May 3, 2022
By Katie Anderson – Reporter, Buffalo Business First
Buffalo Wire Works announced an expansion earlier this month, but it's one that's been years in the making.
The screen manufacturer has seen significant growth in the last eight years, since diving into other markets such as specialty screens.
“Buffalo Wire has been in the industry and in business for over 150 years now, but we’re much more than what our name stands for,” Maxon Davis, company president, said. “We started eight years ago getting into other product lines within our core market.”
The company, whose roots go back to 1869, manufactures screens and other products used to sort materials such as stone, sand, coal and minerals in mining and other industries. It started making PFX or self-cleaning screens and crusher parts and urethane rubber wear liners for screening machines and hauling equipment.
“Buffalo Wire has gone to the approach of being a one-stop-shop for our customers, where we can supply the full product sweep for a screening medium,” Davis said. “We were getting asked, ‘What else can we fill a container with when we ship to our distribution channels?’"
More recently, the company has invested in engineering talent who can create product solutions for customers. In the last 10 years, the five-person department has grown to nearly 30.
“We’ve always been an engineering company at heart,” Davis said. “We wanted to emphasize that even more by engineering new products. So our newest growth phase is in engineering and how we can have additional value to our customers.”
The company's “tech squad,” comprised of top engineers and managers, travels to a customer if they're having equipment issues. The goal is solve the problem right there.
“It’s that additional value that’s helping our customers see that we’re more than a wire company,” Davis said.
The company plans two new production lines and has a patent pending for one of them. The PFX Module is a 1-foot by 2-foot screen panel that can sort almost any material.
“It’s already in production, but we’re out of space,” Davis said. “We’re bursting at the seams.”
A second new production line will be for a screen not currently manufactured because more room is needed.
“We’ll start working on the product line, but it won’t be here until we have the space for it,” Davis said.
Buffalo Wire is building four machines that manufacture larger self-cleaning PFX screens that are in high demand.
“It’s an extremely efficient way of screening product,” Davis said. “The lead times for these have gotten a little too long. But those four new machines have taken up the last remaining space that we have here.”
That’s why the company is considering a 50,000 square-foot facility on property it owns across the street on Babcock. Davis anticipates the $5 million project would take up to two years and add 25 jobs to the 179-person workforce.
“There’s a lot of untapped customers and places in the market that we haven’t gotten to yet,” Davis said. “This new product line is helping us knock those doors down, specifically in the mining side of our business.”
