If you’re a longtime reader of WHN, you have, no doubt, seen ads for wire processing equipment from our friends at The Eraser Company. They go back to the very early days as an advertiser in the publication and are known for producing high quality tabletop wire processing and tube cutting equipment. In an effort to learn a little more about the company, we jumped on a call with Marcus BeVard, President and CEO, Rob Grzelka, Sales and Marketing Manager, and Courtney BeVard, Operations Analyst. They told a rich and enjoyable story about the long history of the company.
The Eraser Company was founded in 1911 and formally incorporated in 1935. As the name implies, their main product was the Rush FybRglass® Eraser, used for typing and drafting corrections. “Because it was a fiberglass eraser, they learned that the abrasive nature also had industrial uses,” Marcus relayed.
Initial uses in electronics for the Rush Eraser were in cleaning corrosion on contacts. But the biggest development was in removing or erasing the enamel insulative coating from magnet wire. “The next innovation,” Marcus revealed, “was to automate that process and incorporate the fiberglass into a pair of counter rotating stripping wheels.” These early tools evolved into more conventional blade stripping of PVC and other common wire insulation.
This was at the time just after Marcus’ father, Ralph BeVard Sr., came into the business in 1954. He ran another family business called American Production & Grinding Corporation that made parts for The Eraser Company’s equipment. He began as an advisor and board member, then came into the business operationally and from an ownership perspective in 1960. “He was really responsible for a lot of the early innovation and diversification of our product line through both development and acquisition,” Marcus contended.
In the early 70s, the company operated a sales and distribution facility in Andover England. That facility became the gateway to the rest of the world for marketing their equipment. Because of the global nature of the business, the company was able to absorb this operation back into the Syracuse headquarters in 2004. Eraser continues to market products aggressively throughout the world.
The company continued to develop magnet and conventional wire stripping products and methods. With its Power Brush product line, the company acquired the capability to strip high temperature and more highly bonded magnet wire using wire brushes as a more aggressive option than fiberglass. Another solution for this type of magnet wire is a Dip Strip Pot, which uses a proprietary stripping medium. In addition, there are thermal and a variety of other stripping options. Another strategic acquisition was the Glo Ring product line, offering an efficient alternative to a heat gun for heat shrink material.
Regarding equipment designed for the cutting of wire, “Sometime in the 70’s, Eraser expanded into automated feed and cut-to-length equipment. A very early offering included a manual cutter that you would crank to run the wire through,” he chronicled
One of the more remarkable acquisitions was, in fact, the Remarcable Company which became Eraser’s line of coaxial processing equipment. “I believe that was in the early 90’s and that process actually slits the cable with a blade. We found that we could cut tubing, and specifically medical catheters, very precisely, and so we married the technology from the Remarkable tool to our feed and cut-to-length product line. That became what is now our WC601 series and it’s a highly successful tubing cutter,” Marcus detailed.
Along this journey, Ralph instilled a very strong culture of quality and initiated codified quality systems long before ISO became fashionable. “My father was responsible for what I would say is our one key identity, and that is our commitment to quality, and we were way out on the curve with ISO certification in the early 90’s.”
Rob jumped in on the quality discussion. “I’ve been here only a short time, and when Marcus says commitment to quality, he’s not kidding. In an age where everyone is looking to cut corners, that’s just not done here. The equipment is very rugged, and the machines operate beautifully. We do a lot of call surveys with customers and the one thing that is said over and over is they recognize our commitment to quality. They are very happy with the equipment, and I’m very proud of that.”
Eraser continues to operate – as it has since its founding – entirely in Syracuse NY, where all operations are based. The business moved to its existing location in 1967 and the company has since acquired three adjacent buildings to create today’s industrial campus. There have been numerous challenges over the decades, with changing economic conditions and cycles. As a result, “we’ve made some necessary adjustments along the way, to insure our viability for the next century. This included consolidation of buildings and streamlining operations, so that even though we are smaller in size and footprint than we were 25 years ago, we all work smarter and are stronger for it. Having said that, we are very fortunate because we have been blessed with a great mix of people who ensure our success every day. They make us a well-oiled machine.”
One of Erasers proudest offerings is their ECP (Eraser Certification Program). With ECP, customers can send in a 10-15-foot sample of material. Eraser’s lab technicians will experiment with different processes and recommend the best solution from their wide variety of products. “It’s a free service and we give them an official price quote, a full evaluation report along with samples made on that equipment for inspection. So, we are certifying that they’re buying the right product.” The team prides themselves on turning those samples around in 24 to 48 hours.
Through the years, a major push from Eraser has been to make tools that are scalable, and Marcus feels this is another thing that sets them apart. “Instead of investing in a $15,000 machine, we can scale up to what the customer’s needs are. So, if they just need to cut material manually in low volumes, they can just buy a controller and cutter. If they need to ramp up, they can introduce to a feeder in the middle of that.” This affords Eraser the ability to do business with small job shops companies up to multinational firms. This is culminated in their newest line of products, the M700 compact tabletop system. It’s designed to cut various wire and tubing material by using a choice of multiple style cutting modules that can be used with or without the feeder module.
Customer service was very important to Marcus’ father, and it’s very important to him as well. “We support our product 100%,” he ensured. “Our customer service team is here eight hours a day five days a week, and folks can call in to discuss any kind of issues or concerns they have with our service technicians.” It was interesting to learn that in 2009 the Manufacturers Association of Central New York posthumously honored eraser companies past president Ralph BeVard, Sr with its wall of fame award for the for his contributions to the economic vitality of the region.
Eraser is very diversified serving customers in aerospace, medical, industrial telecommunications, and appliances industries. Their involvement in the medical industry has made low tolerance processing a state of mind. “We are given tolerances of 0.001” so we learn to be incredibly accurate across all our products,” Rob detailed. This experience has afforded eraser the ability to apply unique technologies to their products sold in the wire harness industry. If you’d like to learn more about the eraser company, jump on their website at www.eraser.com, or contact them at 315-454-3237.
