A metal bellows and light gauge welding partner you can rely on.

As published in "Innovation for Regional Advantage"
A Journal of the Center for Regional Economic Issues
Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University

Drawn into conversation at a family-and-friends party, host Stan Young listened to a description of REI's work and the themes for this publication of innovation, education, technology transfer and applied technology.

"We do that," he said quietly. What do you do? "We apply technology to make ourselves more efficient and productive," he responded. Really? What's your business? "Metal bellows, tubing and welding services." It didn't sound too high-tech.

But like many hundreds of other traditional Northeast Ohio businesses, Alloy Bellows & Precision Welding - over 50 hardworking and caring employees strong - has quietly transformed itself in the ten years that Young has been president and part-owner.

The company has automated its manufacturing processes with scheduling and tracking software that adjusts each day's production to customer needs, submitted nine patents to the U.S. Patents Office, and begun doing very high-tech and demanding atmosphere-controlled, high-purity welding for the semiconductor and biomedical industries.

Alloy's engineering design team has also developed a computer simulation model for their bellows production (welding and fabricating high-complexity, precision parts), and proprietary software to analyze their bellows' performance requirements and longevity.

"Bellows," Young describes, "are thin-walled corrugated-metal tubes that flex in response to temperature or pressure to act as controls for many other devices. Our bellows, for example. are used inside gyroscopes and altimeters in aircraft. They're also used in zero-leak valves for toxic or hazardous applications and in high-vacuum valves for superconductor magnets."

To create a precise bellows for each application used to require lengthy mathematical calculations and a lot of precision craftsmanship to build prototypes. It also produced a lot of scrap material. Their computer simulation model now lets them design a bellows for nearly any purpose - extremely efficiently and without costly waste.

Why welding? Was it a family business? "No. Although my father and brother also own small businesses here in the Cleveland area," Young says, and he wanted to be able to tap their business expertise and have their financial assistance as he started out in business. He adds ruefully, "Family discussions seem to focus on profitability and strategic systems as much as on family."

"I worked in sales and marketing for IBM and in Boston for the unusually high-tech AutEx Systems Division of Xerox (a business originally founded by an MIT professor and purchased by Xerox), but I realized I enjoyed a small company more. It became a goal of mine to find a profitable company, buy in and come home. The industry did not matter to me as much as the reputation and honesty of the other owners."

Alloy as a company was ideal, because the original owners wanted to stay involved for a time - lending their engineering and financial experience to Young's sales and marketing experience and business school education.

Being an owner is a challenging occupation that he enjoys all the time, but more so in a good year, he shares with a certain wry, good humor. "There is a lot more risk involved owning a business than working at a regular job - especially if you want to grow and move to this new level - but there are also many more rewards."