Does your Pittsburgh-area company need to solve sealing and insulation challenges? Elasto Proxy is ready to help. Meet us in Pittsburgh from November 9 to 11, 2015. Request a meeting today.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is still nicknamed the Steel City, but there are no longer any steel mills within the city’s limits. During the 1970s and 1980s, the mills began to close and hundreds of thousands of jobs disappeared. Today, the Edgar Thompson Steel Works in nearby North Braddock is all that’s left of this once-mighty industry. Pittsburgh has re-invented itself, however, and now has a diversified economy that’s based largely on healthcare, education, and high-tech industries.
There’s a role for rubber and plastic in each of these sectors – and with steel, too. When Elasto Proxy visits Pittsburgh this week, we look forward to helping partners solve their sealing and insulation challenges. As an experienced custom fabricator, Elasto Proxy specializes in custom rubber and plastic parts for demanding applications. So whether you need rubber exhaust gaskets for stainless steel mufflers, plastic arms for industrial robots, or sanitary seals for medical devices, Elasto Proxy is ready to help.
Mobile Vehicles and Infrastructure
Roberto Naccarato, Elasto Proxy’s Sales Director, and Tom Henry, Elasto Proxy’s U.S. Branch Manager, won’t find the steel mills of old when they visit Pittsburgh, but that’s doesn’t mean all of the metal is gone from the Steel City. Rubber parts regularly come into contact with steel structures such as car doors, window frames, and door frames for buildings. Other types of metal components, such as the stainless steel and aluminum panels used in HVAC systems, also interface with rubber seals and insulation.
For technical buyers and product designers, compound selection and seal design are critical tasks. Different types of rubber have different properties, so an elastomer that’s right for sealing a skyscraper window probably isn’t the best choice for a door seal on a bakery oven. At the same time, seal designs need to account for how metal (and glass) conduct heat and expand. That’s why Elasto Proxy helps partners at every step of the way, from compound selection to seal design to custom fabrication.
Industrial Robots and Unmanned Military Systems
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is steeped in Pittsburgh’s industrial past, but this 115-year old institution is a vital part of the city’s present and future. When CMU founded its Robotics Institute (RI) in 1979, Pittsburgh’s steel industry was on the brink of collapse, a process accelerated by the recession of 1981 – 1982. Today, Pittsburgh is home to the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC), an operating unit within CMU RI and the world’s largest robotics research and development organization.
NREC works closely with clients to take robotic technologies from concept to commercialization. Partners include manufacturers, robotics companies, and government agencies such as NASA and the Department of Defense. As readers of Elasto Proxy’s blog learned recently, robots need rubber and plastic parts. Elasto Proxy looks forward to meeting this need, and to providing EMI shielding that meets MIL-DTL-83529 requirements for military projects such as unmanned systems.
Medicine and Health
Pittsburgh’s economic renaissance is multi-faceted, but healthcare plays an especially important role. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), a $10-billion non-profit organization with a global reach, is now western Pennsylvania’s largest employer. With roots that extend back to 1893, UPMC is administered from what were once the senior executive floors in the former U.S. Steel Building. Today, UPMC is nationally-ranked in 13 adult specialties, and is world-renowned for its medical and surgical care.
Much like the NREC has made Pittsburgh a hub for robotics companies, UPMC strengthens the Steel City’s position in the medical device and life sciences industries. Philips Respironics, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bayer Healthcare, ZOLL, and McKesson Automation Inc. are all major employers. Elasto Proxy can custom-fabricate specialty seals and custom insulation for medical devices and equipment, source FDA-approved rubber, and even help hospital bed manufacturers replace metal parts with plastic ones. How can we help you?
Meet Elasto Proxy In Pittsburgh
From November 9 to 11, 2015, Elasto Proxy’s Roberto Naccarato and Tom Henry will be meeting with partners in Pittsburgh. Are you in or near the Steel City? Would you like to meet with Rob and Tom to learn more about Elasto Proxy’s capabilities, or to discuss your own product designs and projects? Request a meeting with Elasto Proxy, and get ready to solve your sealing and insulation challenges.
