In its August 2022 article “Delivering the US manufacturing renaissance,” McKinsey & Company reported that since 1997, the number of U.S. manufacturing operations and facilities decreased by approximately 25%. More recently, supply chain disruptions and geopolitical concerns have some American companies reconsidering their reliance on foreign components and offshore production.
For some manufacturers, however, their products have been made in America from the beginning. Since 1980, Wisconsin-based Vermatic, Incorporated has designed and fabricated both standard and custom clamps and clamp assemblies for original equipment manufacturers across the world.
Vermatic stocks and designs multiple product lines, utilizing high-impact copolymer materials. This allows their hydraulic clamp assemblies to minimize the vibration and shock that result from fluid surges within pipes, tubes, and hoses. Polypropylene maintains its stability in the presence of salt water, paints, solvents, alcohol, fuels, mineral oils, and light acids. With low-temperature impact resistance, the company’s products are operational in temperatures of up to 220° F.
“The Vermatic team manufactures innovative, high-quality clamps and assemblies to fulfill the needs of diverse stationary and mobile applications on time and within budget,” says Cathy Frantz, company owner and president. “Available in various styles and sizes, our products help to reliably enhance the performance, safe operations, and life cycle of your industrial equipment. We incorporate proprietary configurations, custom sizing options, and more in our clamp designs to take your product idea from concept to reality.”
In addition to the equipment and stationary machine industries, Vermatic also serves distributors that work with a variety of markets ranging from food and beverage, agriculture, and vegetation management to oil and gas, construction, and transportation. Its clamps and assemblies are applicable for concrete mixers, lift and access equipment, mining machinery, and more.
From its facility in New Berlin, the company has the capacity to handle both small and large orders. Vermatic’s product lines include Single Beta Clamp, Twin Clamp, Standard and Multi-Line Clamp, Loose Hanging Clamp, and Custom and Specialty Clamp Series.
Thomas Insights (TI): What isn’t widely known about your company that you’d like to highlight for our readers?
Cathy Frantz (CF): Vermatic manufactures clamp assemblies that will change the way you look at clamps. Even though we have been manufacturing clamps for over 40 years, some don’t know who we are or how we can become a value-added partner. We offer versatility that no other clamp manufacturer can offer. Our company has unique designs that can improve their equipment. We problem-solve.
Also, Vermatic is a woman-owned business, and we proudly design and manufacture all of our products in the USA. We’re one of approximately 250 companies in the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s Made In Wisconsin® program for supporting Wisconsin’s local communities and manufacturing tradition.
Providing manufacturing solutions right here in the U.S. means that we can offer our customers higher-quality clamps and greater flexibility on custom orders, all with shorter production times. From our state-of-the-art facility, we’re able to rapidly produce clamp samples and fulfill orders.
TI: What’s the most common question you receive from prospective customers, and how do you respond to them?
CF: The typical questions are those related to a client’s need for a solution. For example, a customer may have multiple lines running together with different sizes of tubes and hoses. They’ll ask if Vermatic can build a clamp for their needs. In such cases, the answer is yes; our Multi-Line Series can help.
If there is a height restriction they are dealing with and they have a stacked situation, they’ll ask if we can work within those requirements. We offer low-profile cushion inserts that can accommodate several lines into a clamp assembly that will minimize height.
If customers are running two lines together that are different sizes and they want to use a Twin Clamp style, we can help with that, as well. Our team can put two different-sized OD openings in a single twin cushion insert. We manufacture all of our clamp assemblies at our plant in Wisconsin, which allows us the ability to get you exactly what you need.
TI: Can you share a specific success story detailing how one of your custom products has helped a client?
CF: We have a customer who ordered a weld-mount side-by-side, stacked clamp from us. In this four-opening configuration — with two openings on top and two on the bottom — each opening had a different hose OD: .687H, 1.100H, 1.400H, and 1.500H. The client explained to us that these hoses are actually floating, connecting multiple hoses together. They were wondering if we could do custom configurations for them in our Loose Hanging Clamp Series for these same sizes so that they could hang adjacent to each other, still in a stacked pattern.
We created the Loose Hanging Clamp Series because there was a need for this clamp style, but it was not available on the market. It comes with specially designed cushion inserts that countersink hardware, so it provides an entirely smooth exterior surface that protects the hoses as they swing freely. We take that design one step further by allowing for multiple-sized openings to be molded into the cushion insert per a customer’s requirements. This solution is exactly what this customer needed and we were able to deliver.
TI: What sets Vermatic apart from the competition?
CF: At Vermatic, our focus is solely on heavy-duty clamps, and we offer clamp assembly configurations that our competitors do not. This unique offering allows us to be an industry expert for our customers. Why is that important? Even though we manufacture the same clamp styles that our competitors offer, those styles can fall short on a design configuration.
We have the experts available to work directly with the original equipment manufacturer to design a clamp that suits their needs exactly. Design engineers are challenged with many obstacles — including efficiency requirements — and we can help them solve so many of the issues they face. It’s what we do.
To learn more about the company’s line of clamps and how they can support your products, contact Vermatic today.
