First Aid for "Tower" Riveters
With the recent demise of Floform (see news article dated 17 February 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/7894927.stm), many owners of TOWER RIVETERS have been left without support for their machines. Faced with the problem of keeping their riveters operational, there is ONE question on their mind:-
Q. Where the heck can I get tools and spare parts now that Floform is no more?
A. You get them from the same people as before
In fact, the real OEM manufacturer of these machine still exists and is quite healthy. Suprised? Don't be, because afterall there is hardly an abundance of riveting experts around to call upon for help and so you can be forgiven for assuming that there would be no-one out there with the specific knoweldge and expertise of these niche machines.
Clones
It is a little known fact that the original people who designed the "Tower" riveters worked for MILFORD (part of The Orbitform Group) in USA. The Tower riveters were straight clones of the Milford designed machines which were built under licence in UK until the late 1990's. In recent years, Tower (lately Floform) have supplied only older, refurbished riveters from re-claimed stocks.
The Tower machines even carried the same names as their Milford twins such as #256, #410, #64 which have become renowned particularly in the commercial brake and clutch re-lining industry.
Today, only Northwick supply new and used Milford/Tower machines and are able to supply genuine OEM parts, tools and equipment...and because the Tower riveters were copies, tools and spares are fully interchangeable.
Spend £50 to save £500 in ONE day
Is there a culture of "make do an mend" among traditional owners of Tower riveters? Many Tower riveting machines are running (if that's the right way to express it) with clapped out tooling and poor safety guards which can lead to excessive scrap, poor productivity and increased exposure to risk for the operator.
One recent example of this problem involved a long-time Tower riveting machine owner (at the end of his tether, it has to be said) reporting that his riveting machine was "randomly spitting" rivets. He had spent weeks (maybe years) trying to fix the problem and had already suffered high levels of scrap as the machine was also damaging his friction lining material which he was riveting.
A Milford trained, Service Engineer was quickly despatched armed with only a spare set of tools and his experience. After 10 minutes on site, a new rollset (spring centre anvil) had been fitted and the machine adjusted to run correctly and the problem was solved. The rollset cost the guy £50 and saved him £500 in ONE day alone, taking into account lost production and the cost of scrap friction material.
Sounds Familiar?
Northwick can now extend their expertise to ALL owners of Tower riveters and begin to work with them to bring their machine back up to scratch and to OEM standards. If the above example sounds familiar to you, then perhaps you could immediately benefit by having your riveting machines inspected. Many improvements can be made on a modest budget and long term improvements can be planned and prioritised to help protect cash flow.
If you would like to know more then talk to Tim Cox at Northwick on +44(0) 1386 555 630 or email
tim@northwick.eu