Acme Specialty Manufacturing Company
Acme Specialty Manufacturing Company has been providing super durable mirrors and vision systems to the off-road construction and mining industries for over 45 years. Solicited originally by Caterpillar Inc in 1977, we were charged with a challenge many engineers at the time thought impossible, to develop mirror products that could survive in some of the most environmentally hostel areas of the world on some of the largest vibration prone mobile equipment made by man. Acme engineers worked for over two years testing various reflective materials and metal fabrication techniques before settling on a single design concept suitable for Caterpillar equipment. We are very proud of our history and longevity supporting Caterpillar and we now include almost all similarly well-known OEM’s in these industries as loyal customers.
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Our array of mirror products has expanded significantly over last 45 years as we evolve to meet ongoing challenges of the larger footprints and greater capacities of these “Mega Machines”. Key to the long life and durability of our mirrors typically includes the use of powder coated heavy gage robotic TIG welded steel housings and fully tempered (heat treated) 5mm thick safety glazing. This reflective glass is 6-10 times more impact resistant than glass used in our competitors’ rearview mirrors. We manufacture our own convex safety tempered mirror lenses to meet the ANSI Z26.1 standard in our own factory on customized proprietary press bending equipment. This unique press bending/ tempering technique yields very low distortion and accurate control of the radius of curvature of each mirror lens produced, which is very important to machine operators backing up and maneuvering giant haul trucks, drag lines, and wheel loaders from cab locations sometimes two stories above the ground. Tempered safety mirrors can be heated and defrosted quickly as they have excellent thermo shock properties. Many of our standard tempered mirrors now come in heated versions that are very popular in Canada and other cold weather arctic environments.
We now often incorporate and offer other safety oriented electronic vision aids to OEM’s and operators of large mining and construction equipment. We sometimes combine our heavy-duty tempered mirrors with durable high definition color CCTV cameras and in-cab monitors to provide full perimeter envelope viewing as required by ISO 5006, an international safety viewing standard applicable to construction equipment. Developing a combination solution often requires close collaboration with OEM vision and safety engineers, a service we readily provide free of charge. We offer custom product design service utilizing the latest CAD modeling software, and we have a wide array of adaptable sheet metal stamping, welding, and tube bending equipment options. We can produce custom product in as few as 25 pieces production quantities.
