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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Product hits the spot


Mike and Susan Fuchs of ARC Manufacturing in Spokane have a three-month backlog of orders for their ARC Hybrid System Model 1250 resistance welder and dent puller.
 (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

Mike and Susan Fuchs sold their house last fall so they could buy new machinery for their welding equipment-manufacturing business.

Now the Fuchses, majority owners of ARC Manufacturing, face a three-month backlog of orders for their new product, a resistance spot welder and dent puller that doesn’t require a special power outlet.

“Right now, my problem is production,” said Mike Fuchs, 49. “I cannot build them fast enough.”

The 12-person company has built and sold about 100 of its Hybrid System Model 1250 resistance welder over the last year out of its crowded Spokane factory, Mike Fuchs said. Used by auto body shops, the device fuses metal pieces using high pressure and a jolt of electricity — mimicking how large equipment at auto manufacturers assembles cars.

By year’s end, Mike Fuchs expects to have about 20 employees and $2 million in sales, up from $800,000 last year.

The $13,995 machine recently received approval by Chrysler and General Motors Corp. for use by body shops in repairing their vehicles, Mike Fuchs said.

“The neat thing about this particular welder is it’s extremely user-friendly,” said Daryl Porter, body structures technical operations manager for Chrysler.

Unlike similar welders, which require 220-volt, three-phase electrical hookups, the Model 1250 uses four large batteries and a transformer to function on 110 volts — a typical household hookup.

“So it goes in any shop, and it really does do a nice job,” Porter said, adding that of dozens of welding equipment manufacturers, only a handful are approved by Chrysler. “It actually offers up what I consider to be an extremely good weld.”

Insurance companies also drive demand for the Model 1250 by encouraging repair shops to cut labor costs and improve repair quality by using faster methods — such as resistance welding, Mike Fuchs said.

The Model 1250 remains the only welder of its type approved in this country, Mike Fuchs said.

The company is targeting Ford Motor Co. and Toyota for future approvals. It is also trying to figure out how to finance its growth.

Mike Fuchs’ father-in-law, Robert Hunter, started Automotive Repair Corp. in 1994 after being a passive investor in a now-defunct company that made dent-pulling devices.

The Fuchses bought the company when Hunter died in 1998.

The stand-alone Panel Beater dent puller remains the company’s best seller, with more than 10,000 shipped, Mike Fuchs said.

When the Fuchses sold their house, they moved in with their grown daughter, ARC Manufacturing Chief Financial Officer Tasha Sheets, 29.

Selling was a risk, but Mike Fuchs thinks it will pay off.

“When the time comes, you better get going, because this is what I’ve worked for,” he said. “If I don’t get going, I’m going to miss the boat.”

Boosting production isn’t the only hurdle the company has encountered. It moved from a 12,000 square-foot facility into its current, 7,000-square-foot building after the economic slowdown of 2001.

“We downsized, and then we downsized again,” Mike Fuchs said. “It was very difficult, but we’ve learned how to survive. We are very, very efficient.”

ARC employees are cross-trained, and the plant runs short-staffed, he said. While ARC turns out about three Model 1250s a week, it needs to make twice that to meet demand.

Including electrical switch technology patented by Mike Fuchs, the welder can run 2,000 amps through two electrodes on its “gun,” or tip. It will also put as much as 1,000 pounds of pressure on the spot to be welded using a pneumatic arm.

Electricity travels quickly though the low-resistance copper and aluminum components of the device, but when it hits steel, it heats up and fuses the metal, creating the weld in about two-tenths of a second. The metal cools quickly afterward.

Metal-inert-gas welding, popular for construction, uses a consumable wire filler to join metal.

“It’s very compatible with the new, high-strength steels that the car industry, you know, is using,” he said. “They want lighter steels, and to be lighter it has to be harder.”

Tony Sparks, an auto collision technician at Opportunity Body Shop Inc. in Spokane Valley, has used three generations of the ARC resistance spot welders, including the Model 1250.

Unlike competing welders, the device doesn’t require users to hold as much weight at the weld site, and it can perform some functions without being plugged in because of the batteries, Sparks said. ARC also makes a lot of accessories to accommodate hundreds of car models, he said.

Mike Fuchs plans more computer automation for the company’s next-generation resistance welder, and he envisions the company becoming as large as leading U.S. welding-equipment manufacturers.

“It’s got just an excellent future,” he said.