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Fuller Industrial Takes On The World

Sudbury-based Fuller Industrial has plans for no less than world domination of the rubber-lining business.

The company lines industrial pipes with rubber, which makes them resistant to abrasion and chemical corrosion. It also does engineering, pipe and fitting fabrication, painting, quality control, export packaging, logistics and shipping.

“The rubber liners of the world tend to be very small, regional and almost mom-and-pop. They serve the local markets and they’re just thinking inwardly,” said company president Jeff Fuller. “That gives us an advantage because we’re able to get jobs right on their doorstep.”

Fuller recently closed a contract to supply pipe for a mill at a mine in the Americas, and was working out the details at press time with Sherritt International for another contract in Africa.

Both projects are worth millions of dollars, he said.

“As far as I can tell, this rubber lining job in Africa is the biggest job in the world right now.”

Fuller will also be adding another 15 people to his current crew of 30 by the first quarter of 2008 to satisfy the requirements of the two large contracts and other orders.

The company has purchased a 23,000-square foot facility in Sudbury’s Walden Industrial Park to handle the increased volume of business. It currently occupies a 12,000-square foot building.

“The new facility is going to quadruple our capacity,” said Fuller. “Two-thirds of that capacity is already spoken for with orders.”

The company attributes about 20 per cent of its work to foreign sales, but Fuller expects that to increase to 60 per cent next year.

Rubber-lining jobs are plentiful because of high metal prices, but Fuller said his company wouldn’t be getting so many orders if it didn’t have an efficient manufacturing process.

A new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system was recently acquired to track the company’s manufacturing process.

“Every job that we send down to the shop has a bar code on it and every single step that you have to do is bar coded,” he said.

“The worker grabs the job and there’s a picture with all of the specifications, and he scans every step. It provides 100 per cent traceability and 100 per cent transparency, which is really important for our customers.

“At any given point we know the status of the order. It’s not ‘Let me get back to you.’ You can actually get a password and go online and check your order’s status.”

Fuller Industrial has also recently purchased a new high-end welding machine. The welding jobs done by this machine are checked by x-rays to ensure the work is technically perfect.

“It used to be that nobody cared about that stuff as long as the weld looked good and had a nice paint job. But now the world is a different place.”

The company’s largest autoclave, used to harden the rubber inside the pipes, has an 11-foot diameter inside and is 55 feet long so that even the largest pipes can be treated.

Fuller said his employees are currently developing different rubber compounds to improve the product, as well as innovative techniques to do the rubber lining.

“There are some savings that can be had in developing rubber compounds that weren’t economically feasible until our volumes had increased to this point,” he said.

“The rubber will be better, the finished product will be better and the process will be faster. It will also make us more competitive.”