Working Fun

Don’t you just love days when things go good? WE DO at Bi-Metal Industrial Products Inc. We cherish the times when we have customers who have problems, and then as they leave our facility satisfied and happy, it really makes our day. We begin to brag about our experiences to the rest of our team, which at that time makes the rest of us feel good too. We grow more and more confident in our products and knowledge that we can share with others again and again.

It is surprising how much people grow in knowledge and expertise over years of learning. Yes we learn new things every day whether it is with new and/or old products. It is here that we can share our experiences.

 Ilia who is getting close to her first anniversary with Bi-Metal is becoming a very knowledgeable person about our products and services. If she has no idea about what she is asked about she will ask customers to hang tight for an answer and she does search around for any answer to a customer’s inquiry. She seems to have a 99% success rate at helping the person’s question. She is usually is the first person you speak to when you call our facility. She has learnt a great deal with Bi-Metal and loves to pass on her knowledge.

Brenda is just a small brute force in the back shop. She does all the grunt work. Customers have little understanding of all the work that goes into welding band saw blades. She handles these blades from ¼” to 1-1/2” at any length like a pro. She is a pro.  She is also the person who picks and sorts customer orders getting them ready for delivery.  She can also help customers with their blade predicaments.

Sitting silent at his desk Tuesday thru Thursdays is our money man Paul. We don’t hear much from him but he is always there to help out. He is the only original founder of Bi-Metal left in this business.

Now, I’m (Peter) the last but not least member of the Bi-Metal team. This is what I do, help everyone else, like our cliental and team to get their missions done each day. Doing sales is a great at the end of the day when everyone feels we have done the best we could do. A little visiting with our cliental and team, then the deliveries keeps me going.

With the TEAM we have, we are ready for most anything and we really have to thank our cliental for helping us.

Doing things economically, just ME and a thought????

First just an update on some of trial products. This was one of our diamond discs we had sent out. It was our diamond general purpose depressed center grinding disc 5” x 5/8-11type 29 disc (see review below). We sent it to a welding fabrication shop which does a lot oilfield and industrial welding work. Here is the tester’s feedback.

Thanks again to Jim and Steve at Steelhead Fab for the input!!!

Now on to my thoughts for this week...

Isn’t it nice to save money on things we buy? Yes it sure is, but do you really put thought behind what we buy, besides thinking about the great deal we have gotten. Nope, I don’t really think a lot of people do. This is a ME world and no one really thinks of the other portion of the world. This is also true in the business world now where businesses just buy the cheapest items to stay competitive to the next guy. This causes havoc throughout the world as the third world countries can produce cheapy stuff which can be substandard stuff. We crave for the cheapy stuff and ME to sometimes. When we just go into a cheapy bargain store. You can smell the cheapness, that smell of plastic, makes me almost gag. But we buy it anyways thus throwing a fellow neighbor in our country out of work. Many parts of North America are in this situation right now and it will follow here soon too, even though we are in rich Alberta while going strong with what I think is a false boom for the next few years yet. I have been through some shops lately that are starving for work since June. September is upon us now and expectations are high as the winter drilling season approaches. Everyone is expecting an increase in work (ME and my expectations are there too) which may be true but just remember our thriftiness is going to catch up to us in jobs, etc. Meanwhile the red Asian communist world is just sitting back, probably rubbing their hands together as they are becoming the power houses of the world now. I remember when I was in high school (39 years ago), our social studies classes had talked about the invasion of the communist world, not just buy force but buy economics. Well the Russians fell which at that time seem the biggest threat but I can’t remember if we ever talked about the Asians. We probably never thought that they would be the ones economically although we thought they would over run us with their population (which is also happening). While we falter just watching them grow, we plan to sell them our riches for cheap, while a couple of provinces over and states to the south us are trying to grapple with the years past of the cheapy buying  frenzy at large box stores and so on selling the cheapy stuff. It just goes on and on. Is everyone hoping that if we get our pipelines to the destinations that someday we will have cheapy fuel prices????  Maybe I have put a thought in your minds but I don’t think it will register for many. It’s just ME and a cheapy thought.

ALL WORN OUT??
When we take our holidays it is suppose to rejuvenate us but some of us go just as hard so whenn we get back to work we are just as worn out or even more so.

Well some of us do that with our machinery also. At Bi-Metal we can help keeping your most wearing parts last longer. We offer hardsurfacing products and special filler welding rod to fix those hard wear parts. Here is just a small sample of some of the wear resistant products we carry.

 

For more information check this out http://www.eutectic-na.com/

Hot Product  Diversification
at Bi-Metal for You

Yes, we have a variety of products available, but first another update to our trial product testing.

The first disc was described to be used for cutting off. It was a flat 6” x .045 disc (see review below). We sent it to a welding fabrication shop which does a lot oilfield and industrial welding work. Here is the tester’s feedback.

The second disc was described to be used for grinding off. It was a flat 6” x 1/4 disc (see review below). We sent it to a welding fabrication shop which does a lot oilfield and industrial welding work. Here is the tester’s feedback.

We thank Kim at Tack Welding Ltd. for their input.

So now we still have another four products we have sent out for testing. If you have any interest in any of our tested products give us a call or email.

