Machine Gives Artran Cutting Edge

Artran Inc. made a big splash last September at the International Machine Tool Show in Chicago. A designer and manufacturer of computer numerical controls and machine tools, the Springdale engineering firm has successfully undergone the third major direction change in its 16-year history.

CEO Tom Jacoway says he believes Artran will be able to ride the waves from the introduction of its new Prismatic AMUC12 well into the next century. Jacoway says plans include taking the five-axis contouring machining center to market by next spring.

Virtually every week since generating a storm of interest at last year’s international show, Artran, located on the Internet at www.artran.com, has been signing up distributors interested in carrying the new product.

“We want to complete testing this winter,” Jacoway says. “Hopefully, we’ll be in production in time for early spring. We’ve already gotten trademark protection for the Prismatic, and we expect the demand to be heavy.”

The Prismatic, which includes in its official moniker “Artran Machine Control Universal 12,” was named for a “prism” because it’s multi-sided and multi-faceted. It would enable manufacturers to cut or drill holes on five sides of a piece of metal without adjusting it by hand during the process. In the past, only three-axis machining systems were mass marketed to mom-and-pop stores because of the expense involved with five-axis machines.

The Prismatic is unique both because of its PC-based control system and because it sells for around $150,000 and up, or half of what its predecessors have cost.

“In the past, if you needed to cut an angle that gives you a fourth or fifth side on a three-axis machine, you’d have to open a door and measure,” Jacoway says. “This cost time and accuracy. But we’re trying to bring this advanced technology to mom-and-pop shops where they can afford a machine that’s a manageable size and is easier to operate.

“Our slogan is, ‘We’re bringing five-axis to the masses.'”

Early sales predictions are optimistic. Jacoway says Artran hopes to sell as many as 30 Prismatics next year, or around $4.5 million worth. Expectations for 2001 are double or triple that amount.

“Our number crunchers say we can sell a gazillion,” Jacoway says. “But we’ll have a much more accurate idea next year. We believe that with the Prismatic and our other product lines, we can accelerate our company’s growth.”

Chris Koepfer, a senior editor at the trade publication Modern Machine Shop of Cincinnati, says he believes Artran is on to something. He visited Artran’s headquarters at 700 W. Emma Ave. earlier this year to see the company build its Prismatic prototype.

“They’re trying to bring to the metal working market a complicated machine that’s not complicated to operate and that comes at a price point significantly below what it has previously,” Koepfer says. “What I saw was a nice, clean machine with a lot of potential. It’s exciting because it’s American built and American designed.”

Evolving engineering

Artran was started in 1983 by a group of entrepreneurs who later merged it with a machine shop. In 1985, Jacoway joined the board of directors. He helped lead the company through two major redirections that basically meant remaking itself from scratch.

The first major change came after Artran had been designing general automation custom machines for major manufacturers like General Electric Co. of Fairfield, Conn. In 1989, the company shifted to making specialized automation equipment for the poultry industry. This included “smart machines” that would bag and insert popup timers into turkeys for companies like Cargill Inc. of Wayzata, Minn.

At the same time, Artran started its electrical engineering department to design satellite receivers for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville.

The Artran receivers, compared to an “in-store black box,” have been used since 1990 to carry music and advertisements to every Wal-Mart store in North America. Artran also wrote the software that Wal-Mart uses to run its satellite system from its Bentonville studio.

Jacoway says Artran kept its electrical division to continue serving Wal-Mart, but it realized that vertical integration and consolidations within the poultry industry would eventually limit its opportunities there. So Artran diversified.

In the spring of 1996, it bought Vector, a small startup company that had been a client of the University of Arkansas’ Genesis Technology Incubator. Vector, started by UA professor of mechanical engineering Calvin Goforth, was already pioneering work on personal computers to control machine tool machines.

And Jacoway says, because Vector had the technology and the vision, and Artran had the mechanical and electronic engineering, the companies fit nicely together. So that year Artran took another turn by redirecting its energies toward the multi-billion dollar computer-controlled machine tool industry. Goforth stayed on as chief technology officer.

“We just saw much more market potential as opposed to a $100 million poultry machine industry,” Jacoway says. “We still make satellite receivers for Wal-Mart, but we’ve pretty much gotten out of our other old relationships.”

New leadership

Company president Jim Cronkwright joined Artran in November after meeting Jacoway at last year’s IMTS show. Cronkwright says he was drawn to the company by Jacoway’s enthusiasm and the company’s products, which include vertical machining centers like milling machines that are typically used for making molds for things like car parts.

“I met Tom through an acquaintance,” Cronkwright says. “He was looking for someone to eventually take over the business for him, and just hearing about all the enthusiastic young engineers at Artran got me interested in the business. We’ve only been in this particular portion of the market for three years, and already we’re one of the most innovative companies.

“That atmosphere made me feel like it was preordained to leave Thenson Works Inc. [of Belgium] where I was working and come here.”

Koepfer says Artran, which employees 63 people, is on the leading edge of integrating PCs to contouring machine tool machines.

“The biggest thing about the Prismatic is that it’s easy to understand and use,” Koepfer says. “That’s part of the magic of having user-friendly software and the PC control. It’s almost like you could give someone two or three hours of training, and anyone could operate it.

“The timing of this thing seems to make sense, and the smaller job market Artran is going after is fairly untapped. It’s hard to predict how well they’ll do, but I don’t see much to keep it from going over large.”