“REACH regulations were adopted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals, while enhancing the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry”, states the official EU REACH website.

There are currently 138 chemicals on the official ECHA list online,  along with a list of Substances of Very High Concern, which require additional authorization.

The Chemical Inspection and Regulation Service (CIRS) suggests that manufacturers of electrical components, such as wire mesh grips and molded connectors made by Remke, are considered ‘Downstream Users’.  They use this term to describe others involved in the manufacturing process, but who are not the actual manufacturer or importer. These companies typically have different, or no registration requirements. Read more about Downstream Users and REACH >

One of the major parts of REACH Regulations state that reporting to the ECHA is only required if any of the identified chemicals are “released from the product under normal or reasonable foreseeable conditions of use”. To our knowledge, none of our products release any chemicals during use, and are therefore compliant with REACH. Read our full REACH Compliance Statement >

The primary objective of our blog EVERYTHING’S CONNECTED is to provide you with information that helps you in your job in some way, shape or form.  Of course we also hope you visit the Remke website and since there is truly something new on our site right now we thought you, our loyal blog subscribers, should be given the Insider’s Guide to these new pages.

So away we go!

• ON THE HOME PAGE
  • When you visit the home page on www.Remke.com you’ll see a large billboard photo that rotates between several images and right beneath that is a blue ‘box’ that’s called Tuff-Seal Product Line Overview……and a yellow ‘box’ called Tuff-Link Product Line Overview.  Click on whichever product line is of interest and you’ll be taken to what I call a ‘picture page’ of all the Remke products in the line.  As you’re looking over the photos when you see something you’d like to know more about just ‘click’ on the image or the caption and PDQ…you’re on a specific product page that includes part numbers, specifications and other information.  1 or 2 Clicks is all it takes.
• IN THE PRODUCTS SECTION
  • All of the pages in this section have been redesigned and offer more information including an overview of the product group, key specs, application case studies, a snapshot of the Remke Flexible Solutions Center and alternate images that you can zoom over and look at up close.  Getting there is easy.  Click on the PRODUCTS navigation button at the top of any page on the website and in the drop-down menu choose any of our cord connectors/cord grips, wire mesh grips or molded connectors that are of interest to you and PDQ…you’re there in just 1 Click!

These pages on Remke.com were designed based on feedback we had received about what worked, and what didn’t on a website.  Please check out these new pages and give us your feedback so that we can continue to develop web pages that work for you!

Do these pages make it easier for you to find the product information you’re looking for on Remke.com?  What are your suggestions for improvements?  Please LIKE and SHARE this blog and as always thank you for subscribing to EVERYTHING’S CONNECTED.

The effect of initiatives like RoHS, REACH, NEMA, IP65, UL, CE and CSA can be felt in the manufacturing supply chain around the globe, right down to each small electrical component. These standards are aimed to protect people and the planet, as well as create some standardization. And they affect consumer goods, as well as industrial applications.

When legislation was passed in Europe to create RoHS, it affected US manufacturers that sell anything there.  Although the manufacturer is ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance of the product, they are pushing some of that responsibility to the suppliers of components.  In some cases, manufacturers require certification of each individual component directly from its supplier.

Remke is here to help with all types of electrical connector compliance. This article is the first in a series of blog posts that will cover the major regulations and how they affect our customers.

We realize the soaring costs for complying with complicated regulations for cord connectors and wire mesh grips and molded connectors and cordsets. Not only in some of the materials required, but in the inspection, certification and logistics processes as well. The regulations need regulators and those usually come with paperwork and other requirements. Everyone is seeing their costs increase.

Navigating the compliance and certification system can also be difficult, especially in a niche area like electrical connectors. That’s where Remke can help. We know the regulations and can match a stock product or create custom connectors for complicated specifications in our Flexible Solutions program.

Remke works with cutting-edge materials like rubber, silicon and stainless steel, which are inherently safer, stronger and last longer than traditional metals, and comply with many of today’s regulations.

