EMI Industries Blog

Were you there?  At the Top Source 2010 Summit in Las Vegas?  If not, you missed EMI's over-loaded and over-the-top booth!  We wanted to not only show you what we can supply by displaying several of our best sellers, including a checkstand, stainless steel double bowl sink, Sterling Stainless table, wood and metal bakery racks, mobile hand sink, meat rack, boat rack and more.  But we also wanted to show everyone the design advantages and quality we offer - something that is sometimes hard to articulate by phone and especially hard in a bid. 

Stay tuned for some photos!

On Monday morning, EMI's VP of Sales and Marketing Eric Johnson writes and emails a weekly "news" article to our Sales force.  Sometimes it's filled with insiprational and motivating thoughts to energize our Account Managers for the upcoming week.  Most often, he imparts some of his vast product knowledge on the group and focuses on a few key products or key features of EMI.  

Eric also watches the TV show "Myth Busters" and he just can't help that it sometimes seeps into his work.  Well, he must have bought the season 5 DVD last weekend because this week he debunks some of the more common myths about Stainless steel in the industy. 

 

"I'm a fan of ‘Myth Busters'. If you are unfamiliar with it, each week they scientifically investigate the reality or accuracy of some commonly held beliefs. For example, one the other night tested shooting a gun straight up into the air to see where the bullet would come down and if it could kill someone. (The answer was that if it truly is shot straight up the bullet comes down sideways and while it certainly would not feel good to be hit by it, it would not be traveling fast enough to kill you.) It occurred to me we have a lot of myths in our industry also so I thought I'd try busting a few today.

1. An all welded, set-up table should cost more than one that ships knocked down (KD).  This likely comes from large table manufacturers who import from China and have an up-charge for doing this. The logic is that there is additional labor to assemble and weld a set-up table.

Manufacturers that import tables must get them KD for freight cost reasons. It certainly is less expensive for them to just reship the KD table as they received it than to pull it from the box, assemble it and weld it together. However, for tables manufactured in the US, that does not hold true. A knocked down table uses 4 (or 6 on longer tables) leg sockets. These are relatively expensive. Welding the legs directly to the hat channels eliminates the need for these sockets and the labor costs for welding are about a wash with the cost of the sockets. Similarly, most KD tables today use adjustable undershelf brackets which cost about the same as welding the shelf to the leg. Domestically manufactured tables do NOT cost more to make all welded, set-up (and they are much more structurally sound than any KD table can possibly be).

2. A heavier gauge wall shelf will hold more weight than it's thinner counterpart. Many manufactures offer 14GA, 16GA and some 18GA shelves. Logic says that if you are going to place heavy objects (like stacks of plates) of the shelf, you should buy the 14GA shelf.

Technically, this is true. Heavier sheet material IS stronger than thinner sheets. However, the primary determinant of the amount of weight a wall shelf will support is how and to what it is mounted. An 18GA shelf that has its supports screwed to wall studs will hold considerably more weight than a similarly sized 14GA shelf that just has wood screws run into wall board or plaster holding it up. The width of the shelf comes into play also as the leverage on a 16" deep shelf puts more pressure on the mounting than does one that is only 12" deep.

3. Drawn bowl sinks are just as strong and long-lasting as fabricated bowl sinks. A competitor (the largest supplier of drawn bowl sinks to the foodservice market) offers a lifetime guarantee on their sink bowls so they must be very sure of their durability, right?

This myth has been fairly well debunked over the years. "Drawing" (creating) the bowl requires stretching of the metal (like blowing up a balloon). I personally have seen a 12" deep 16GA drawn bowl cut apart and measured.  The thickness of the metal in the corners was found to be 19GA and 20GA thick (much thinner than the purported 16GA labeling). Another easy way to show the fallacy in this is to point out the placement of the legs. All fabricated bowl sinks put the legs under the corners of the sink bowls as this is where most of the weight is concentrated when the bowl is filled with water. Drawn bowl sinks attach the legs to the deck surrounding the bowl because if they welded them to the corner of the bowl, in use the legs likely would start bending the corners upward.

So how can our competitor offer a lifetime guarantee? It is strictly a marketing ploy. Once you consider the cost (to the owner) to change out a sink (down time, freight, plumbing labor) few ever avail themselves of the guarantee. The cost to the company is minimal compared to the sales advantage the guarantee provides.

