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RMG BLOG

Three days until we ship a lot of machines to IMTS 2018

There is 4 days to go until we do the packing of the truck. For those who are new to following my blog, it is a day that is filled with a lot of satisfaction. All of us at Royal Master have worked for 9 months to get to this day. We welcome the truck into the lot and when it leaves, we exhale. Rich and I split the show up into three sections, the 9 months of prep, “the show” and then the “after show”. The actual show is enjoyable for me, and it is the least amount of stress. I love talking to the people that come into the booth discussing the different projects that we are presenting, and past projects that are applicable to their particular application.

We are fortunate that our team at Royal Master is fully invested into he success of our company at the show. There are a lot of late hours, and people asked to do jobs that they normally don’t do, but the results speak for themselves. We are happy to share the results with our employees as they were a large part of the success of the show for us.

We are introducing our GX3 machine at the show. Its dual grinding wheel set-up allows for applications such as endodontic files be ground in 1/3 the cycle time of conventional systems. Its primary grinding wheel creates the initial part of the file, and then the secondary wheel creates the flutes in the part. Its pretty cool! The machine cones with a completely new look enclosure which makes the system look sleek and modern.

Our New Hi-Acc machine has a new operator interface. The 24” touchscreen interacts in a new way with the operator where as multiple screens can be open at one time making navigation easier. There is total customization for each operators preferences. Just like a memory seat in a car but for machine tools.

Of course will have a robotically loaded machine, Fanuc and Keyence are strategic partners on this project . We will also have a TG-12×8 thrufeed machine grinding 8000 parts per hour feedrate. You must stop by to see how we are doing this! In addition to all of this we have a lot of variety in equipment. Simple Thrufeed machines to highly automated systems. Our machines are not one size fits all propositions.

what happens when you bring your kids ...

Customer Service: Centerless Grinders and Shoes

This week I went to the local Westfield Shopping mall to return a pair of shoes that I purchased about 4 months ago. They are nothing special and not expensive, but I wear them most days and they look the part, but far from worn out. The reason for the return is the rubber soles split across the ball of the foot and I was annoyed that this could happen. I am not a return kind of person, I dislike the whole experience that it entails, finding a receipt that you put in a drawer six months ago and trudging to an overcrowded mall. Nasty salespeople are more interested in flirting with the kiosk employee across the mall, and not trying to help you. So what makes this experience noteworthy. I was in and out in less then 3 minutes flat.
Without a receipt I walked into the store, pulled out a shoe from the bag I brought, politely said “ is this supposed to happen?”, the answer was no from the very polite sales employee. He quickly offered that even though he did not have them in stock, he would order then and have them shipped to my home at no extra charge.  After filling out my name and address, I was on my way explaining my 7 year old daughter the difference between   good service like this and poor service like we had at chain store a few weeks back. Her simple reply was why would someone NOT give good service, and Daddy can we get a Pretzel.
I had to think about her question and I did not have an answer, as we went and got a Pretzel, Cold Stone Creamery for me.
We all live in a environment where  we are genuinely surprised by a thank you when you pay for your bagel and coffee or surprised when you get a small bag of peanuts on your cross country flight.  How did it get this far, I do not know but when this happened it made me sit back and just listen to Alan Schell our customer service person.  Everyday I hear him on the phone as we sit close to each other, but I just decided to listen, and listen intently.
Alan has a conversation with our customers, he just does not take an order. At times it seems like they should be making plans ...

Are Friday Afternoons Strange at Your Factory?

Today our granite machine bed was delivered for our centerpiece machine at IMTS. About 5 months ago we looked into the possibility of enhancing our machine as we started running into applications that required better tolerances. Two areas to address were thermal stability and vibration dampening. ( Hey every micron counts ). The granite machine bed was born.
Friday afternoons at Royal Master are funny, they either feature pure chaos as people call in last minute for parts or they are quiet, with the only calls from spouses looking for a choice between pizza or Chinese for dinner. There never seems to be anything in-between.
With the bed came a bunch of new ideas of the machine, many which without a doubt enhance the mechanical properties of the machine, but some are purely ascetic in nature. Meetings on the machine came at different times, nothing planned, usually a cup of coffee or Mountain Dew was in hand and it started out with a “What if we…. ” And ended with, lets get Todd to figure this out, it sounds good.

This bed has been highly anticipated here for the last 10 weeks as Rock of Ages in Vermont helped us develop a product that could be manufactured, but also meet our requirements. The result arrived today. When the truck arrived there was crowd, all eagerly anticipating the bedrock machined base, which arrived crated. But when uncrated, many just “Wow”

As many times as you look at a solidworks model, and visualize the end result, nothing prepared me for the relief to see the idea which started out as a “ what if” get uncrated. Looking at the certification paperwork that came with it, revealed another surprise. Just like a Born On date. Rock Of Ages who knew of our excitement to receive this, included a few photos of it in process. I have to say they got copied many times and passed around as everyone had to look at them, a lot.

this is the image

After I finish writing this blog, I am out to the shop to go place a headstock, wheel guard and some other items which are finished on top of the machine ...