Month: October 2010

Very Rare

Published on by Bryan PetersLeave a comment

This level of excellence doesn’t come along every day.

I don’t believe what I just saw.  It’s a famous quote from Jack Buck that was used to describe Kirk Gibson’s pinch hit home run in the 1988 World Series, one of the most memorable postseason baseball moments of all time.

Millions of people were witnesses to something even more memorable last night.

EXAIR is located in Cincinnati.  Obviously, the town was abuzz yesterday before the Reds first appearance in the playoffs since 1995.  People were talking about watching the game, either at home or with friends (sports bars automatically give each patron an allotment of friends).

Three hours later, we couldn’t believe what we just saw.

Roy Halladay became the first major league pitcher to throw two no hitters in the same season since 1973 (Nolan Ryan) and the first to throw one in the postseason since 1956 (Don Larsen).  It was a masterful performance.  Stories about it will be told and retold for many years to come.  As Reds fans, we didn’t like the outcome but we got to witness something that is very rare indeed.

It’s not often that a person (or a team) displays a level of excellence that sets itself far apart from others trying to do the same thing. Those kinds of performances are memorable and unique.

Here at EXAIR, we have almost 90,000 customers. Many of them have their own supplier rating systems, so we get supplier “report cards” from customers on a regular basis. One that we received recently was memorable. This customer is a very large company that sells hundreds of thousands of products and has thousands of vendors. Our report card from this customer indicated a perfect score. Along with the report was a note from the supplier congratulating us on a perfect scorecard and commenting that they do not see those very often.

That sort of compliment from a customer that has thousands of vendors to evaluate was memorable.  EXAIR rose above the rest and delivered a performance that caught their attention.  Once more, I have to congratulate our team here at EXAIR for this achievement and many others that may never make it to this blog.

EXAIR isn’t like most vendors, and we never will be. We’ll always strive to set ourselves apart, above and beyond normal vendor performance.

Bryan Peters
President
bryanpeters@exair.com

Report Cards and Nonsense

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

Big week at the Edwards’ house – mid-term report cards are in. Though it seems to be different from when I was a kid. When (If) I brought my report cards home I was wrecked with anxiety, suddenly no-where-to-be-found, suddenly smarter than my report card displayed, and scarcely remorseful. My kids, however, proudly hand them to me in anticipation of my reaction – and isn’t it the best to see your kid glowing after honoring them for a job well done.

But my youngest son’s report card was unusual. Since someone has determined he is too young to actually be compared to other students, he is rated in performance categories. I learned he is particularly adept in the category of “Nonsense Word Fluency” – yes that’s right “Nonsense Word Fluency.”

Whew, what a load off that is! My days of lamenting about my child making no sense whatsoever are over. He was simply honing his skills. Here is the low-down on the “Nonsense” test…The student is given 1 minute to produce as many letter sounds as they can when given a list of nonsense words.  The student reads randomly ordered VC (vowel-consonant) and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) nonsense words (sim, lut, taf).  They are to produce verbally the individual letter sound of each letter or verbally “read” the whole CVC nonsense word.  For example, if the word is “sim” the student would say “/s/ /i/ /m/”, say the onset “/s/” and the rhyme “/im/”, or say the whole word “sim”.  The benchmark goal is 30 correct sounds per minute in fall, 50 correct sounds per minute in winter, and 63 correct sounds per minute in spring.

Why in the world real words are not used is beyond me, but the staff in the educational community are quick to point out their superior methods and impunity are unmatched. In any case my son and I are working on an entirely new nonsense language, it worked out well for us this morning…

     I greeted him at breakfast just this morning with, “Gak nim hom son”. He smiled and replied “Sut mir flob dad”.
     I know, I know – it brought a tear to my eye as well. Such a warm embrace between parent and child is priceless. It reminds me of this scene…

It also reminds me of the variety of ways which companies express their performance information, some of it nonsense. One EXAIR competitor shows all of their air nozzle information at 100 PSIG inlet pressure, similar to EXAIR’s performance at 80 PSIG inlet pressure. But the almost impossible to find information about how they tested the nozzles explains that the hose and fittings used results in a 30 PSIG pressure drop, meaning the real inlet pressure is 70 PSIG and the numbers shown at 100 PSIG are significantly lower than if you actually had 100 PSIG at the nozzle. Does that sound like nonsense?

