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The newest SCS producer is one of the oldest, most trusted names in the steel industry - Central Steel & Wire Company (CSW). CSW has ordered an SCS Sheet Line for its Portage, Indiana processing complex - Central Coil Processing. The line is scheduled for a spring 2007 installation alongside Central's mammoth cold reduction cut to length line.
Founded in 1909, today's CSW is one of the best known names in the industry. With headquarters in Chicago and distribution centers in Detroit, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Greensboro, CSW employs 1100 and has nearly 2 million square feet under roof. |
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But size is not the name of the game at CSW. It's all about SERVICE.
"Our range of products and ability to deliver quickly results in our becoming a one-source supplier to many of our customers, " explains Steve Fuhrman, Central's General Manager of Carbon Coil & Flat Rolled Products. "We carry tube & pipe, brass, copper, aluminum, stainless - we stock over 15,000 items. We hold inventory so our customers don't have to."
Technical support is another key element of CSW service. CSW sales and product specialists are a resource many manufacturers turn to when selecting materials for a new job or for |
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Central Steel & Wire's Cold Reduction/Corrective Leveling Line runs
material up to 0.750" and 96" wide. Material passes through the 4-high
cold reduction mill then through one of two precision corrective levelers. |
application support. That's an integral
part of CSW's SCS selling strategy.
"We've been carrying SCS for about a
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year now," Fuhrman points out, "and
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we understand the importance of the SCS trial. When a customer asks for some SCS samples, we send them out with a Product Specialist attached. All kidding aside, it's crucial that we walk the customer through the processes where they plan to use SCS to make sure they get the full benefit. Whether it's increasing laser speed, improving welding, or better paint performance, an informed SCS user is going to be a successful SCS user. We want that user to know they can rely on CSW for application assistance that will help them capture the full cost and quality advantages of SCS.
SCS sheets CSW will offer will be produced on CSW's impressive 4-high cold reduction cut-to-length line before they are SCS brushed. "Customers already love material from our line," states Fuhrman,"it's so square, so flat and has such a great surface. The addition of the SCS line will take that to another level and produce a napkin-clean, rust-inhibitive surface."
TMW has been SCS processing sheets from the CSW cut-to-length line, and John Nilles, Sales Specialist for Carbon Flat Roll Products says there is a difference. "We feel the SCS material we provide will be unique in the industry. Our supply chain and refined purchasing specifications, along with the 4-high cold reduction/corrective leveling process will help maximize SCS user benefits. When we put that SCS surface treatment on our material, it looks better than any other SCS we have seen."
So do users have to wait until next spring to get their hands on some of those beautiful SCS sheets? "Not at all !" remarks Fuhrman. "They're here right now. The difference next spring is we'll do the SCS processing in-house. Anyone who has an interest in SCS should contact their CSW sales rep TODAY and get some trials going. Once they trial it, they'll want it all the time. And they'll remember who took the time to explain SCS to them and go out in their shop to show them how to get the most out of it. That's how the CSW service credo works. It rewards us for our efforts in making our customers successful. "
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There's a new light shining at TMW these days. It's the light of a 4000 watt slab laser cutter, courtesy of a new partnership with longtime associate, Precision Laser Manufacturing (PLM) of East Peoria, Illinois.
In the August issue we announced plans to add laser cutting and punch press to our repertoire of services at TMW. PLM has just completed an upgrade to one of its precision lasers and installed it in the TMW processing center.
"I guess it was inevitable to have a laser here," explained Todd Berry, owner and President of PLM. "Job shops and manufacturers in this region were sending more and more |
Todd Berry of PLM (left) and Alan Mueth before the control of the 4000 watt
laser just installed at TMW. The laser table has a 60" by 120" work area.
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work up to me, but with skyhigh fuel
costs the transport was getting to be
a real burden. Some of these shops |
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started looking into getting their own |
lasers, but didn't have the volume to justify it. Then, Alan Mueth got the idea for these shops to pool their lasering needs together. But rather than buy a laser and spend the time and mistakes of learning how to use it well, he approached me about setting up a 'satellite' operation at TMW that would serve these local shops and begin serving TMW accounts. I think that turned out to be the best deal for everyone involved."
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Mueth, who is TMW's VP of Technology, smiled at Berry's explanation and commented, "My motives weren't completely altruistic. I've wanted a laser machine here for quite a while. Todd's been invaluable to the SCS efforts by helping us refine the guides for boosting laser cutting speed. But I'm an engineer and I always want more data. I want to develop more detailed curves of speed increase versus nozzle size or power or whatever. So when this laser isn't running customer jobs, I want to think of it as my laboratory."
Mueth continued, "The real motive was giving us a new way to serve our customers and strengthen their loyalty to TMW. We already serve these same local manufacturers Todd mentioned, and by bringing their lasering here, we can shave a week off the time they wait for lasered parts. We want to offer that to anybody we do blanking for. It gives us a leg up on our competition if they can just multi-blank and roller level, but we can multi-blank, stretcher-level, SCS and now, laser cut."
Does that mean the PLM laser at TMW will only be cutting SCS? "Of course not," Berry was quick to point out. "We'll cut whatever it makes sense to -- whatever will give a decent part. We'd like it to be all SCS, because it cuts faster and we'll get more and better parts off the machine. But my first motive in taking this step was growing my customer base and you do that by serving people the way they want to be served right now."
Mueth added, "He's right, but I'm also confident this will convert customers over to SCS. When they first come in to inspect us and see what we can do , we'll laser a sheet of their material, show them the parts, and they'll be pleased. Then, I intend to take a sheet of SCS and run the same parts for them, show them the parts, and they'll be blown away!"
Not everyone attends an initial try out. Sometimes they just send in some material and ask you to cut it and send back samples of your work. "That's fine," said Mueth, "We'll run their material, then run some SCS of the same size and ship them back both sets of parts. They'll call back and say 'You did a nice job on the sheets we sent you . . . but what was that other stuff you sent back? It was beautiful! Where can we get sheets of that stuff?'"
Mueth grinned and said, "I really like when that happens. Makes the sales rep's job pretty easy." |
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New SCS Brochure for Laser Shops
To assist our sales partners' and licensees' efforts
in marketing SCS to their laser and plasma cutting customers, we've just completed a new SCS sales brochure, shown below. It explains, in detail, the advantages of laser/plasma cutting SCS over P&O
or hot rolled black.
To obtain your copy, either by download or ordering
printed copies, use the SCS downloads link.
SCS Comes to Fabtech
TMW participated in the Fabtech International and
AWS Welding Show, held October 31 to November
2 in Atlanta. It was a very successful three days of discussion with OEMs and job shops interested in how SCS can solve some of their most persistent problems. Our exhibit featured our new SCS video titled "A Fabricator's Dream Steel."
"If you would like a DVD copy of the video, just click
this link and fill in the ordering information.
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| Copyright 2006 The Material Works, Ltd. |
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