Happy Holidays!

This will probably be the last blog entry before Christmas. With only a few days left and no shortage of work to finish there will not be much time. With customers chasing us we also have very little time to come up with new and interesting things.
We have during the last couple of weeks made several installations of CNC-cutting machines which is fun. It had been so long that we almost forgot how to do it. First we sold off our 3 year old lab machine that was due to be replaced. Then we bought ourselves a new and shiny MicroStep HS 3001.20 PG. PG stands for 1 plasma and 1 gas. We will not really have any use for the gas torch but it makes the machine easier to sell second hand. At present we have been contracted to move a big CNC-cutting machine from one company to another. This would have gone somewhat smoother had it not been for late arrival of trucks and uncooperative parties involved in the deal.
Christmas cards have started to pour in but to my great delight they are decreasing in numbers. It's not that I don't like them, but with every card I receive there is always a slight sense of guilt on my behalf for never, ever, having sent a Christmas card to anyone, friend, family or business contacts. So don't be offended for not reecieving a Christmas card from us. Not receiving one means that you are one of our most valued customers.
And so I end this year's blogging with wishing you all Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year from all of us at SPT.

New machine from MicroStep

Our partners at MicroStep have recently introduced a new model in their product program - the MasterCut.

The MasterCut replaces several older models in the product program which is thereby simplified. The MasterCut is designed as an entry level CNC cutting machine for small and medium size enterprises, as well as heavy industrial cutting.

The MasterCut combines a simple yet sturdy mechanical construction with the extraordinary user friendliness and versatility of the advanced control system iMSNC which is used throughout the product line.

For more information about the MasterCut, please visit our partner's website: www.microstep.eu.

NWE in Tampere 2010

Last week we participated at the NWE 2010 in Tampere, Finland, together with our Finnish partner Wallius. Although I missed most of it due to a dispute among air traffic control staff at Stockholm Arlanda airport the fair was a success. I will not investigate further whether the bigger success was during the half that I missed or the half that I was present.

Wallius have been doing a great job with the Finnish market, especially since we appointed Wallius the sole distributor for Finland about 2 years ago. We can see that they have been very successful in general and have kept their turnover even through the crisis.

At the NWE we showed our new UNIFIRE single phase machines as well as our mechanised system SPARCIN 4000. We had a lot of interest from customers and towards the end of the fair our colleagues at Wallius had many customers to visit for demos.

Our production is still very busy and in spite of adding more capacity we have trouble keeping up with demand.

Price adjustments from January 1st 2011

Due to the rising prices on raw materials and components, as well as increased labor costs etc. SPT Plasmateknik AB adjusts its sales prices accordingly as of January 1st 2011. In general prices are increased by 3-4% with a few exceptions.

The last time the SPT sales prices were adjusted was on January 1st 2009.

Stockholm Technical Fair 2010

This week we are exhibiting at the Technical Fair in Stockholm. We were discussing earlier this year what to do about the exhibitions this autumn. Since the Euro-Blech in 2008 was a disappointment and the market situation was still bad we decided to skip the 2010 Euro-Blech. Instead we opted for a low cost small information stand at in Stockholm. At present 3 of the 4 fair days have gone and so far we are not too impressed with the number and quality of the visitors. Luckily the general market situation is still improving so we have plenty of work to do when we return anyway. We will see what tomorrow will bring and then we go back home and try to keep up with the customer's demands.

Besök oss på Tekniska Mässan 19-22 oktober

This post applies to Swedish customers only and is therefore written in Swedish.

SPT Plasmateknik AB ställer ut på Tekniska Mässan i Stockholm den 19-22 oktober. Ni hittar oss i monter A07-30.

Vi kommer att ha ett urval av våra nyaste produkter utställda, med fokus på finplasmasystemet SPARCIN 4000, samt informera om vårt övriga produktprogram. Däribland MicroStep CNC-styrda skärmaskiner för plasma-, gas-, laser- och vattenskärning, KEMPER utsug och filter, Ernst avgradningsmaskiner, Thermacut brännare och slitdelar samt Kjellberg plasmaskärsystem.

Inbjudningar kan man få genom att skicka ett mail till oss, eller gå in på www.tekniskamassan.se och förhandsregistrera sig. Inträdet blir då gratis. Det kostar 150 kr att komma in om man inte är förregistrerad eller har en inbjudan.

Vi ser fram emot att ta emot er i vår monter. Välkomna!