To be notified of upcoming articles on specific compliance areas, subscribe to our blog using the form on the right.

Celebrating  50 years means doing some fun things like our monthly Remke Trivia contest. Just submit your answers and if you’re right you’ll be entered into the drawing for a $50 visa gift card.  How easy is that?

The winner of our March Online Trivia Quiz was Steve Day at Richards Electric. Congratulations Steve – enjoy your $50 VISA gift card!

We hope you’ll check out the April Trivia contest today.  Submit your answers by May 3rd and that gift card just might be yours!!!

Every time you’re outside or inside sales team talks to a prospect they have a chance to build trust so that the prospect will want to hear from them again.  At a time when prospects are feeling overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time, your sales team can stand out from the competition by learning how to build trust.

Give prospects a reason to listen.  Here are several ideas that your sales team can use right away:

• Do Your Homework
  • Don’t fly blind……don’t make a sales call knowing nothing about the person being called
  • Make sure your sales team knows who they are calling and why – know something about their company & industry
  • Show the prospect you have a specific reason for WHY you thought they’d like to hear from you  today!
• Ask Questions
  • Ask questions that will evoke a thoughtful response
  • Use open ended questions like ‘What is the biggest challenge facing your business (related to your solution)? OR ‘How would you feel if your team could achieve significant productivity boost at a lower cost?’ or something like that which relates to your product or service
• Listen for Unspoken Needs
  • Make sure your sales team can ‘read between the lines’ or a conversation to find hidden opportunities
  • Have your sales team uncover the needs of the prospect by delving deeper into the conversation and really listening to what the prospect is saying
• Offer Something of Value
  • Every time your sales team talks to a prospect there’s an opportunity to show them that you genuinely care about their challenges and that you want to be a trusted business partner
  • SO – offer the prospect something of value without tying it to the expectation of a sale……like maybe some sort of business intelligence….or thoughts on industry trends….or some sort of guide, white paper or presentation…..maybe share a success story from a similar company in their industry
  • Little acts of generosity are building blocks for a more trusting relationship
• Take Your Time
  • DON’T ASK for the sale too soon!
  • Show prospects you are in it for the long haul and are willing to develop a solid working relationship with them over time…….show prospects you are committed to their success and willing to keep talking with them for the long-term
  • NURTURE the relationship and prospects will be more likely to trust you and eventually buy from you

If your sales team does this have you seen success?  And if your sales team doesn’t do this will you try this new approach?  We hope you’ll LIKE and SHARE this blog with your colleagues, and as always thanks for subscribing to EVERYTHING’S CONNECTED.

Jernberg Industries manufactures highly engineered, forged parts for the automotive industry – many of which are heat-treated.  The forging equipment was extremely hard on the sensor cables used on the press arms.  Small particles of silica were getting into the threads and receptors.  Plus water and graphite were ruining connections and shorting out the sensors, damaging coupling nuts and hardware in the process.  When this happened, everything had to stop!

Set-up time to change the press arm was taking too long because cables needed to be dressed within the arm.  Their supplier was only able to deliver one length of cable which needed to fit across the arm and connect to a custom distribution box with stainless steel connectors.  The process of arranging all that extra cable took Jernberg employees too long and started to create extensive downtime.

Jernberg searched extensively but could not find a solution in the stock connectors offered by the major connector manufacturers.  Plus they were 5-10 times more expensive and didn’t keep graphite out of the equipment.   Jernberg was running out of options until they found Remke.

Remke was able to create custom connectors that solved their specific problem when no other supplier was willing to customize parts for them.  Jernberg provided the cables to Remke and we molded stainless steel M12 connectors to them that fit the equipment exactly – with no hanging cable or need to dress cables.

Our Flexible Solutions team also produced an 8-port M12 distribution box with stainless steel hardware, made to fit inside the custom enclosure on the forging press.  Plus we created a 12-pole Mini-Link cordset with a stainless steel grip to mate with the distribution box.  Results?  With the new connector solutions in place, Jernberg found downtime reduced by 80-90%.

