My Blog

Jim here for May 2011

Welcome again to my BLOG page. As a general rule this will be dedicated to bits and pieces of technology on mass finishing and abrasive blasting. Stuff I have gleaned from almost 40 years of designing, building and marketing surface finishing equipment both in Australia and overseas. It will also highlight recent projects we are working on that may be of interest. I would also like to develop a bit of a theme on the state of local manufacturing. That should provoke a few responses given how strongly I feel about this subject.

Well a lot has been happening since we launched the new site and I must admit we have had a bit of a mixed response to the new site. Biggest complaint seems to be over the disappearance of the ceramic and plastic media charts "on line". People can of course request these but perhaps they are missing the bit that says they can get them by requesting them. Main reason for removing these charts was to prevent people from ordering product from these off their own bat and then wanting to return them to us after finding they did not do what they had hoped and getting all upset wehen we had to refuse them wanting to send them back after they had used them! We keep over 200 tonnes of differing grades and shapes and medias and even I don't know how they will perform in differing machines and on various parts so not sure how these guys managed to "not" do it. it's why we offer a technical support service and have machines sitting around doing little half the time - so that we can run trials and recommend the correct product and process parameters. Removing the charts was/is and effort to steer people to getting it right the first time. Might take a little longer but the old adage "measure twice cut once" is still good one.

Our new alliance with the Otec orgnaisation is developing very well. These guys are really on the ball and make some amazing kit. We have stuff on order for our demonstration facility and we are also considering bringing in what is generically called a "drag finisher" so that we can run demo's for people. It's a bit of a niche area of mass finishing but will appeal to companies out there who need a high level of surface finish whilst offering maximum protection to the product during processing. Main areas of use are surgical equipment manufacture, performance automotive and high end jewellery applications. Problem as always in Australia and NZ is our low volumes of production versus investment cost but for those who want to step up a notch this equipment is the full monty.