High pressure in production

Since a couple of months ago we have seen a significant increase in demand for our products. This is very nice of course, but we were not quite prepared to tackle this demand just before the summer holidays. Unfortunately this affects delivery times of new machines. At present we are trying desperately to clear our backlog of machines to be delivered. We also notice that the maritime side is recovering rapidly. At present we are producing machines that were scheduled for delivery in November.

On the consumable side we can also see a rise in demand and it is difficult to get supplies in the same rate as parts go out. As it gets increasingly difficult to get parts and components in time we hope that this is a sign that the whole economy is finally getting back on its feet.

With this we would like all distributors world wide to review their stock situation and bear in mind that during the foreseeable future delivery times on new machines will be longer than usual.

Product update

SPT Plasmateknik AB is pleased to announce that we now offer replacement consumables for most plasma cutting machines on the market. We have been co-operating for a long time with Thermacut who are producing the X-Cut/400 high precision plasma torch for us. As a natural development of this co-operation we also offer the standard products from Thermacut.

For individual offers, please send us your requests.

Full speed ahead

The good: We are very busy and selling as much now as before the recession.

The bad: Holidays are cut short.

The ugly: I spent the first three weeks of my holiday on various home improvement project and had planned to use my final week of holiday for rest.

These are luxury problems anyway. We have received orders for about as many machines in June and July as we did during January and May. Staff that were let go when the recession struck are now back working like never before. The main problem at the moment for us to keep up with the customers's demands is that components and other material for the machines are hard to come by. Many suppliers have shut down for the holidays. Also, given the previous situation stock levels are low almost everywhere including our own stock.
We do hope that this is the beginning of the end for the recession and that we can get back to business as soon as possible.

Last day before holiday today but SPT stays open

Today is the last working day for me before the summer holidays. I have exactly 19 minutes left before I leave. SPT stays open though, to handle any and all urgent customer requests.

I will of course still be available on mobile phone and e-mail throughout my holiday. You may however catch me while performing random acts of home improvement should you endeavor to contact me telephonically before my return to the office on July 19th. What I'm trying to say is that I'll answer my phone and read my e-mail but may not be able to respond to all requests.

I have put in a request for 4 weeks of uninterrupted sun shine during day time and temperatures in the range of 20-25° C. The occasional nightly thunder to clear the air is also welcome.

I now take the opportunity to thank all our customers, partners, suppliers and co-workers for all their efforts so far this year. The market seems to be improving - we certainly have been busy lately - and we hope it will continue to improve after the summer.

I wish you all a nice summer and a restful holiday.

Productivity thanks to arson

Yesterday morning I woke up at 6 a.m. as usual. Only with a severely blocked nose and the mother of a headache. I went straight for a walk with the dog. This is my standard morning ritual, by the way, except for the blocked nose and the headache.

Anyway, as I exit the garage I notice that the whole area is covered in fog, or smoke. I couldn't smell anything so it was not so easy to determine which. But sure enough, after a few minutes of walking I saw the smoke column about 1,5 km away. So I fished out my iPhone and looked up the local news. Turns out that the gym hall at a local school was on fire. The smoke was really thick.

Well, at 7.30 I dropped my daughter off at kindergarten and walked back home. I wanted a few words with the builders who are now ridiculously late in finishing the construction of my conservatory and garage extension. I was gearing up to take the motorbike to work while complaining to the workers about their slowness when they rang from kindergarten. They had received orders to close all schools and kindergartens in town due to the poisonous smoke. So, I had to go pick up my daughter and spend the day at home.

So we stayed at home yesterday, me and my daughter. Oddly enough, I must say that I have a feeling that I got more work done than I normally would during a day in the office. After lunch it was time for my daughter to take a nap. And what better way to get children to sleep than to read a Nemchinsky article on plasma physics to them? I read the article "What we know and do not know about plasma arc cutting." Fascinating stuff. And the average 3 year old will fall asleep by the 3rd paragraph.

Are all burglars stupid?

