Conveyor Blog

Last week, Google Maps added street view imagery for a whole host of cities, Cincinnati included. We’re proud to be based in Cincinnati, so I’d like to show 10 of the best sights around town as seen by Google’s cameras.

Click any of the images to see it in Street View and start your own “driving” tour of the city.

1. Cincinnati Union Terminal/Museum Center

I consider Cincinnati Union Terminal/Museum Center to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the country. It was the last of the great “union” railway terminals to be built and features stunning art deco features. Inside are a series of mosaic murals depicting the history of the area. The original concourse featured mosaics honoring prominent Cincinnati companies such as Proctor & Gamble and Baldwin Piano; when it was razed, those murals were moved to the Cincinnati airport.

2. Roebling Suspension Bridge

The Roebling Suspension Bridge spans the Ohio River from Cincinnati to Covington. It was designed by John Roebling, who took what he learned from this bridge and applied it to his later Brooklyn Bridge. You can see the obvious similarities in the supports of the two bridges.

(Read on …)

Tags: Cincinnati | Fun

East Pack starts tomorrow and runs through Thursday. Click here for free admission.

We’ll be in booth 4439 showing off our very popular InnerDrive conveyors, Flextrac plastic chain conveyors and our 300 Series timing belt conveyors. According to Brad Fleming, our Sales Manager, “the InnerDrive conveyor blew past our sales expectations for the first quarter by the beginning of February.”

Every year I am shocked at how East Pack grows as Canon Communications continues to market their shows far better than any other show management company.

Hope to see you there!

You can save $30 by registering early for this years Pack Expo, November 9-13, 2008, at McCormick Place in Chicago. This deal will last until October 21, 2008. When you plan your list of companies to visit at Pack Expo, be sure to add QC Industries in Booth 2930 in the South Building.

Tags: Trade Shows

Today our community mourns the loss of Staff Sargeant Matt Maupin. He was the American soldier who went unaccounted for the longest amount of time in Iraq. His remains were found and his identity was confirmed through DNA testing yesterday. It has been almost four years since his convoy was ambushed, but our community of Batavia, OH (a suburb of Cincinnati) continued to hold out hope for his safe return. Over those four years, “Matt” has become a household name in this area. The signs on many businesses we pass every day urged his safe return; his high school lovingly maintained a fence dedicated to him.

Matt’s parents founded the Yellow Ribbon Support Center here; donations to their organization go to support the morale of our soldiers overseas through gifts and care packages.

This is a tough loss to take for our community. We hope you’ll join us in remembering Matt and praying for the safe return of all our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 125 Series belt conveyors shown here under a CO2 Air, Inc. dry ice press use a -45°F silicone release belt specified by Southern Industrial Equipment (SIE). CO2 Air, Inc. is a leading dry ice and liquid CO2 manufacturer shipping equipment worldwide. Chris Kupronis, an Application Engineer with SIE, said the extremely cold temperatures led to some challenges that had to be worked through. For instance they had to place heat tape on the holes so any condensation would not flash freeze on the conveyor. The silicone belt is also critical with the temperature as low as it is.

CO2 Air Inc. offers a new RF-1800HD press which is capable of making 1800 pounds per hour of one pound 5” x 5” x 3/4” ice blocks (the standard size piece). The press is designed to make up to 6 pieces per stroke. They were kind enough to mention that the QC Industries conveyors have been working very nicely where our competitors had failed.

Last week Carolina Fluid Components celebrated their 30th Anniversary in a big way by exhibiting at Canon Communications’ ATX South. “We had the largest booth in the entire show and did it the right way by including many companies who are our main lines that we represent” said Ed Jarnac, Marketing Manger from CFC. “This gave customers an opportunity to not only see a wide variety of products we represent, but talk to representatives from each company.” Ed and I agree the show was very good. The aisles were full from start to finish.

CFC also treated their vendors and customers very nicely, providing transportation to and from their facility for the two day show as well as a wonderful dinner for the manufactures on Wednesday evening at T-Bones on Lake Wiley in South Carolina. CFC gave many of the companies a chance to present new opportunities to the entire sales and support staff of CFC. Congratulations CFC, here’s to another 30!

We’ve added a new feature to the website: you can now browse our catalog directly on our site without waiting for a PDF to download. Thanks to issuu.com, the embedded flash catalog is very easy to use.

Choose “Catalog” from any of our product pages to be taken directly to the relevant page. Simply click the buttons at the top of the catalog to flip the pages; clicking a page opens a larger view in a new window. From there you can zoom in and move around, flip to different pages and print just the pages you need. You can also choose a full screen view or bring up a thumbnail view to look for the page you need.

It’s easy to share relevant pages with colleagues by clicking the email button at the top of the catalog. From there you can send an email (with a note marking something important) or copy the link. You can even embed our catalog in your Facebook, Myspace page or web site.

Give the catalog above a try and let us know what you think in the comments.

Tags: Marketing | Web Site

“We love how the QC Industries conveyors hold up. They are a high quality conveyor and the InnerDrive system is simple to use and keeps the entire conveyor low profile, not just the frame area,” said Gabriel Perez of Xtreme Steam in Atlanta, Georgia.

We had a chance to catch up with Gabriel last week at West Pack. Xtreme Steam (and QC Industries) will be exhibiting at South Pack in Charlotte, March 19th and 20th.

In Gabriel’s demo he dumps chocolate and ketchup on the conveyor and the steam cleaning system cleans it away leaving the conveyor belt nice and dry. If you ever see Xtreme Steam at a show, take a minute to watch the demonstration; he does a great job. You’ll probably agree with me that this guy needs his own infomercial!

We are honored to be this week’s featured web sighting on Pharmaceutical and Medical Packaging News’ website. They are highlighting our new Conveyor Selection Guide on their homepage.

Tags: Marketing | News

This year should be the most exciting QC Industries has ever had exhibiting. We’ll be exhibiting in five shows in 2008. We have some surprises coming out this year you won’t want to miss.

We start the year heading west to West Pack in Anaheim, CA, January 29, 30 and 31st. We will then be exhibiting in Charlotte, NC at ATX South, March 19th and 20th. Next we move to New York on June 3rd, 4th and 5th for the East Pack show. In the fall we are excited to head back to the new Assembly Technology Expo — last year’s was the best show they have had in a long time and this year’s looks even better. That show is in Rosemont September 23rd, 24th and 25th. We will wrap up the year celebrating PMMI’s 75th Anniversary at one of the top 200 shows in the country, Pack Expo, at McCormick Place in downtown Chicago November 9–13.

Make your plans now to join us at one of these shows.

Tags: Marketing | Trade Shows