That's enough for now (the TV show usually limits itself to two myths per episode)."

What myths would you like to see busted next time?  Is there something that you just can't seem to get a straight answer on from your supplier or sales rep?  Submit it to our resident "Myth Buster" via the comments below for a chance to be featured in another article soon!

What an honor!  We just found out that the US Commerce Association has selected EMI for the 2009 Best of Tampa Award in the Food Products Machinery category. 

The award program recognizes local business throughout the country (EMI has 4 facilities across the US, but our HQ is in Tampa) who have achevied exceptional success in their industry.  

We are very proud to be recognized in our industry and by our peers.  Of course, we've known it all along. :)

 

For a while now, EMI's new product development team has been hard at work creating a new line of NSF Stainless Steel tables to be used anywhere from Grocery Stores to Restaurants to Food Service cafeterias.  

We began by brainstorming ways to meet our cutomers' needs for high quality, affordable Stainless Steel tables with a fast turnaround time.  After a thorough research, design and prototyping process, this new line - "Sterling Stainless" - was created! 

While this new line has numerous benefits for the customer, one feature that's important to us is that it's Made in the USA (check out our last blog - "CUT costs by buying American?")

Click here for more information on Sterling Stainless Steel tables from EMI.

If you found two identical products priced the same, one made in China and the other made in the USA, which one would you purchase?  Now, if the one built in the United States was a dollar or two LESS expensive sitting on your dock, is there any question?

That's exactly what EMI Industries (with plants in Tampa Bay, FL; Alpharetta, GA; and Cranston, RI) is offering to our customers this summer.

You'll soon hear more about our newest line of top quality, stainless steel NSF tables - our "Sterling" collection.  When you compare price and quality to similar tables made overseas, you'll probably be shocked at what an incredible value these tables really are.  

Why are we offering such a great product at such an affordable price?  Well, partly because we want to prove that American manufacturers can compete with off shore sources.  Together, our customers can be more competitive while helping to bring back prosperity to the U.S.  Save money...Buy American!

 

NAFEM, the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers, recently hosted a show in Orlando, Florida that our staff at EMI Industries was able to attend.  Over 500 companies throughout the US exhibited and this was their time to show their stuff. 

NAFEM caters to the foodservice & food equipment manufacturing industry with products ranging from fully decked out commercial kitchens, down to accessories such as wine glasses and cutlery. 

This year companies were especially displaying their colors - their GREEN colors that is.  New developments are in the forefront as companies compete to design, engineer, and deliver sustainable, energy-saving, eco-friendly products - jumping aboard the green wagon.   

A special exhibit, themed ‘What's Hot! What's Cool!', was reserved for the latest innovative products on the market, most of them incorporating their efforts in saving energy and minimizing carbon footprints. 

Remco Industries International, Inc. unveiled the industry's first countertop carousel brick oven, the Remco Millenium 2000 CT2. This compact pizza, cooking machine offers high productivity, cooking in just 60 seconds, and a low carbon foot print.  Plus it's fun to look at - it resembles something out of the Jetsons! This was one of many sustainable products on the market. 

 The Remco Millenium 2000 CT2

Aside from the product displays, the show contributed educational seminars on topics pertaining to safety in the food and beverage industry, innovative thinking, and future trends. 

This was definitely a show worth attending and our staff thoroughly enjoyed it! 

 

(Brandon Abril, Design Engineer; Elizabeth Butler, Marketing Specialist; J.W. Ferguson, Quality Champion)

We are pleased to hear that the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA) is being recognized for its recent construction efforts for its new wing. The latest addition, the Fine Arts Hazel Hough Wing Project, has been awarded the Building of America honor as one of the 50 most important, or innovative, new construction or renovation projects within Florida. 

EMI's design and manufacturing team was cited by MoFA as being an important contributor to the development of the gift shop in the Hazel Hough Wing project. Customized display cases with shelving and a customer service counter are both functional and aesthetically pleasing for their employees an guests. We are proud to be acknowledged as a team player in this effort.   

Written by Kevin Stubbs, Director of Metal Manufacturing, EMI Industries 

It was a blustery day along the Gasparilla Parade route. The air was fresh, the sun was hot, and the men on the truck were thirsty. They started drinking like fish in water. The parade started and the men on the fire truck were having a jolly old time tossing the beads to the crowd along Bayshore Blvd. Then all of a sudden the mood on the truck changed, the men became very quiet and the need for more beverages came to a complete halt. "What should we do?" asked one to another. 