Last week I was woken at 0.24 o'clock Tuesday morning by Securitas and the friendly lady on the phone informed me that the alarm had gone off at our office and asked what they should do about it. Naturally my response was to send a guard. Preferably a whole bunch of guards. Beefy ones with vicious dogs if they had any. Having been woken already that night by the dog and my daughter I was hoping for false alarm and an undisturbed continued sleep until 6 o'clock when I get up to walk the dog. There would be no such luck. 20 minutes later the nice lady at Securitas called again to inform me that there had indeed been a break-in at our office. So I had to get up, crawl into the car and drive off to work. When I arrived there were half a dozen guards and policemen who all scattered once I arrived leaving me with a security officer whose task it was to cover up the holes as best he could. It turns out that the burglars had found the one remaining weak spot left from previous break-ins. Apparently you can tear up a hole big enough for someone to crawl through in a steel door if you only have enough time on your hands and a good crowbar.
Now, here's the funny thing. Immediately inside said steel door there is a desktop computer. Not state of the art but also not fit for the scrap heap. One door down the hall from where they gained entry is my office. On my desk there was 1 item of value. An Apple Cinema 24" monitor. Next to it was a very much worthless old Dell laptop that I had for the sole purpose of running a piece of software that I can't get to work properly on my Mac. It was a very nice laptop when it was new, like back in 2004. I replaced it today with an Acer Aspire One netbook which is a wonder of speed and brilliance in comparison. It set us back around 200 €.
This whole thing reminds of the first break-in we had after moving to this address. We were in the same building but had a smaller office facing the rear of the property. An ideal spot to throw a rock through the window and grab whatever you find of value and run. These guys however drilled their way through an Assa state-of-the-art lock that according to some locksmiths should be impenetrable. At least, a trained locksmith would need 15-20 mins to get through it. Well inside they grabbed the first thing they saw - a couple of machines on display inside the front door. They must have been really impressed with the low weight. They were of course dummies. The police found the dummies in the bushes nearby the following day.
We have been broken into twice more in the 14 years on this address and both times they caused a tremendous amount of damage to lay their hands on really old and basic computers. Come on guys, like we'd ever leave anything of value lying around for you to lay your sticky little fingers on? Let me make it quite clear that THERE ARE NO ADVANCED COMPUTERS IN OUR OFFICES OUTSIDE OFFICE HOURS. And during office hours, any uninvited guests will be introduced to a variety of house pets belonging to the staff. Some of these pets have severe attitude problems by the way.
To finish off, that Tuesday night I arrived home again at about 2.25. Fell asleep around 3 a.m. Was woken by daughter round 3.40 and finally woke up at 5.45. I was not too productive on the following Wednesday as you may guess.

UNIFIRE 25C is now shipping

We are pleased to announce that the new UNIFIRE 25C with built-in compressor now is shipping to those who placed the first orders.

SPT Plasmateknik AB launched the UNIFIRE 30 on Schweissen & Schneiden in Essen last year and now the range has been completed with the 25C version. Essentially the dif

ference is that the 25C contains a compressor making it completely self sufficient. Both machines use the new PTA 25 torch which has contact start making it completely safe to all sensitive electronics operating nearby. The weight of the UNICIRE 25C is approx 13 kg, just over 5 kg more than UNIFIRE 30. The dimensions are 40x22x35 cm.

The cutting capacity of UNIFIRE 25C is slightly lower than that of UNIFIRE 30():

Severance: 8 mm (10 mm)

Maximum: 6 mm (8 mm)

Recommended: 5 mm (6 mm)

The reason that the compressor version is limited to 25 A (the non-compressor version delivers 30 A cutting current) is that the compressor takes a few amps. Most 230 V industrial outlets in Europe are fused at 16 A and that is just about what is necessary to run the compressor and generate 25 A cutting current.

UNIFIRE 25C about to be released

After delays for various reasons we are finally up and producing the UNIFIRE 25C. As soon as we have some machines built I will post some photos. We have had a lot of interest from our customers about this machine and we are very pleased that we can finally start deliveries. We have many pre-orders of the machine so the production is fully booked for a couple of months already.

The UNIFIRE 25C is a single phase (230V, 16A) machine with a weight of approx 12,5 kg including the 4 m long PTA 25 torch. The cutting capacity is approx. 8 mm (material depending). It is equipped with an internal compressor making it self contained. It is perfect for all kinds of cutting applications where a mobile unit is required to cut thicknesses up to 8 mm and where no compressed air is available.

Executive Hire Show 2010, Coventry

The Executive Hire Show (EHS) 2010 took place in Coventry, UK, on February 3rd to 4th. Along with our partner in the UK, RentalSpec, SPT Plasmateknik AB showed its products. The EHS targets the hire companies in the UK who came to visit the 102 exhibitors offering products for the hire market.

As the market for welding equipment is highly hire oriented in the UK, SPT has chosen to focus on the hire companies as the main channel into the UK. Our partner RentalSpec will also offer sales and support to new and existing customers in the UK. For contact details, please visit www.rentalspec.com.