Back to Hot Product Diversification 
at Bi-Metal for You

As most people out in the industrial world, we are known for our excellent band saw blade products and service. We are thrilled that everyone knows us for that but some over look the other items, we provide like the Canadian abrasive products, our USA cutting tool line, Swedish welding wires and other Czech welding consumables plus the safety side of things like Canadian and USA gloves, fall protection, visors,  etc.

One exciting offer we are into is a free Thermacut replacement torch suitable for Hypertherm® HPR130/260® systems. ®, HPR130®, HPR260® are the Registered Trademarks of Hypertherm, Inc. Thermacut is in no way affiliated with the above-named manufacturer(s). Call us for info on this offer.

We at Bi-Metal Industrial Products Inc. stand behind all the products we provide and don’t forget the service as we don’t quit with finding a product that satisfies the needs of our customers. 

Just an update on the blog on Trial Products from July 11, 2013. The second diamond disc was described to be used for grinding hard surfacing. It was a flat 5” x 1/4 disc. We found out that the hub that was giving us some grief could be totally remove thus we could us the standard mount to the grinder which is most cases is more favorable to most users..We again thank Trevor and Brad at Plasma-Tec for their input. The other 2 tests are still under way. Now to this weeks issue.

 Hand Wear Safety

Hand and finger safety is a big issue in the workplace. Finding the right fit and apparel is not an easy thing. The fit has to be right and the fabric has to fit the jobs that are being done. The other day I was at a customer’s location and the person I was with was looking for a glove, to take heat yet nimble enough to put a small nut onto a screw. They told me that one supplier’s catalogue had 50 pages of just gloves. That’s a lot of different gloves. So you see, talk to someone who has the knowledge to find the right pair of gloves for your applications and protect those precious fingers and hands. Remember too that a $1.00 pair of gloves doesn’t always do a great job. They could be a hazard and cost you in the long run.

At Bi-Metal, we can help you with your needs, from neoprene to insulated gloves.

See promo for some special gloves we stock following this blog.

 

       

Bi-Metal representative can further help you at 780-440-4002 or 1-888-440-4002, email info@bimetalinc.com.

We hope the above information is useful.

 More Links that can help you with this topic: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/labour/publications/health_safety/hands/page00.shtml

Also don’t forget to check out our other product promo pages at http://www.bimetalinc.com/promos.htm

Trial Products Reports

At Bi-Metal, we do trials on most our products, to see if we really want to introduce these new items to our clientele. When we do this we get to know the positives and negatives of these products. The testers usually focus right away on the cost of the product, even though they don’t pay for them. On great products the costs are usually recovered at the half way point or closer the end of the products lifetime. People that usually complain about costs of new products are not looking at the complete picture. Here are some thoughts that need to be considered when trying something new.

1. Is it safe? (health wise and injury wise)
2. Does it have CSA approval? (if required)
3. Is product environmentally friendly? (Can it be recycled?)
4. Does it improve labor productivity over present product? (time)
5. Does the product do the job it was designed for being done just as easy as or better than existing product?
6. What about damage to product while being used?

We just lately have done or in the middle of some trials on 3 different diamond grinding discs and the new BI-4002 series turning inserts.

The first diamond disc was described to be used for grinding and cutting off. It was a flat 5” x .140 disc (see review below) and is double sided. We sent it to a piping shop which does a lot of pipe welding work. Here is the tester’s feedback.

We thank Ken and Rusty at Academy Fabrication for their input. They did have some other comments when we picked up the test sheets like “This disc would do really well to cut steel grading and may do a lot better in a steel fabrication place.” Over all down side the surface area on side of disc is only approximately 5/8” deep and for pipe beveling it should be at least 1-1/2” deep.

The second diamond disc was described to be used for grinding hard surfacing. It was a flat 5” x 1/4 disc (see review below) and is double sided. We sent it to a hard surfacing shop which does a lot of specialized oil down hole tooling work. Here is the tester’s feedback.

We thank Trevor and Brad at Plasma-Tec for their input. They did have some other comments when we picked up the test sheets like “This disc is way better than your competitors but see if you can get the hub attachment redesigned. This is much better than using conventional abrasive stones.” Over all down a good product except hub.

If you have any interest in any of our tested products give us a call or email.

Knocking Enhanced Products

The other day when I was doing a sales call on a customer, I was trying to introduce them to an enhanced product. I had gotten relativity a quick “NO” to the suggestion of an alternate product. I asked the person why they weren’t interested and the response was, “we have tried knock offs before and they didn’t work as well as the OEM items.” I apologized to the person (as I do sell some items that are direct copies of off-patented products) but I told this poor soul that it was reengineered and it does a better job than the OEM product. “That can’t be. We don’t use knockoffs here” was the response again. I explained that these items are not knockoffs again and don’t even look the same, but it was to no avail. I was then given the run around how they have a contract to buy the OEM pieces from someone else and it went on and on. The wall was up. I felt really sorry for people like this, as the product, really improves what it does by no less than 25% and it isn’t even made in an eastern country. This happened to be a procurement manager for a large international company. Can you imagine someone throwing away 25% or more of something? Not even trying it. That’s $0.25 of every $1.00 this company is losing out on. I wonder what would happen to this person, if the workers and his superiors found out that their job could be done 25% more efficiently. Oh well , still made a sale selling OEM stuff but its the effectiveness of a product that bugs me, that’s my rant this week.

Now for something different check this out.  http://www.knockingoff.com/