Custom connectors can solve very specific problems at the individual machine level.  You shouldn’t have to fit your machines to the small selection of stock connectors supplied by huge vendors.  Remke can create custom connectors for small runs affordably!

Are stock connectors not meeting your needs?  Do you need a small run of a custom connector?  Then look no more – Remke is your answer.  Please LIKE or SHARE this blog….and as always, thank you for subscribing to EVERYTHING’S CONNECTED.

Internet marketing continues to be a moving target with something always changing or evolving.  Subscribing to numerous e-newsletters and attending conferences helps the Remke marketing team ‘try’ to stay on top of things but it’s not easy as many of you probably know.  When we read this article recently in one of our e-newsletters we thought it might be helpful to share the ideas with you.

So here are 4 Internet Marketing Trends for all of us to be aware of:

• Emphasis on Inbound Marketing Techniques
  2013 will see an increased emphasis on creating, nurturing and converting leads through strategically placed content.  Brands will try to ‘insert’ themselves into the natural conversation happening all around us instead of ‘interrupting’ daily activities.  Brands need to appear in the places customers & prospects are looking and they will be doing that with more strategic blogging, email marketing, retargeting, white papers, social activity and other methods

• Responsive Design
  None of us can predict how visitors will access our websites – PC, mobile or tablets.  Instead of creating separate experiences for each, in 2013 brands will look to create one experience for all.  Called Responsive Design, through this process a site changes based on the size of the device used.  Even Google is recommending this process as the best way to optimize for mobile.  Responsive layouts take developing for specific screen resolutions out of the design/development equation.  Instead, site layout is based on predefined minimum & maximum pixel dimensions.

• Content Marketing
  Content has always been hailed as ‘king’ on websites.  But now with search engine updates specifically geared at rewarding high quality content (and penalizing low quality content) more & more sites should be looking at their content development programs.  The result will be a larger focus on creating content that provides a great value to searchers.  And it means that businesses will have to take a much more strategic approach to content marketing.

• A Process for Social Media
  Many brands have gotten involved in social media without giving much thought to the ‘why’ or ‘what’ they were hoping to get out of it.  But as this medium matures brands will need to start creating a smarter social media framework that identifies objectives for getting involved and determining metrics that will show whether you’ve reached them or not.

Have you factored any of these trends into your marketing plans for 2013?  Will you?  Staying in front of the eightball is hard but we hope this information will help you do just that!  And as always, thank you for subscribing to EVERYTHING’S CONNECTED.

Have a question related to cord grips, electrical connectors, manufacturing or or anything else related to the industry?  Or, do you have something you’d like to see us blog about?  We’d love to hear from you!  Send us an email through the contact form below.

Sudden downtime can be costly.  Industry experts estimate that downtime can cost a manufacturer as much as $1 million per hour in lost revenue.  WOW!

ASSEMBLY magazine recently published a case study about a custom electrical connector that Remke developed for a Ford Motor Company assembly line in Canada.  This plant often experienced downtime when the 1,000 amp power cable – hardwired to welding robots – shorted out and this occurred whenever the cable’s electrical connector broke causing sparks to pierce the power cable.  The connector broke due to wear & tear from the robot arm’s constant extreme rotation.  The assembly line often was down as long as 24 hours.

After experiencing this shutdown several times, Ford met with Progressive Tool (designer of the assembly line & responsible for its performance) and Remke as the supplier of the cord connector & strain relief mesh grip in use.  All parties agreed that a custom electrical connector with more pull-out protection was needed.  The connector would need to provide better flexibility & durability while protecting the cable from welding sparks.

Remke designed, tested and modified several prototype connectors over a 2-month period.  Once the prototype was approved Remke developed the tooling for a two-part molding press.  Part 1 created the tapered cone in a rubber press.  Part 2 molded this rubber cone to a metal sleeve that housed the threaded opening.  This overmold provided greater protection from cable pullout and abrasion in the harsh welding environment.

