Spinnin' N' Slippin' in Haddam
Ever been on a carousel? If so, you can imagine the usefulness of a technology made by one of Haddam’s oldest manufacturing firms.
As carousels spin, they need a way to get the electricity to the lights and other items without relying on a wire, which would easily tangle.
It’s the classic analogy Jon Sibley uses in describing one of the main products engineered by the Sibley Co. — slip rings. These devices, Sibley said, are used inside a wide range of components where power needs to move from something stationary to something that rotates.
Inside of the seven-employee Sibley Co., headquartered on Bridge Street, engineers and manufacturing workers custom design and build these devices — along with a range of other components — for all types of industries.
The company was originally started in Montreal, Canada in 1913 by Sibley’s grandfather, Ross. After relocating to New York state in the 1940s, the company was eventually moved to Haddam in 1946, said Sibley, who, along with brother Jim, currently owns the business.
Without realizing it, one might come across a slip ring made by Sibley in a hospital or doctors office, for instance, where the devices are used to make retractable power cords. They are also used widely in aerospace applications, and can be found, for instance, inside the Boeing 767 and 777 planes, Sibley said.
They are even used on the so-called “Round House” in Wilton, Conn. In that architectural oddity, a home revolves around a standing column — a design similar to Seattle’s Space Needle, although far shorter.
“It’s a very involved and intense business,” Sibley said. “Most of what we do is quite arcane to the average person.”
Sibley Co. uses only around 4,000 square feet of the 30,000 in manufacturing space it owns on 95 Bridget St. The rest is leased to other up-and-coming manufacturing firms, many of them making unusual devices. They include:
• PPD Electronics, which manufactures ultra high-end audio equipment, the kind of product sought out by keen eared audiophiles.
• Servotech, which tests and rebuilds servo motors that are used in industrial applications.
• And JT Styles, which makes custom cabinetry using computerized manufacturing equipment.
A short distance up the road from Sibley Co. sits another Haddam manufacturing company that designs and builds little-known-about products for other manufacturers.
Lawson Machine Co. on Saybrook Road designs and builds molds and tools for the plastic injection molding industry. The 20-year-old company employs three people, said owner and founder Wayne Lawson.
“We basically support the plastic molding companies,” he said. “We build and design a lot of prototypes before they go into full production.
The company makes molds for a wide variety of injection molding firms. Lawson estimates that about 80 percent of his company’s work is for medical device makers.
Although a machine shop in name, Lawson said his company is more or less a design firm for manufacturing equipment. “We do a ground up design for prototypes — we probably have as much invested in the design aspects of the business as in manufacturing,” he said.
In the past, molds designed by Lawson’s firms have been used to make everything from syringes in hospitals, to the lenses on ambulance lights to plastic pieces used in Smith & Wesson firearms.
Freelance Writer Ken St. Onge blogs about manufacturing in Conn. at NutmegMachine.com
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