Another competitor who shows air nozzle performance identifies the air consumption, but without any pressure value. And since pressure and consumption are directly related you really must know the pressure. It turns out the pressure used is 72 PSIG, but it is again buried in the back of the catalog. More nonsense.

And though it is fun to speak nonsense with your son at breakfast, it is not fun to deal with nonsense from a vendor. You want and need the information right up front and clear so you can make an educated decision, without getting a product which performs differently than what you expected.

EXAIR publishes real performance values for all of our products, no tricks or buried information – No Nonsense. And the best thing we can offer as far as a report card are customer testimonials. Let us know if we can help you as well.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
KirkEdwards@EXAIR.com
@exair_ke

What Do I do for a Living?

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I recently upgraded my cell phone to the Droid X. Whew! It’s a lot more complicated than my previous phone where I simply dialed and talked. Needless to say I’ve been spending a lot of time at the Verizon store seeking assistance. The sales clerk asked me what I did for a living.

I pointed to his computer screen at the live chat option – “That’s me” I said ” Just a different industry” I also pointed out that all the tech help he has been giving me face to face, I do over the phone as well as by e-mail with my customers.

He was taken back that a brick and mortar industry like mine was so tech savvy. I countered him saying that he being in the communications industry, I would have thought they would have been on board by now. Most of what he explained to me could have been done over the phone or an vrtual collaboration web program. That would save me a lot of travel time and waiting in line to be served.

EXAIR has always been on the cutting edge of technology with our products as well as serving our customers. If you have a question on any of our products or an application that you need assistance with, you have the choice of an online chat from our website www.exair.com email techelp@exair.com or call us 1-800-903-9247

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer

Phone (513) 671-3322
Fax   (513) 671-3363
Web: www.exair.com 
Twitter: www.twitter.com/exair_jp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

Halloween is on the Way!

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Halloween you say? Isn’t it a bit early for Halloween? Not if it’s the first one with your baby, like it is for me…

Halloween brings on one of my favorite times of year.  Here in Cincinnati it is getting to be the perfect weather to sit outside after work and have a nice fire in the fire pit while enjoying the weather.  This year is fairly special to me because, instead of just sitting out with a bunch of friends surrounding our fire pit and handing out candy to all the neighborhood kids, my wife and will be taking our daughter for her first ever Trick or Treat experience.   Now she is only 7 months old so chances are she isn’t going to get very far or remember it.  There is also a very high chance I am going to be the one eating the candy she does get.  She is going to be dressing up as a bunny rabbit, while the costume is a disguise it still will not disguise just how cute she really is.  (Picture to come to Twitter closer to Halloween I’m sure.  EXAIR_BF)

I can remember being a kid and always trying to think of what I was going to wear for Halloween.  Normally we would make our costumes and it would start right around this time in order to have something picked out and made by the end of October.  I believe one of my favorite years was when I dressed up as Pac man and had my friends dressed up as the blue ghosts.   Keep in mind this was not a store bought costume and was all made by hand. Granted they were not as cool as this Bumblebee costume is, but to us they were.

 

Most of my friends on the other hand would go to the store and always try to buy the most popular disguise or mask just so they could have the best costume.  But the costume actually being the best was normally far from the case.  They would buy a costume because the picture on the package or the guy wearing it around the store just simply looked amazing.  Then, when they got it home and put it on it would never fit right, or it didn’t look anywhere near as good as the one they had seen. This was always a big let down and disappointment. 

Well, this is the same thing that happens to some customers when they buy a product from a company and they get it in only to find out they need dozens of other pieces or it is not of the same quality as the unit they saw in the advertisement.  This isn’t the case with EXAIR.  If you look at a product in the catalog, the picture  will properly represent the product you are getting.  We don’t hide things that you will need in order to operate the product properly just so you have to come back later or go to another company and get it.  Instead, we offer kits and systems in order to keep it easier for you, our customer.  This is yet another way that we are able to be a one stop shop for your compressed air product needs. 

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
EXAIR_BF