. Four decades later the company builds custom thermoforming equipment out of Carol Stream, sells almost exclusively to OEMs, and ships worldwide. Its machines end up forming parts for automotive, medical, playground equipment, and consumer products, among others.
Four Elements, One Standard
Jerry Bundy handles purchasing at MAAC. He has been with the company 21 years, first in shipping and receiving, then as plant manager, and he has bought elements from Tempco in every one of those roles.
MAAC has deliberately narrowed its element footprint to four stock parts: two versions of Tempco Ceramic Infrared E-Mitters® (Series CRB) and two versions of Quartz Mini-Tube Infrared E-Mitters® (Series KTE). By Bundy’s estimate, roughly 85 percent of the machines MAAC builds run on those four. The balance is supplemented with different wattages and voltages, since machines headed overseas may need 240 V or some other required voltage.
Those four parts are covered by a standing blanket order with Tempco and are released as production requires.
“Tempco has been my primary element supplier since I moved into purchasing, and back when I was plant manager and in shipping and receiving before that. We are talking 21 years.”
– Bundy
“Our science behind it has perfected that 9.5 by 3 inch element,” Bundy says. “We use it constantly.” The element he is describing is Tempco’s 2.36 inch by 9.65 inch (60 mm by 245 mm) ceramic body. It is one of Tempco’s most widely used ceramic sizes, which is part of why MAAC standardized on it.
Standardizing that tightly only works if the supply behind it is dependable. Tempco holds finished stock for MAAC to draw against, and the two companies work from confirmed release dates.
Eight Miles Beats Eight Thousand
Quartz elements are fragile. Glass tubes do not enjoy long ocean voyages, and MAAC has learned what that costs.
“I have shopped around for the last eight years. What always plays the factor is that we can pick these things up ourselves. Less damage, less everything. When you buy overseas, everybody tells you to be prepared for 15 percent of the order to arrive damaged. Being local definitely helps.”
– Bundy
MAAC picks up directly from Tempco. No freight handling between the two plants, no ocean container, and none of the breakage allowance Bundy says overseas buyers learn to expect.
Dates You Can Build a Schedule Around
Element lead time drives MAAC’s build schedule. When Tempco commits to a date, MAAC schedules against it.
“Once you confirm a date, it is usually spot on or early,” Bundy says.
Just as important is what happens when the schedule changes. Rush orders arrive, priorities shift, and a machine that was three weeks out suddenly needs to ship first.
“I can call and say, I have a release date on these elements, but this other order is trumping it. Can we swap production around, make these for me first, and push the others out another month? Tempco works with us tremendously on that.”
– Bundy
That flexibility comes out of how Tempco is built. Nearly everything Tempco produces is built to order, which is why shuffling a production sequence is a normal request rather than an exception and why a standing blanket order like MAAC’s is scheduled rather than pulled from a shelf.
Quality That Shows Up in the Details
MAAC installs elements behind removable covers it fabricates in house, so a failed or damaged element can be replaced without tearing into the oven. The company also ships spare elements with machines going into containers, because rattling across an ocean takes its toll.
On the elements themselves, Bundy points to service life and appearance over time. “The discoloring is less than what we see from competitors,” he notes.
The Back End Nobody Complains About
Purchasing relationships are judged as much on paperwork as on parts.
“I do not hear any rumblings or grumblings about invoicing at all, and my accountant would definitely let me know.”
– Bundy
Damaged elements are handled the same practical way. MAAC collects them in a box and returns them a couple of times a year for credit, since Tempco reuses the housings. Neither company spends time litigating whose handling caused which break.
“Sometimes it is our guys, sometimes it happens in shipment,” Bundy says. “We are pretty easygoing about it, because we understand these things are fragile.”
Day to day, most of the traffic runs by email between Bundy and Mike Gohmann, a Territory Sales Manager at Tempco, working from a shared spreadsheet the two of them pass back and forth: Bundy asks for best dates, Gohmann fills them in, Bundy confirms and adds new orders. It is not sophisticated software. It has worked for years.
“Mike is great,” Bundy says. “We work well together.”
A Win-Win, Eight Miles Apart
Two family-founded Illinois manufacturers, both building custom equipment for customers around the world, both still answering their phones with a live person. One builds the machine. The other builds the heat.
“We love Tempco. The proximity is one of the best parts of it.”
– Bundy
About MAAC Machinery
Founded by Paul V. Alongi in Union, Illinois, in 1982 and now based in Carol Stream, MAAC Machinery designs and builds custom thermoforming equipment for OEMs worldwide, serving end markets from automotive and medical to consumer products and playground equipment. WEBSITE
About Tempco
Tempco Electric Heater Corporation has manufactured electric heating elements, temperature sensors, and control systems in Wood Dale, Illinois since 1972. Tempco is ISO 9001:2015 certified and builds nearly all of its products to order.
