
The world’s market relies on heavy-duty vehicles to function productively and efficiently. These vehicles, ranging from semi-trucks to heavy construction haulers, emergency vehicles to forestry processing machines, material handling forklifts to mammoth offshore oil rigs, are essential for consistent performance in harsh conditions over extended periods.
When it comes to operating these machines, heat is the enemy. Heat damages engines, warps pistons, destroys computer components, melts wires, and can stop projects in their tracks. Efficient, high-quality radiators play an essential part in protecting these essential components from the wear and tear that heat causes.
Companies like Peterbilt, John Deere, Freightliner, Caterpillar, and Cummins design their equipment to be consistent, reliable, and rugged. Users expect to get the very best performance consistently from these machines as they do their work. And when the time comes to replace their OEM radiators, Cincinnati Radiator delivers an American-made, high-quality, reliable cooling solution.
On-Shoring Means Growth
For the past two years, General Manager Prasenjit Ray has led Cincinnati Radiator through a significant period of growth – a facility relocation, new internal production opportunities, and a new brazing furnace to produce radiator cores.
“We formerly had two buildings (in Ohio) that combined had a total of 30,000 square feet, and now we have 75,000 square feet under one roof,” Ray explained. “We’re already more efficient having all our operations in one place. Lean manufacturing is coming once our processes have all settled.”
Ray has decades of experience in manufacturing, having studied to be an electrical engineer, earning an MBA in finance, and working in roles ranging from mechanical engineering, fabrication, injection molding and then elevating into management. Ray was known to look for ways technology could help make manufacturing more efficient.
Coming to Cincinnati after working throughout most of the 1990s in India, Ray championed the use of CAD design while working at his first Cincinnati-based employer at the turn of the millennium. As Ray’s career grew, engineering leadership opportunities came along from companies throughout the tri-state area, and over the expanse of 25 years, Ray had developed an impressive leadership resume; holding posts ranging from Chief Engineer and Chief Financial Officer to Director of Engineering and General Manager.
Cincinnati Radiator also grew out of an opportunity from the 90s. Opening at the end of the millennium, founder Mark Epure had a vision for creating high-quality American-made radiators, as well as supplying superior parts and providing exceptional service. At a time when GM was closing the nearby Fisher Body plant, Epure was able to find workers with technical expertise and institutional knowledge to grow his company.
“We have a fantastic engineering group,” Ray explained “our designers were helping us look differently at the issues we faced with older systems.” OEMs started to look to Cincinnati Radiator for a different approach to solve difficult issues. “It’s hard to convince OEMs to change vendors, but if they have problems that can’t be solved, they’d come to us for a different approach and solutions to problems that other vendors couldn’t figure out.”
As Cincinnati Radiator grew and expanded, Epure and his team discovered increasingly more advantages for having a U.S. based manufacturing facility. Cincinnati Radiator expanded into a second facility and found themselves working closely with major engine-builder Cummins; finding solutions for updating older cooling systems and becoming a supplier for obsolete parts. By 2022, Epure had sold the company but remained on board serving as a consultant to assist with the much-needed growth ahead.
That’s where Prasenjit Ray and his leadership team stepped in. Ray joined a company led by a board of five owners with some having a military background serving as U.S. Army Rangers. They valued manufacturers who were creating American-made, high-quality products. Cincinnati Radiator was the exact sort of company they wanted to invest in, and they could clearly see the opportunities for growth.
In the past year, Cincinnati Radiator consolidated both locations and moved operations to a brand-new 75,000 square foot modern building in the Seward Pointe Commerce Park located in Fairfield, Ohio. They started the process of optimizing their multiple lines of operations, and they purchased a new Ipsen Vacuum Aluminum Brazing (VAB) furnace to solve a major issue – delays caused by offshore radiator core thermal processing.
Bringing Brazing Back to the U.S.
“We knew that we needed a way to make cores here. When customers had to rely on cores processed in China, it could mean a four-month lead time. If we had our own furnace, we could operate a just-in-time production,” Ray explained.
After considering several options, Cincinnati Radiator went with Ipsen’s VAB furnace. “We had experts under contract that worked with us through the whole process,” Ray said. “We went with John Pease (Ipsen Regional Sales Representative) and Patrick McKenna (Ipsen USA President & CEO) to California to see a company operating two Ipsen VAB furnaces. Our team knew that, once we saw them in operation, we wanted to work with another company within the United States. Ipsen could offer great aftermarket support, and the delivery was worth the wait.”
Ray and the Cincinnati Radiator team found out quickly just how versatile the Ipsen VAB furnace is. “This furnace has so many recipes for us to use. We were planning to test it out for two months, but we weren’t expecting to get production-quality within those two months,” Ray explained. “What shocked and surprised me was that the first cores that came out were perfect. The furnace has not failed. We’ve produced 10 (in the first month) and it runs like a new Cadillac. I told a vendor that we got a new furnace, and they were shocked that we were already making parts. That wasn’t at all expected.”
Internally, Ray is starting to get people asking about using the new Ipsen VAB for special projects. “We have requests popping up that people have been wanting for 18 years. Our biggest bottleneck has gone away, and we can now better help customers get what they want. What used to take four months can now be done in two weeks.”
The Future Looks Bright
As Cincinnati Radiator looks forward, the new building offers all kinds of opportunities for growth. It starts with a fresh and enthusiastic leadership team, driven by a desire to achieve competitive excellence.
“We have a great engineer here, Abhilash, who was given the task of working on our expansion plan. He took our plan and pushed it hard, getting our machines up and running, and working to get us going in the right direction,” Ray noted. “With Mark Epure’s guidance, we have what may be the best team of rookies I’ve ever had. This team is shining. They are leading us out of the moving stage and focused on what’s next.”

To learn more about Cincinnati Radiator, visit their website at www.cincyradiator.com
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