Columbia Marking Tools (Chesterfield Township, MI) supplies direct part-marking equipment for metal and plastic materials to small, medium and large manufacturers. They help companies solve part traceability issues by providing part-marking tooling, machinery and automation solutions. They manufacture stamps, hand tools, hot stamping units and machines, impact marking units and machines, roll marking machines, dot peen marking units and machines, diamond scribe units & machines, laser marking units and machines, vision systems, partial or complete automation and supporting tooling for all direct part-marking methods.
In 2004, demand for these products forced the company to expand and they doubled their manufacturing floor space and moved into a new 35,000 sq ft facility in Chesterfield Township.
?The vast majority of part marking equipment suppliers are from Europe,? says Andy Ruzzin, vice president of sales. ?We are launching our most complete and technologically advanced products ever on our 50th anniversary, and they are all built in the U.S.?
The new I-Mark? line of equipment machines include the I-Mark? Machine bench-top series with marking envelopes up to 200 mm x 200 mm, the I-Mark? Integrator Dot-Peen and Diamond Scribe series with smaller foot prints for easy integration and up to 8 characters per second marking speed, and the I-Mark? Custom series with marking envelopes to 250 mm x 500 mm. All machines come standard with linear way guideways and optional items include ballscrew drive, servo motors with encoders for even faster marking speeds, electric or pneumatic marking heads, programmable Z axis.
The I-Mark? controller features include I-Mark? application software, configurations for stepper or servo motors, possibility to run multiple marking heads from one controller, possibility to run any make of marking head from one controller (16), 24 v optically isolated digital I/O points, Harting connector for I/O points, binary select feature for automatically selecting & executing multiple programs, Ethernet 10/100 Base T communications, ability to connect from 1 to 100 marking units and be able to receive feedback on the status of all systems from a remote computer and USB connections for easy data transfer.
?We are a privately held company and over two years ago our owners made a very bold decision to invest heavily in new product development,? notes Ruzzin. ?This decision has poised us to take the marking industry by storm with products that have advantages in price, marking speed, communication capabilities, integration capabilities, build quality and of course being made in the U.S.?
The company has expanded its international distribution network to include Canada, Mexico, Europe, China and Brazil. This, in conjunction with the status of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies, has CMT projecting large increases in both sales and market share for both domestic and international market places in 2010.
CMT is not buying into the ?last one in rust belt turn off the lights? mentality. In fact, Ruzzin says ?these products will move us from being a national player to being an international leader in providing cost competitive marking products and technology without shifting any production to a third world country.?
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Columbia Marking Tools, 27430 Luckino Drive, Chesterfield Township, MI 48047, 800-469-MARK, Fax: 586-591-5941, www.columbiamt.com, e-mail: info@columbiamt.com.
