Conveyor Blog

For a low profile belt conveyor company — or any company for that matter — it’s always nice to start the year off on a good foot and everyone asks the same question, “How was the show (the West Pack show, that is)?” The answer lies in each one’s own perspective and how you perceive shows. We strive to proactively make shows great. We prepare and attack, we know no other way. The days of sitting on your hands and waiting for attendees to come by your booth are long gone. It is still amazing to see how many exhibitors do it.

So was the show a success for us? Yes, absolutely. It takes a lot of work to make sure you have a success, but this year we teamed up with Provoast Automation, a top selling pneumatic and hydraulic sales force in Southern California and came away with many high qualified projects.

Many potential customers raved about the new Tension Release Tail on our Automation Series conveyors. They included James Lowery, a Design Engineer from ITM in Texas, who said, “…simply phenomenal. Loved it. I can’t wait to talk it up with the other designers and use it as soon as we have an opportunity.” And this was long before I had the chance to show him our new Pivot™ rotatable drives and discuss our five year warranty. But as you know at shows you have all of about 30 seconds and you’re done.

So from our perspective, it was a great show! From the attendees perspective there was certainly a tremendous amount to learn. And as for the “Hand Sitters” well I hope you had a good show too!

John Mellencamp’s song Small Town said it best, “Well I was born in small town, and I live in a small town…”(come on sing along). Although 2009 hit the manufacturing sector hard, Press Automation is making it big in a small town — especially for their customers throughout Indiana and us here at QC Industries.

Elkhart, as we all know is in the heart of Indiana, and so is Press Automation, Inc., an extraordinary company that is making sweet music in a not so easy time to do so. Their lyrics are a bit different though, “Staying close to customers and listening to their needs,” said Budd Bowman, General Manager, “and oh yea, good old fashion hard work.” The song must be right as this company stands out as one of QC Industries’ top distributors every year and this year will be no different. As I talk to Budd about his business every year you just hear it in his voice, this small town company really cares about their business and their customers.

The family owned business was formed in 1979 by Carol and Don Bowman. Budd, their son is now at the helm and continues to thrive with the dedication of the entire Press Automation crew including the inside support team and the sales staff.

From a manufacturer’s perspective, one line in the song should say something to the effect of “we don’t try and do it all.” They listen to the customer’s needs and align themselves with high quality vendors.

This is a special company, one that probably doesn’t get enough press. They are hardworking, honest and one whose customers and vendors are lucky enough to be very much in harmony with. Sing along everyone, “prob’ly die in a small town, oh those small communities…”

Recently I’ve seen a number of articles about a new show coming to ABC in January called The Conveyor Belt of Love (only because I have a Google news alert set up for “conveyors”). As a conveyor guy, it immediately caught my eye. You can see the preview below. It looks like a terrible show, as it’s even more like a meat market than The Bachelor.

Here’s how the format works:

“If a woman is interested in someone, that man will step aside and wait as the rest of the men go by.  But if another man comes by on the belt that seems better than that woman’s first choice, she can swap out the man waiting off of the belt as many times as she wants until the last man has passed by. If two or more of the women are interested in the same man, the tables turn and the man on the conveyor belt gets to choose which one he would like to wait for. After all 30 men have made it through the ‘Conveyor Belt of Love,’ each woman is left with her final choice as they embark on a date in the hope of finding a true connection.”

While we’ve done conveyors for show-business before, this doesn’t look like any conveyor we’ve ever built (in the first shot you can see a clipper lace splice, which we almost never use). It did however remind me of our own Conveyor Belt of Love, so to speak. It’s a video we shot a few years ago to prove to a customer that their conveyor could easily move — and index — their required load of 1000 lbs.

Congratulations to our Cleveland distributor, Conveyer & Caster – Equipment for Industry. They were recently honored with a Weatherhead 100 Award which honors the fastest growing companies in Northeast Ohio. Last year they ranked 95th, but this year they’ve moved up to 63rd. Not bad for a firm that’s been around nearly 50 years.

Congratulations are in order for our very own award winning photographer, Chris Thompson. This year Chris walked away with the People’s Choice Award in the Defining Moments chapter and is the only photographer to win a chapter award from Capture Cincinnati three years in a row. This year’s photo was taken of Air Force One as it is preparing for take off at Cincinnati’s CVG airport. Great job, Chris!

It’s hard to believe how fast 2009 has gone by. It really doesn’t seem like it’s time for Thanksgiving and Christmas yet. We’re all looking forward to a few days to spend time with our families and rest and recuperate from this hectic year. As such, our offices will be closed this Thursday and Friday (November 26 & 27) for the Thanksgiving holidays and again from December 24 – January 3. We’ll reopen on January 4 as usual.

If you have a service emergency during those dates, please call our main number and leave a message. One of our on-call service technicians will return your call.

Here in Cincinnati, we kick off the holiday season each year with Balluminaria, a hot air balloon glow at Eden Park. I’d like to share this tradition with you to help get your holiday season off on the right foot.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on organizing and cataloging all the various pieces of literature we’ve produced over the past 28 years. It’s been fun to see where the company has come from, and, as a graphic designer, to trace the history of our logo over that time.

The “logo” above appeared on our first catalog in 1983. That’s the only time it ever appeared.

This logo first appeared on the cover of our 1989 catalog. It was our first official logo and versions of it were used for eight years.

Here you can also see the origins of the “QC” in our name. It comes from “Quick Conversion” which allowed our customers in the metal stamping industry to change out their dies and conveyors quickly.

This logo is the first direct predecessor of our current logo, appearing on the cover of our 1997 catalog. When this logo is reduced our name becomes nearly unreadable, but versions of it somehow persisted for seven years.

One oddity of the 1997 catalog: while the logo above appeared on the cover, the logo at right appeared on the back. To my knowledge, this is the only time the left side of the “Q” ever showed. It almost seems to have been an accident.

The logo evolved slightly for the 2001 catalog. This logo continued with numerous changes (in some versions the word “modular” is replaced with “low profile”).

This logo first appeared on the cover of our 2004 catalog and has been used without modification to this day.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick peek back at our history!

Every year our employees go all out for Halloween and this year was no exception. We had a lot of great costumes this year, but as always, there can only be one winner. Congratulations to Yvain Jomphe, our IT Team Leader — and resident Love Guru.

Our runner up was Wanda Collier, one of our purchasers for her Little Red Riding Hood inspired costume:

And in third place was Dave Endres, our General Manager:

Happy Halloween!

We’ve updated the design of our blog to make it easier to read on mobile devices like iPhones, Android phones and some Blackberries. If your phone is supported you’ll automatically see the new mobile design instead of our standard layout.

This week we’ll be exhibiting at MidPak in Minneapolis, MN alongside our local distributor, Automation, Inc. We’ll be showing our new Automation Series conveyors. Please stop by and visit us in Booth #405. The show runs Wednesday and Thursday, but it’s not too late to register for free admission.