Staying Sharp…and Ahead of the Competition

March 4, 2010 — kaedwards

Whilst sitting down to do my taxes the other night, the lead on my No. 2 pencil broke.  I immediately remembered that the electric pencil sharpener we used had become quite dull, and being non-repairable, had made it’s way to the garbage can.  So I went to the garage to use the trusty hand crank style.  This too proved to be in less than prime condition.  It was one of those cheap plastic kind that only has one blade inside and never gets the point as sharp as I want it.  And when it does get barely sharp enough to use, the unbalanced design of the low-cost sharpener usually winds up snapping off the point.  Having had enough, I pulled out the Swiss Army Knife and sharpened it ‘carpenter’ style.

Learning from my past mistakes, I stopped in an office supply store over the weekend and began looking at the various sharpeners available.  I immediately passed up another non-repairable electric style, which, I might add cost twice as much as the hand crank versions.  I found that this particular store had two brands of the hand cranked style I liked.  Both claimed all metal construction, and looked very similar from the outside.  But I was determined I would not waste my money on another cheap pencil sharpener.  I kneeled down on the floor and opened the two units up.  Although this got some strange looks from other customers as well as staff of the store, I was glad I did it.  The lower cost of the two units was a single blade.  The slightly higher priced unit ($2 more to be exact) had the two-blade style I was after.  I took it home, installed it and immediately ran around the house looking for any pencil in need of sharpening.  After 5 minutes of pure pencil sharpening joy accompanied by that glorious sawdust/graphite smell, I finally let my son have a turn.  He was super excited because 1) this was a pencil sharpener just like the one he used in school and 2) mounting the new sharpener gave me a chance to position lower, so that he could more easily use it. 

So, what does this have to do with EXAIR?  Just as spending a little extra time researching the pencil sharpener paid off, so too will evaluating the next compressed air product you buy.  You might find a lower cost imitator out there, but when you compare apples to apples, you’ll find that any marginal cost savings is soon lost due to poor engineering and manufacturing techniques.  And as an added bonus, our engineers often find they can help customers not only find the best product for their application, but show them a more efficient way to install and use it.

There’s an old familiar saying that rings true here:  You get what you pay for.  Speaking of paying, think I’ll stop and buy a few packs of No. 2 pencils on the way home…

Dan Preston
Mechanical Engineer 
EXAIR Corporation

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You wouldn’t Steal A Car, Would You?

March 1, 2010 — ndraker

You have probably seen the preview video on a recently rented DVD or perhaps on YouTube. The slogan says, “You Wouldn’t Steal A Car, would you?” 
The video basically makes the parallel between downloading illegal videos and music to stealing a car a handbag or a television set. I have to say that I never really paid much attention to that little video until now.

I can now say that I know how those in the film and music industry feel about the subject. Basically, a “low-cost” imitator has been found ripping off my work. For us, blogs are a fairly informal communication tool meant to get the “meat and potatoes” details of a good application out there so you can benefit. Harmless enough, right?

Since our “low-cost” imitator can’t seem to muster up an original thought or design for that matter, they had to come knocking and stealing content from my blog last week not even 20 minutes after I posted my blog.

All I can say is you’re welcome. It would have been nice to have been asked to use the content first though.

So, if you want to read some good blogs with decent and original content, keep reading EXAIR’s blog. If you want to read a poor copy 20 minutes later, you can check out the “low-cost” imitation.

Back to the movie theme; if you have ever seen the movie “Multiplicity” with  Doug Kinney, played by Michael Keaton,  who finds he doesn’t have enough time to split between his wife, job and family, until he meets a scientist who offers to clone him. The problem was that each of the “copies” were not as good as the original. Unfortunately, for our imitators, that is what you as the customer will find as well. And with the “low cost” imitator being at least a 3rd  level copy providing “me too” product because they could not do a good enough job providing material for the 2nd level copy, it is everything they can do to buy the business by attempting to be the “low cost” guys.

If having top-notch service from knowledgable Application Engineers with an average of  13 years of experience in this industry and with this specific kind of product is important to you when considering your application needs, please contact us. We will go over your application with you. We’ll share our rich industrial experience and brainstorm with you about the options you have and determine together how best to proceed for your solution.

The low-cost guys battle on price because that is all they can do. They have no depth of experience to have the original thoughts necessary to write a unique blog or be a true asset you to you and your company.

Neal Raker
Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

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Are you in the pharmaceutical industry? Have you ever had this problem?

February 26, 2010 — ndraker

In the pharmaceutical industry it would seem that a lot of time and energy is spent on packaging and re-packaging tablets, gels, capsules and other forms of medication. One example that I just became aware of was the need to empty individual container bottles so that the product could be re-packaged due to a mis-print on label applied to the bottle.

In this scenario, the customer has to empty the bottles and get the product back into their packaging machine hopper. Besides being a real pain to have to open each bottle and empty, the customer also has to get these tablets back up into the packaging machine. The tool they decided to use was our 1-1/4″ 316 Stainless Steel Line Vac. The Line Vac had to be made of 316 stainless in order to be considered a normally accepted material for use in applications dealing with medications. The FDA regulates this.

The facts that the 316 stainless Line Vac was a normally stocked item for us and also that it was meant exactly for this type of “bucket and ladder” type conveying application made it a perfect fit for this particular application.

If you are in the pharmaceutical packaging business and can recall where you may have had similar applications for packaging, let us know.

Neal Raker
Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

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Strive Together, Thrive Together

February 10, 2010 — kaedwards

EXAIR has a customer who strives to improve the quality of their product. They are a manufacturer of flat rolled aluminum product and they have recently focused upon removing more lubricating oil from their aluminum roll stock. I learned that they already have a product of excellent reputation but that they were setting themselves apart from any competition if they were able to further improve the product quality.

That kind of philosophy is one EXAIR can relate to and contribute to, simply because we also subscribe to the same philosophy. In fact since the beginning of EXAIR in 1983, we have strived to reduce air consumption on first generation Air Knives, Air Nozzles, and Air Amplifiers. We now know our second generation products as Super Air Knives, Engineered Air Nozzles and Super Air Amplifiers because of all of the performance  improvements we have made.

So now we can provide a product which results from our striving for quality and performance to a customer with the same goal. The result is a thriving business relationship.

The Super Air Knife is a great example of a second generation product which uses 15% less air than our first generation Standard Air Knife. The Super Air Knife is still able to produce the force necessary to improve our customers product which will give them an advantage in a competitive market.

This particular application is as straight forward as they come; we outfitted his web with a 60″ Super Air Knife. The knife was mounted 6″ from the surface of his web at a 45 degree angle to the web, blowing upstream. It is as simple as that.

If your company also strives for improvement in order to thrive in today’s market, please let us help.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

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