Copper bars
Copper bars
Another simple part I spotted while walking through the workshop today. Simple part but we still used our Safan guillotine to cut the copper bar to length, deburr belts to smooth off the sharp ends, fly presses to pierce the 2 different holes and one of our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes to form the 2 bends. The range of skills and processes needs to make the simplest of parts shows the range of services we can offer our customers.
We once had a customer who we only ever manufactured flat panels with holes in, a simple CNC punch press job. After several years of doing the same flat sheet metal panels he came in to see me one day and said in amazement “I didn’t know you could bend sheet metal” after seeing our factory. Now who was at fault? Me for not selling the services I had to offer or the customer for not asking. Well it was my fault but you cannot keep mentioning services you don’t currently offer a customer on the off chance they may need it. I guess nowadays the internet with web sites and blog posts enables us all to demonstrate our non mainstream services to current and potential customers without a hard sell. I’m much happier with increasing my customer base and helping my existing customers with their project problems in this way rather than knocking on the door and pushing sales leaflets in their hands. What do you think?