No one wanted to talk - they had to pee! They could not wait for the parade to end. Upon approaching the end of the parade route they asked themselves, "What can we do to make the next parade a more enjoyable experience?" One man exclaimed, "We have to put an out house on this truck or were all going to die!" So, as they pondered, one of them said, "Hey, there is a custom S/S manu­facturer in the area that just might be able to help us out with this problem."

The fire truck was delivered to the EMI Clearwater location and the troubled men from the fire truck explained the situation, and with the experience in the shop, all was resolved.  They got their outhouse! 

The next parade was a much more enjoyable experience and everyone  was very happy with the outcome. 

 

NEW MACHINERY FOR EMI's WOODSHOP WILL INCREASE EFFICIENCY

To boost production and meet the increased demand from our customers, EMI Industries took advantage of the Atlanta IWF show pricing and purchased new machines to replace the existing Holzma panel saw and Weeke machining center.  Installation of these new machines has begun.

Both machines employ Beckhoff computer technology to drastically reduce the cycle times and make them far more productive than their predecessors.  Using fiber optic technology, information travels from the operations computer to the moving parts of the machines at a much faster pace than ever before.

The Holzma Hpp-380 front load panel saw has several other features that were not available on the former HPP-81 saw. The most revolutionary and beneficial is Holzma's patented "shark fin" side pressure device.  The "shark fin" is a simple design with far fewer working parts, is much faster, much more durable and versatile than the old roller style side pressure device.  The "SPD" will square any size board and any thickness of material without issue.

The new Holzma also features a rugged "rack and pinion" saw carriage drive that allows this speedy machine's saw carriage to start and stop on a dime.  This feature not only helps with faster cycle times, it is also a great safety benefit.

As a complement to the new saw, EMI also purchased a "Holzma Optilift" that will replace the existing scissors lift that feeds the panel saw. Labor costs are reduced as it allows multi-stack cutting without a lot of physical effort to load the saw.

The new Weeke Venture 3 CNC machining center is packed full of features that increase operation speeds, improve quality and help "dummy proof" machine operation. Three main features are key to its efficiency.

First, a patented "LED" pod placement system, which lights along the consoles and the front of the machine to help the operator quickly align the suction pods into proper position, prevents damage. 

The second key feature is an integrated C-axis that allows the use of adapter aggregates to drill or rout horizontally at any angle.  A special "floating head" aggregate has been purchased to allow "constant depth processing" in materials that vary in thickness.

The final key feature of the new Weeke is the utilization of dual Z-axis technology. Essentially Weeke took the routing and drilling units and put them on separate guide-ways to allow them to go up and down separately.  This allows for faster changeover times from drilling to routing.  It also allows the processing head to be smaller, weigh less and thus put less strain on the guide-ways and create less long term maintenance.

These new machines purchased from Stiles Machinery are the two single fastest machines of their kind on the market today. They also have the same rugged durability as their predecessors and should serve to keep EMI Industries in its technologic leadership position for years to come for many years to come.

Thanks to attending an informative Webinar hosted by A.R.E. (Association for Retail Environments), of which EMI Industries is a current member, EMI management staff acquired additional information on the hottest topic for wood product manufacturers.  C.A.R.B. (California Air Resources Board) will begin regulating the quantity of formaldehyde, a toxic air contaminant, emitted from composite wood sold, or used to make finished products in the state of California.  The new regulation will be phased in starting January 1, 2009.  As this only stands for wood shipping into California, not all manufacturers are required to adhere to these new regulations just yet.   

Continually at the forefront of the industry, EMI Industries is taking the initiative to comply with C.A.R.B.'s regulations, for all of the wood products it manufactures not just those shipping into California. The materials used by EMI Industries used to make finished products which will be compliant by January 1, 2009 include melamine, particle board and laminate.  Additionally, C.A.R.B. compliant products will be tagged accordingly prior to leaving EMI facilities.  This ensures that manufactured wood products emit no additional formaldehyde into the air. 

The primary benefits of the new regulations are the reduction in formaldehyde emissions, total public exposure, and excess cancer risk in California.  EMI Industries is pleased to contribute to the overall well being of workers and the environment.