R-K
Electronics, Inc.
Cincinnati, Ohio USA
September/October
2001
Sales
Tip: Get out of the cubby hole!
Amazing
Product Applications: Pump OEMs in need of Custom Controls?
Pumps
Anybody?
R-K Online Updates
Quote of the Month
Sales Tip: Get out of the cubby hole!
Ask any one of your customers about what you supply to them. They'll tell
you. Ask them what your competitors are supplying to them. They will tell
you that, too.
Hey, could you supply what your competitors are supplying? My guess is yes. Did your customer think to ask you? No.
Your customers put you in a cubby hole!
We all work so hard at getting one or two products into our customers that we generate a perception by our customer that those products are all we have. Now they know we have more products available, but the ones we are selling them are the only ones they associate with us and our company.
How do you get around this? Get out of your comfort zone. Always have something new to introduce to your customers. Not necessarily new to you, but something your customer does not buy from you presently.
Make sure that it is a product that they could buy. Rather than just talk about it or show them literature, carry one of those "things" with you. Your customers will tune in a lot better when they can touch and see the product.
Your job is to help your customers generate better products or improve how they do what they do. You already have a relationship with the customer, so expanding your business at this level should be a lot easier than trying to break into a new customer.
Come out of that cubby hole and make some new sales!
Amazing Product Applications: Pump OEMs in need of Custom Controls?
R-K has recently done a few custom projects that combine some of those neat standard products that we sell to the pump and compressor industry. In these cases, rather than a standard product, we are designing controls that do exactly what the OEMs want them to do. Let's call them "dedicated PLCs with screwed up I/O."
Applications:
To control 1 pump or up to 3 pumps. In each case, the OEMs were building
up the pump control panels. Each needed something different.
One OEM was building 1Ø voltage pumps and needed a control that turned the pump on and off, showed the condition of the floats and monitored the current of the motor. R-K's design did everything that the customer "wished" for. There was no need for them to add anything else, except the enclosure. It has an membrane overlay with LEDs to show the status of all of the floats and alarms. Simple and low cost!
The second application was for multiple pumps. This control had a much more elaborate membrane overlay and monitored each pump motor for seal leak detection, overload trip and over temperature. This customer also requested terminal blocks like you would find in a control panel, rather than the little ones you typically find on PCBs. That makes it very customer friendly for the field people.
Benefits:
In each case the OEMs got more than they had planned for in features
and benefits and lowered their cost of the entire control.
In the 1Ø design the OEM has no wiring to do. The customer connects the floats and pump motor. The PCB based controller is the "complete" control. NO LABOR!
The multiple pump design has all of the features that the OEM requested. They just add the right size starters. Very low labor and lots of diagnostics.
Customers:
In these examples one customer actually builds the pumps and the other
is a large systems integrator. The key factors that you need to consider
to determine if your OEM or panel builder is right for a custom pump control
are:
€ 100 or more of the same controls per year
€ Controls worth $15,000 or more per year.
(ie: 100 controls per year at a value of $150 per control
would add up to the $15,000.)
Do you have an OEM or pump panel builder that could take advantage of R-K's expertise in pump control design? Give us a call!
Pumps Anybody?
If you have a customer that does assembly work on pump panels, we have
products to offer you.
R-K has standard products such as:
CAB Alternating relay for duplex pump operation. It switches
the lead and lag pumps after each pumping cycle to distribute the operating
time between both pumps.
QPB Do you have 3 or 4 pumps to sequence? The QPB does a similar job as the CAB, but on 2, 3 or 4 pumps.
ISL This intrinsically safe latch relay will operate like a simplex pump controller (1 pump).
ISR The 2 channel intrinsically safe relay can be used when a hazardous environment exists. It is often used for high or low level float or probe inputs.
TVM This low cost 3Ø voltage relay will monitor the line voltage to the pump motor. If there is a problem with the line voltage, it can interrupt the starter coil to avoid damage to the motor.
Come check out these relays on our web site at: www.rke.com.
R-K Online Updates
Have you been to our website lately?
Here are the most recent additions or revisions we've made:
R-K List Pricing: last revised 8/21/01.
R-K Today: Newsletter text is now available on our website for this and past issues.
Quote of the Month
"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering
my reasons for them!"
Friedrich Nietzsche
