Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Allford.
Daniel, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started ARC Specialties as a part-time sole proprietorship in 1983. At night and on the weekends I built machines for manufacturing. The first was a truck wheel welding system. The next was a welding and cutting system used for hot tapping a monitoring port on a smokestack. The system welded a pipe on the outside of the stack then cut a port in the wall of the stack. The job was outdoors in sub-zero weather and the stack was radioactive. A perfect job for a robot. In 1990 I went full time starting in my garage. I built systems to weld, cut, drill, test circuit boards, make kites and inspect. I was a computer geek in the 1970s if you combine that with manufacturing you get a roboticist. Since then we have added people, machines, and buildings. We design, build and program automated manufacturing systems. we have 60 engineers and craftsmen working in 100,000 sq feet for the factory as of 2017.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As a technical person, I had to learn business along the way. Fortunately, my mistakes were all recoverable. I recall finishing up one of my early years in business with my books looking strong. I made the rookie mistake of thinking that the company had grown to the point we no longer needed progress payments. Soon I discovered that it progressed payments which make the capital equipment business run. My cash flow crashed. I was fortunate that my suppliers worked with me as I corrected my mistake and returned my old proven system.
When the company was small it was hard to recruit people. Fortunately, I was able to entice some great engineers and craftsmen to join the team. These people took a risk with a small company because they wanted to work in the field of robotics. Retention is now my top priority. Nearly 30% of the ARC staff has worked here for over 10 years.
Please tell us about ARC Specialties.
ARC Specialties builds automated manufacturing equipment. This includes computed controlled machines and robots. We are primarily known for welding, but we also automate cutting, drilling, inspection, and assembly. We have several patented technologies but most of our customers work with us simply because our machines work well. Our machines are used in 22 counties around the world. As a Houston company, the oilfield is our primary industry. Our machines make rock bits, drill pipe, valves, blow out preventors, centralizers and many other pieces of oilfield equipment. Our machines are also used in other industries to build heavy earth moving equipment, armored vehicles, plastic extrusion machines as well as in the food and consumer goods segments. ARC is one of the last remaining manufacturers of large robots in the U.S. Our ARC6S systems are able to hold and manipulate a 100,000 pound blow out preventer while our robot makes weld repairs.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I have always built things. My mom was one of the early radiation mutation researchers. It was a different time back in the 60’s so I was able to visit her laboratory and watch her use all sorts of interesting machines. She demonstrated everything from mass spectrographs to microscopes. I was hooked on machines. In the ’70s we had free access to a mainframe computer at a local college. We build a terminal and a dial-up modem and proceeded to teach ourselves to program. I am a fan of Isaac Asimov who wrote the early science fiction about robots. A robot is simply a programmable machine which combines my two interests.
Pricing:
- Large industrial robots range from $40,000 to several million.
- New collaborative robots start at $30,000
Contact Info:
- Address: 1730 Stebbins Dr.Houston, TX 77043
- Website: www.arcspecialties.com
- Phone: 7136317575
- Email: dan@arcspecialties.com
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