The initial custom connector Remke designed was Tuff-Flex………now a standard product in our line.  But to address some persistent pulsating power through the cable, Remke engineers went back to work and created the Swivel Flex connector.  Swivel Flex incorporates some axial movement to prevent wear & tear during repetitive movement of the welding robot’s arm.  Swivel Flex is also now a standard product in our line.

Is repetitive movement a problem in your plant – or in your customers’ facility?  Ask us about either the Tuff-Flex or Swivel Flex connector and solve that problem fast!   And as always, thanks for subscribing to EVERYTHING’S CONNECTED. 

Have a question related to cord grips, electrical connectors, manufacturing or or anything else related to the industry?  Or, do you have something you’d like to see us blog about?  We’d love to hear from you!  Send us an email through the contact form below.

$50 VISA Gift Card Can Be Yours….Join Us!

Celebrating 50 years means doing some fun things like our monthly Remke Trivia contest.  Just submit your answers and if you’re right you’ll be entered into the drawing for a $50 VISA gift card.  How easy is that?

The winner of our January Online Scavenger Hunt was Jeff Hall of Air Hydro Power.  His response?  “Thank you this is awesome.”  Congratulations Jeff  and enjoy your $50 VISA gift card!

The February Remke Trivia Quiz

For this month the trivia questions are about the Remke building location and sports with John Remke.  Here’s a snippet from the Remke Trivia page on our website……

• As Remke Industries continued to grow they leased more buildings on Church Street until it became clear that the best course was to move to a single larger building.  Remke moved to its current location in the northwestern Chicago suburb of Wheeling IL  in the 1980’s.  What year did Remke move to 310 Chaddick Drive?
• Company founder John Remke loved sports & was quite an athlete.  What was John Remke’s favorite sport?

Submit Your Answer to These Trivia Questions by March 5^th and a $50 VISA Gift Card could be yours if you answer correctly.  GOOD LUCK!!

And as always, thank you for subscribing to EVERYTHING’S CONNECTED.

Have a question related to cord grips, electrical connectors, manufacturing or or anything else related to the industry?  Or, do you have something you’d like to see us blog about?  We’d love to hear from you!  Send us an email through the contact form below.

These are considered the top manufacturing trends from 2012:

• Exporting
  • 60% of companies that reported increased export activity stated that their company was thriving and growing
• Re-shoring
  • Bringing the business & jobs back to America
  • A Forbes survey reported that “40% of companies indicated that they have won new manufacturing business that had been previously offshored”
  • Remke has been reporting on reshoring in our blog for over a year and we’re thrilled to see that this trend remains strong!
• Made in America
  • The Made In America brand is growing stronger & stronger as people prefer buying products made in our country because of the quality services American manufacturers provide.
  • A recent study published in Industry Week found that 80% of Americans are even willing to pay more for a product if they know it’s made in the USA and this is important to our economic growth.
  • Remke products are Made In the USA………..the Chicago northwest suburbs to be exact!
• Innovation
  • Innovation = finding a creative solution to a problem
  • U.S. manufacturers are differentiating themselves by providing quality products & services that are a direct result of manufacturers becoming innovative in different ways such as technology, workforce practices and business operation.
  • Innovation at Remke = our Flexible Solutions Center that is 100% dedicated to finding solutions to specific customer problems by designing custom products, specials, adaptations and modifications.

We believe that manufacturing will continue to play a pivotal role in the continued economic recovery in the United States.

What would you like to see our government do to strengthen the  U.S manufacturing business? Please share your ideas and as always, thank you for subscribing to EVERYTHING’S CONNECTED.

Have a question related to cord grips, electrical connectors, manufacturing or or anything else related to the industry?  Or, do you have something you’d like to see us blog about?  We’d love to hear from you!  Send us an email through the contact form below.