As the industry has evolved, Acme has shifted to provide robotic material removal for grinding, polishing, buffing, and deburring, offering significant cost savings and greater value to its customers. To delve deeper into the company\u2019s history, capabilities, and current developments, we sit down with President and CEO, Fritz Carlson.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAcme was founded in 1910 by my great-grandfather, Gustav, who was a Swedish immigrant and a tool maker interested in tooling design and machine tools,\u201d Fritz opens. \u201cAlthough\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0never deviated from material removal applications,\u00a0a majority of\u00a0our finishing systems over the last 40 years are robotic, using six axis robotic arms to conduct the process.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0known as problem solvers; customers approach us with their finishing challenges, and we engineer a solution that automates what\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0currently doing manually.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cToday, we serve around 20 global industries, and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0particularly strong in the aviation, power generation, and medical devices markets, as well as foundry.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0heavily involved in the aviation market on the jet engine side, and we have an innovation\u00a0center\u00a0in Singapore, the largest MRO aviation hub in the world, to focus on developing robotic finishing solutions for the jet engine\u00a0component\u00a0MRO market. We also have\u00a0a strong reputation\u00a0for general castings and consumer products like plumbing, cookware, hand tools, and lock hardware, as well as in the transportation sector where we supply automation for the markets of heavy truck, off-road construction, and agricultural equipment.<\/span> \u201cOur extensive capabilities ensure we can custom engineer finishing processes that solve customers\u2019 problems, and we\u2019re the only company in the world to build our signature\u00a0centerless\u00a0grinding machine, the Acme Model 1210 multi-station abrasive belt OD grinding system,\u201d he continues. \u201cCenterless\u00a0grinding is a fantastic technology as it allows grinding and polishing to be completed in a single pass and part diameter changeover time is less than five minutes, due to servo motor positioning on each grinding station. Most of our customers using these machines are in the hydraulic cylinder industry and are\u00a0located\u00a0across the globe, primarily in North America, Europe, India, and China.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Considering the company\u2019s longstanding heritage, we ask Fritz what makes Acme stand out from the competition. \u201cThe business we are in is challenging and you need to have passion, perseverance, and persistence in order to succeed,\u201d Fritz states. \u201cWe stand behind our products; people come to us with difficult problems requiring, sometimes one-off bespoke systems, and we pride ourselves on never walking away from our customers.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0why we have so many repeat clients, as people trust our\u00a0expertise\u00a0to engineer the best possible solution and our technology makes our customers more profitable.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAlthough we started with manual finishing equipment, our ability to adapt and modernize our technology as times have progressed has ensured our continued position at the forefront of the market. We shifted our business to robotic automation starting in the mid-eighties as these technologies became commercialized. We are constantly evaluating how to engineer more user-friendly finishing systems by trying to simplify robotic programming and technical aspects to enhance user experience.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Such continued innovation and agility are crucial in an evolving market, and as Fritz then explains, material removal is just a small part of overall robotic application opportunities. \u201cProcesses like welding, painting, and material handling have benefited from automation for some time now, while material removal and surface treatment are in their infancy in comparison,\u201d he confirms. \u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0in the\u00a0early stages\u00a0of partnering with a European integration company that specializes in laser ablation surface treatment, for instance. This is\u00a0a great opportunity\u00a0for us to collaborate with an expert in this field and expand our horizons as we learn more about how our offerings can complement each other and have a greater impact on our customers and their operations.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0constantly learning about\u00a0new trends, industries, and opportunities,\u00a0leveraging\u00a0a network\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0built throughout my career to\u00a0identify\u00a0where the market is heading. For instance, we know that the world\u2019s population is aging, and research suggests the average person will need two medical implants in their lifetime.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0been servicing the medical device industry for more than 35 years, but we know the market is constantly growing because of global demographics. As a smaller company, we can quickly adapt our processes to respond to this increased demand.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Elaborating on Acme\u2019s success, Fritz is keen to share the partnerships and projects that have been crucial to the company\u2019s evolution. \u201cWe have an extensive ecosystem of companies that we\u2019ve worked with for decades, such as FANUC, who have been one of our strategic partners for more than 40 years,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0crucial that we\u00a0maintain\u00a0strong partnerships as our integrated robotic systems depend on integrating world class products and components manufactured by other companies, into our systems.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0fortunate to have completed some incredible projects, and\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0great about Acme is our ability to take on small as well as\u00a0very large\u00a0projects where we can partner with other suppliers to bring greater value to the customer.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0incredibly proud to have worked on one of the largest projects in our industry, which saw us install more than 200 robots for finishing applications in multiple plants in Asia over a four-year period.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0recently completed a large, three-year contract for approximately 40 robotic cells for a privately held, family-owned business that was looking to reshore its products from Asia to North America.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"series](\"https:\/\/manufacturing-today.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/Acme-243-body-image.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\n