Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 15

CASE STUDIES Contact: JEFF KELLER jeff.keller@mmei-inc.com molten aluminum. It would take them several days to empty the remaining 20 inches of molten alloy from the 50,000 lb. furnace in their facility. It would halt production, and it required more than 50 sow molds to handle the volume to be drained from the furnace. More than they had on hand, and so they had to wait as metal cooled and solidified in the molds and could then be removed. Clearly a very painful situation. They needed a way to get the remaining 20 inches of metal into ladles and into their production flow so that they could continue to make product and avoid the need to empty into sows altogether. This provided MMEI the opportunity with its new Raptor Transfer Pump, which is completely portable, quickly submersible, with a variable speed motor capable of moving 1,100 lbs./minute, to pump metal out of the furnace down to a level of 5 inches or lower, and to see all that metal go into production. The remaining 5 inches was then drained via gravity quickly and easily to leave the furnace completely empty and ready for the maintenance process to begin. This solution resolved the safety issue, kept production at normal levels, significantly increased the efficiency of the furnace emptying process (from days to hours) and generated a strong financial return for our customer. RELIEVING PAIN IS GOOD BUSINESS As I get older, I have more and more opportunities to deal with “pain” and how to make it go away. I once worked for a good friend who told me that if you go to a surgeon, the recommendation will be for a surgical solution, if you go see a homeopath, you will be prescribed a natural remedy and if you see the chiropractor, it will be an adjustment. Those of us in the business of relieving pain, generally have a specialty, and while that can lead to a bias, our industry is fortunate to have “doctors” that invest substantial time and money in developing new ways to relieve, or even better yet prevent, pain. It is always good to have options, and the market will sort out those that are most beneficial in addressing the ailment. The case study above is the result of having identified a common pain point in our target market, namely the need to safely, quickly, and efficiently empty stationary furnaces to facilitate maintenance or alloy changes. Many years ago we developed a product called the Speed Demon that was able to relieve a certain amount of pain. With those lessons learned we went back to our drawing board and developed the Raptor to better address situations with a higher pain threshold. It has been gratifying to see how our customers have benefitted from this new development in technology. In fact, we even heard our patient say “The Raptor pump performed very efficiently. The pump exceeded all expectations as we were able to continue to run production while draining the furnace. I would recommend the Raptor pump for other facilities. An outstanding product. Made my work easier.” I suspect we will be back at the drawing board again with new ideas in hopes of continuing to be effective pain specialists. 5