Agenda - Council - 04/08/1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Carbon Products: Dependability You Can Set Your Watch By When ~irn DeLalIey first decided that a lucrative business could be developed to specialize in machining carbon blanks for EDM, the idea was received with little interest by potential business partners. Today, eight years later, Carbon Products, founded by tim and his brothers, Bob and John, just moved into its' brand new facility to house the growing business. Keep It Simple One of the necessary evils for many mold making shops has been to clean the dust particles left from machining carbon blanks for use with EDM. Floors and equipment spattered with the remnants of a hard day's work doesn't make it easy for shops to comply with the continual push for a clean environment. Thanks to Carbon Products, Ramsey, Minnesota, those concerns can be eliminated. Why? Because machining and grinding carbon blanks is their business~their only business. "Before we started the business, there was only one specialist in machining carbon blanks," says Jim. "The company was located in Ohio, and its monopoly on the business allowed for a pretty high price on the services being offered. That made it difficult for shops to justify using an outside service. It was still cost-effectNe for them to do it in-house." "I admit I was skeptical at first," says Russ Vo§ht of Otsego Tool, located in Albertville, Minnesota. "We thought the old way was better. Then we looked at the efficiency Carbon Products could A specialist in machining carbon blanks, Carbon Products, Ramsey, Minnesota, uses a centralized vacttum system to maintain the spotless shop environment you see in this photo. run at, compared their prices against our costs, and discovered that the difference significantly affected our bottom line. The numbers don't lie?' Not anymore. Jim and his brothers carefully reviewed the figures and decided that they could offer the same service at a fair price and still be profitable. After talking with shops in the area, they determined that there would be a market for the service in Minnesota. Carbon Products opened its doors for business in 1988 and has been growing ever since. The Best Kept Secret in Minnesota "We were fortunate to find customers who were willing to take a chance on a new company," says Jim. "Although I'd been in the industry for fifteen years, it was still a new business, offering a service that most Minnesota companies hadn't considered using before." Determined to "do it right the first time," Carbon Products repayed new customers by giving them nothing less than the best possible service available. That unyielding dedication has never been compromised. 28 October 1996 Minnesota Precision Manufacturing Association Journal In fact, within a year, Otsego Tool sold the saw they kept in-house for cutting graphite. "We wasted more cutting one block than Carbon Products does in an entire day," says Voght. Most of Carbon Products' first customers were not in the MLrmesota territory. Without a local service, most shops here were resigned to having internal capabilities to grind and square electrode blanks. "The first four or five years, 90% of our business was