Q&A with Bob Fouquette

Chief Engineer with Custom Electric Manufacturing Co.

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Tell us about your company and its core philosophy.

Custom Electric Manufacturing Co. designs and manufactures original equipment and replacement heating elements for electric thermal processing equipment. The company was founded in 1970.

The focus of Custom Electric is metallic heating elements. Product offerings have expanded to include elements for all types of industrial heating equipment and most electric thermal processing applications.

Today, Custom Electric has a global customer base. Manufacturing floor space has doubled. Ongoing investments in CAD/CAM technology, CNC forming equipment, and a computerized plant management system ensure manufacturing efficiency. Investing in skilled people ensures product quality. For more than 50 years, our core philosophy has been to supply a quality product in a timely manner to the heat-treating community

What are your duties?

We design custom electric heating elements and assist in the design of furnaces and other high-temperature heating systems.

What products and services does your company offer?

We design, build, and repair all types of electric resistance heating elements. The Custom Electric engineering team has more than 75 years of heating element design experience. Working with original equipment manufacturers and end users, they design elements for new and unusual applications in addition to replacement elements that ensure production efficiency. Examples of elements designed to solve specific customer heating problems are:

  • Bayonet Elements.
  • C-Mersion Elements and Tubes.
  • Edge-Wound Ribbon Bayonet Elements.
  • Plug/Rack (Open Coil) Elements.
  • Ribbon/Strip Elements.
  • Rod Overbend Elements.
  • Rod Overbend Fiber Module Systems.
  • Helical Coil Elements.
  • Tubular Elements.
  • Silicon Carbide Elements.
  • High Temperature Radiant Tubes.
  • Thermalloys Protection Tubes.

What are your company’s goals as they pertain to the heat-treating industry?

We continue to strive to expand into those areas of heat-treating that require electric heating because no component of an electric thermal processing system has a greater impact on furnace performance, productivity, and operating costs than heating elements. Custom electric has a 50-year history of delivering quality heating elements that last longer, have lower maintenance costs, and reduce replacement downtime while increasing productivity.

To support day-to-day maintenance requirements, Custom Electric also provides element and element layout upgrading support, element repair support, spare parts, and furnace accessories, as well as stocking programs tailored to customer requirements.

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Custom Electric’s product offerings have expanded to include elements for all types of industrial heating equipment and most electric thermal processing applications. (Courtesy: Custom Electric)

What are some of your company’s proudest achievements?

We are proud to be recognized as the leading heating-element manufacturer in the heat-treating industry. Our products keep America running, and we are very proud of that.

What sets your company apart when it comes to what you can offer a customer?

The short answer is product line focus and application experience. Heating elements have been the focus of Custom Electric for 50 years. It is all the company does and what it strives to do better than any other company in the electric heating industry. Because of the breadth of its product line and diversity of markets served, few companies can match the application experience of Custom Electric. The engineering team has more than 75 years of element design experience. It can design quality replacement elements for any thermal processing system or develop custom heaters for new equipment and applications.

Where do you see the future of your company and its place in the heat-treating industry?

We see ourselves continuing to lead the pack with innovative custom designs and excellence in customer service.

More information  www.custom-electric.com