www.smac-mca.com Vol.131 - July 2018
The newsletter is for internal use only (between SMAC Inc. and SMAC authorized distributors). Please do not copy or distribute without the author’s consent.
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Monthly Distribution Newsletter
131
Volume
July
2018
Upcoming Events
This issue
1. Distributor Meetings -
Quite a Trip
2. New Products - Getting
Them Out
3. Sales GUI and Mapping -
New Strategies to
Increase Sales
4. PR - Opening it up a bit
5. Non Traditional Ways to
Increase Sales
6. Pricing - It Seems to be
Elastic
1. Distributor Meetings - Quite a Trip
The meetings this year turned out great and will be hard to top in the
future. New products and sales initiatives are already rolling with
applications in all areas.
In Asia we are getting the “MCA inside” applications right off the bat.
LBL 10 has shipped to replace ball screws on a 16 unit per machine
pick and place OEM. This has the LCA 8 magnet housing and piston
inside. We are following this up with a slide to replace moving
magnets. Here our new CBR magnet housing and piston looks to be
the best t. The SMAC “MCA inside” idea uses the exible LBL plate
concept to duplicate the outside features of the unit we intend to
replace. Then we put a standard magnet circuit and piston inside. We
have another $250K a year project in Italy to replace a Swiss moving
magnet.
There are a lot more volume chances if you can -easily - replace
someone else’s actuators on an existing machine. If you are limited to
getting on machines that are just being developed its a much longer
road. So this is a good way to go.
Advanced Manufacturing
Expo
August 20 & 22, 2018
Novi, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Robodex
September 5 - 7, 2018
Nagoya, Japan
Booth# 25-31
SMAC EU & ASIA Distributor Meetings 2018
www.smac-mca.com Vol.131 - July 2018
The newsletter is for internal use only (between SMAC Inc. and SMAC authorized distributors). Please do not copy or distribute without the author’s consent.
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The Italy meeting started off with a
dinner 50 meters on top of a 1000
year old tower. The thunderstorm that
came along at the end of the meal
added to the enjoyment. The
Distributor meeting was held in a
technology museum and featured
Tetra Pak and Bechoff guest speakers.
Very interesting.
Tetra Pak wants to go faster, of
course, and they said they knew the
Moving Coil was the way to go. They
tried to do it on their own 10 years ago
but weren’t successful - cabling I
guess. The stack has also made a big
impression.
Bechoff turns out to be a clever
company. They said they are much
faster than PLCs because they use a
computer base. The timing seems to
be similar to our controllers - ie in the
100 micro sec or faster area. They are
also ambitious and are trying to get
the servo controller business along
with the PLC. Maybe motors and
actuators as well - in the long run. Had
a little chat with them - its the age old
battle of central control vs distributed.
Told them that cost is also an issue
which is why we are pushing the Very
Low Cost Controller that would be in
the $150 to $200 list range.
In Italy the SMAC LBL and Stack
concept were proposed as solutions
to 2 new - 500 sets a year -
applications. Both replace air cylinders
and both involved very high speed
moves. 70 mm in 25 msec and 40 mm
in 30. The stacks with the quick
replacement of individual LBLs were
positively received and we have a
sample order for 2 stacks from one
very large OEM.
The 2nd OEM - uses air valves and cylinders that I am quite familiar with.
Good products. But can’t go that fast and are noisy. The customer gave
me what I was looking for - the price they were willing to pay to replace
the pneumatic devices. 300 Euros. We can, with the VLC controller,
supply at that price.