In April I was in China for a IMTS style show. Its IMTS of China and it is called appropriately the China International Manufacturing Technology Show. This is the 4th time I have exhibited there since 1997. Every two years I have to say China has changed and continues to change, but there are a few things that always amaze me.
1. IMTS had 100,000 visitors this past show, CIMT drew 250,000+ visitors for the same amount of show days
2. The machine tools that are available in China are massive, and they bring them to the show. You need to make axle housings for a Caterpiller dumptruck. Not just a small over the road type, but one that is use in mining, they had a machine on the floor with that axle housing on its bed
3. The Chinese people are friendly and Love American Machine tools. The thinking that they want to copy our equipment is a thought that enters into your mind, however Royal Master has had great success selling our equipment and filling niches that other domestically Chinese made products could not fill.
4. They respect quality and have a desire to making quality products. We have installed a number of machines, and tolerances of ½ micron are not something that they run from, it is demanded
One of my first trips to China, I distinctly remember looking out my hotel room window and being amazed at the number of Bicycles and three wheeled tricycles. It was a virtual traffic Jam of legs and pedals. Most had items strapped to them, Coal or water bottles or random items. This trip I sat and looked out and admired a Traffic Jam or cars of all kinds. Mercedes, Buick, Ford, and lots of Hyundai and Volkswagen. The whole thing is just very cool to see the progress
One of the most interesting items is that we enter the hall during set-up the security guards were barking at me. Since I have no idea what they were saying, I not so politely walked right by them. Luckly no one followed me nor did I get locked up. However I found out later that I needed to purchase a hardhat for protection.

Other Photos from my trip to China

It has been to long since I have blogged. During this lapse a lot has happened here at Royal Master Grinders. Most recently we exhibited at the MDM West show where we introduced a new machine for grinding dental parts. Our Generation X3 machine used a fully motorized fourth axis that can rotate from zero to 90 degrees to crate helical geometries on parts. Already having orders for 3 units, we are excited about this introduction. It will open up a whole new field for us and give us added capabilities in the medical device market for even more complex profiles.

Going back to the end of the year, Royal Master had a great 2012, strong sales, good interest which has put us in a nice position for a successful 2013. We have had a great cross section of machine sales from many industries, medical being strong, as well as the machine tool field. This was reinforced by a successful IMTS. This September show was not only successful in bringing us immediate sales on the show floor, but the immediate follow-up with strong sales after the show was good to see. The fact that there was good traffic at the show, qualified buyers roaming the asiles and lots of good projects in our booth gives us great optimism for the next two years of business.
Last week was a milestone of sorts for my father and myself. My Oldest daughter who you have been introduced to before in this blog is 10 years old, and she had a week off of school. She had a cake baking camp in the mornings, but in the afternoons my wife and I took turns watching her and our youngest daughter. Wednesday afternoon they came back to RMG and with a lot of work to be done in our shipping department, our oldest was put to work. She did an admirable job, putting a smile on the faces of her grandfather, and her father both. I was then reminded by a few people, they remember me, at that age, mowing the lawn and counting inventory. This Friday the third Generation of Memmelaar’s will officially receive a paycheck from Royal Master.

That was a quick update For those who have followed me for a while on this blog, The ...

Well, IMTS 2012 is finished and we got home last night from a wild show where we saw great business, sold a couple of machines from the floor, as well as had a great amount of potential business.
Outside of the normal day to day business we enjoyed eating in Chicago, lunches from many of the Deli’s Carbonara Mexican, Jimmy John’s, and Pot Belly Deli. It beats pizza and Hamburgers every day from Convention Center. For Dinner we enjoyed Heaven on Seven for Cajun Food, Wildfire for Steak Night, Chicago Culinary Institute, Texas De Brazil, and Giordano’s for Pizza Thanks to all of those who kept our tanks full.
This year we had two IMTS rookies at the show Ryan and Jesse. Over the years we had different variations of Initiation. Our last rookie was treated to a hot sauce taste test at Heaven on Seven, where he had to eventually sign a waiver, and was warned not to pick-up the bottle without a napkin. The result was a glass of milk to quench the fire, and a round of applause from all of us with a big congratulations
This year we had a newer style of initiation. A pink bike helmet and lab coat that Jesse and ryan had to wear from the parking garage to the booth. Both wore it well, were good sports, and have passed with flying colors.
Below are a few photos

Todd and Bob as I had previously mentioned ride their bicycles in the morning, they decided that they would play a prank on me. I opened my door to my room in the morning on Monday and this is what I found.

The following photo is of us bring the bikes back to the hall to ship home. We got in trouble because we were bringing “FREIGHT” into the building and we should have used the loading docks

I would like to thank everyone who visited our booth, visited our virtual booth and have follow-ed us along on ...

Well we set-up machines, but thats not the fun part. For those who know Todd M our Lead Engineer and Bob Hoffman every day they rie their Bike’s lunchtime. Usually they ride about 16 miles during the 45 minutes, then eat and back to work. This ritual has been going on for about 5 years now. Each IMTS they ship their Bikes out and ride up and down lake shore drive early in the morning. Today we took their bikes back to the hotel as they were taking up too much space in the closet. If you look real close you can see Rich in the back seat. The Hyundai is really not made for this kind of cargo.
John