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Reprinted
with permission from The
Connecticut Post, May 11, 2002
Piece
by piece: Linda
Ligouri of Derby runs a bearing machine at Alinabal
in Milford. The machine makes a bearing for a wind-driven
turbine alternator, a part used by the defense industry
in weapons like mortars and smart bombs.
Company has been making innovative
machine parts since 1913
WHAT:
Anyone who has bought a movie ticket, used an ATM, driven
a snow mobile, all-terrain vehicle or certain model
car or looked something up in a department store's wedding
registry has probably come in contact with one of Milford-based
Alinabal Holdings Corp.'s products.
WHO:
President and CEO Samuel S. Bergami Jr. and Chief Financial
Officer Kevin M. Conlisk, along with nine other investors,
bought the company from its original owners in 1988;
they have since bought out everyone else. The two have
been the owners of the business, which has two sites
in Milford and one in Kensing-ton, occupying a total
of 175,000 square feet and employing approximately 340
people, since 1998.
STARTING
OUT: One of Alinabal's five divisions has been around
since the beginning of the last century, when in 1913
then-called Laminated Shim provided laminated materials
for Henry Ford's Model-T. Now, Laminated Shim is called
the Engineered Products Group. Alinabal's other divisions
are the Motion Transfer Devices Group, Sterling Screw
Machine Products, Practical Automation Inc. and Daco
Instruments Corp. Alinabal's been on Woodmont Road in
Milford since 1966.
THAT'S
THE TICKET: About 20 percent of Alinabal's business
includes manufacturing printers for theaters, ATMs,
the New York Stock Exchange and wedding registries.
"Our printers were probably in the original ATM
machine," said Conlisk. Added Bergami, "We
play a huge roll in the moviehouse ticket industry."
ONTHEDEFENSIVE:
Alinabal also makes alternators that provide power for
smart bombs and mortars. It took four years for the
company to develop the part, said Bergami; it began
supplying the alternators in 1978. Tiny bearings hold
miniscule balls - about the size of a grain of sand
- that allow the alternators to spin up to 120,000 rpms.
 |
RINGS
OF STEEL: A laser cutter produces parts–in
this case retainer rings for an aerospace customer–
from a sheet of stainless steel at an Alinabal plant.
The Milford-based business makes a variety of products
from printers for ATM machines to parts for smart
bombs. |
|
STEERING
A COURSE: The biggest part of Alinabal's business,
said Bergami, is motion transfer devices, such as rod
end bearings. These parts are in snowmobiles, all-terrain
vehicles, construction and lawn and garden equipment
and even the anima-tronic figures and monorail doors
at Disney parks. "Anywhere something moves or articulates,"
is how Bergami describes the uses for the rod end bearings.
HIGH
STANDARDS: Since 1978, Bergami said, the company
has made 5.5 million alternators without a failure.
To ensure the quality, the company designs and makes
the equipment it uses. "Forty years ago, close
enough was good enough," said Bergami. "That's
no longer the case."
CHANGING
TIMES: Since he started at Alinabal 37 years ago,
Bergami said customers have become more demanding while
the processes they use to make their 50,000 parts -
including valves for Honda shock absorbers - are more
precise. Products, said Conlisk, are getting cheaper
as they get better. When asked if there is a point past
which the products can't improve, Bergami said "Not
in my eyes."
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