When we started up the business in March 2010, it wasn’t sufficient to just start up and see what happened. I had spent a period of time talking to potential suppliers to ensure that their culture and products were closely aligned with the type of organisation I wanted to run – I had no desire to be a transactional based business – I wanted to have long term relationships based on a mutual respect and trust, with the a desire to solve the problems in the real world rather than shoe-horn a product into a problem because it was the next best fit. While it is economically important to ensure that a product can “wash its face”, there are a small but significant number of customers who need a solution that while based on a product, need something that is longer / shorter, fatter / thinner etc and it was important to have the ability to work with suppliers who had the willingness to adapt or, in some cases, develop such a solution.
I am pleased that over the last 10 years we have found suppliers with this can-do attitude, such as viZaar, FORT , FORETEC and ScoutCAM, who have enabled us to support customer demand for these solutions, adapting their core offerings to help customers solve business-specific problems. Some of these solutions have been:
- a 35m long, 6mm diameter endoscope for Boiler Tube inspection
- a 12m long steerable guide tube with 9mm working channel
- a 11m long video probe with 4.5mm dia in both forward view and side view versions
- a blade style inspection camera 2.4mm thick, 12m long
- a 10mm dia, 12m long radiation tolerant fibrescope with articulation
- a 1.6 mm dia, 12m long inspection camera, including illumination
So as I look forward to the next 10 years, I am encouraged by the attitude that, in a world where there is an increasing desire by the larger suppliers to standardise product lines and look at reviewing products hard for price / volume efficiency, there remains a strong cohort of manufacturers who will have the desire and skills to be flexible in what they can deliver, and an interest in working alongside their customers to develop solutions that can solve specific challenges. So if there is an inspection problem you have been trying to solve and would like to see how we could help, please drop me a line or give me a call….