Javsiam

Through the years I've purchased dwyer gagues, temperature monitors and chart recorders. Their products are built of high quality materials and are robust enough to last several years. Their technical support staff is extremely knowledgeable. I've contacted Dwyer tech support on a couple of occasions and have asked them for advice on product selection based on my application. Their staff was precise on their recommendation with a product their not only did the job I purchased it for but exceeded my expectations.

Strengths: Dwyer supplies quality sensors, gagues and process controls. They carry a huge catalog of items and deliver quickly.

Needs to improve: No big weakness in my experience.

Wytech has two services that are geared towards R&D organizaitons: Fast Lane and Fast Track.

Fast lane is their overnight delivery program for wires. This is a great resource if you're not asking for anything too out of the ordinary. I've used it several time in the past with around a 50% success rate. Meaning half the time they did not have what I was requesting so it was going to take them a few weeks to deliver.

Fast Track is their Rapid Prototyping program. "Rapid" is sort of subjective. I've tried on two occasions to get ground wires through this program only to find a different supplier who could do it faster and cheaper.

It's awesome that Wytech found a niche they felt they could fill. It would be nicer if they could deliver on what they are advertising.

Strengths: Wytech Industries supplies medical grade ground wires, wire stock and tubing. They have a large selection of in stock wires of different alloys and sizes and can grind profiles and features onto those wires based on your specifications.

Needs to improve: Getting ground wires from Wytech can take some time if you're asking them to do anything out of the ordinary.

Years ago, the company I worked for had chosen the local Numatics distributor as a "preferred vendor" for air valves, fittings, regulators, ect. This distributor sold Numatics products exclusively. The results were less than favorable. The build quality of these items were inferior to just about every other company by comparison. The threads on the air cylinders had metal shavings hanging from the threads, regulators were regularly shipped that were defective (leaky handles), most of the push on fittings were larger in size than their counterparts. Just about everything we recieved from these folks had one issue or another.

In the end, the local vendor signed on to distribute SMC components as well and it all went away. Looks like Numatics merged with Asco arond 4 years ago. Hopefully their build quality has improved since then.

Strengths: Numatics offers a large variety of automation and air actuated products.

Needs to improve: Build quality is sub standard in some cases.

We contacted Royal Master early on in our project. We had been purchasing ground core wires for years from supplier, but were wanting to produce a more complex wire, but keep costs low. Royal Master worked with us from the start and built our first grinder based on what we were trying to accomplish. They would provide regular updates during it's construction and sent an engineer to our facility once it had been delivered to help us install and train our engineers on how to use those grinders.

There are 3 parts to these grinders. The actual grinder, which has not changed much in the last 50 or 60 years, the wire handling system and the software. The grinder itself is amazingly consistent and requires little in terms of maintenance. The wire handling system is exactly the opposite, they are inconsistent are sort of hit or miss and required return visits from R.M. on several occasions so that they could modify and redesign it at our facility. Then there's the software. Tons of bugs that we discovered along the way.

To RM's credit, they would do their best to resolve our issues, and since these grinders were under warranty, no sweat. Their engineers are awesome and the sales engineers were quick to coordinate the repairs.

Overall we've been pleased and in the end we're saving tons of money by producing our own wires in lieu of having them OEMd'.

Strengths: Royal Master Grinders produce wire grinding equipment for the medical device industry. Their grinders are extremely robust and specialized for producing wires with all sorts of complex features while holding tight tolerances.

Needs to improve: Consistency... It seems that every single machine they produce is a little different than the last one they produce. The company I work for has purchased several grinders from Royal Master and none of them are the same as the last. This can cause issues down the line if you're trying to qualify and validate your system.

Watlow builds a great heater that is robust, accurate and easy to control. They're offer a huge variety of heaters in different sizes, intensity and configurations but in the event that they don't produce a heater that is suitable for your application, you can call their technical support team and have a custom heater built to order.

On several occasions throughout the years, I've called up Watlow and have given them a brief description of my application, they've always been able to helps me size a heater that would work on my fixtures. Ordering from them is easy and they typically deliver promptly.

Strengths: Watlow deisgns and manufactures electric heaters, temperature controllers and sensors. Their heaters in particular are well designed and last for many years. You can contact their technical support team and they can guide you through the part selection to ensure that your design is using the proper heating element for your machine/tool.

Needs to improve: Their temperature controllers are a little confusing to configure.

I've used De-Sta-Co's manual clamps for use on production fixtures and holders my entire career. The clamps are simple and crude but effective. On a couple of occasions I've tried using their Robohand line and found those holders to be less precise than their competitors, yet more expensive.

De_Sta-Co excels when it sticks to it's core competency, but their attempts to move into the automation world has been lackluster in my opinion. If you're looking for a simply manually driven clamp, De-Sta-Co is a great place for this. If you're looking to integrate a gripper or holder into your automated process, I'd say look elsewhere.

Strengths: De-Sta-Co builds industrial grade clamps and holders for production fixtures and tools that come in a wide variety of sizes and materials.

Needs to improve: De-Sta-Co's bread and butter are manual style clamps. I find that their auto-clamps tend to be less precise and more expensive than their competitors.

Grainger was my "go to" supplier of industrial parts and tools for years. I only switched to McMaster-Carr after the rise of the internet. Grainger still makes for a suitable backup source for these products. The price and selection are only second to McMaster-Carr and they ship and deliver just as quick. Their catalog is organized in an easy to follow way and if you have a local Grainger store in your city, it's always nice to have a place you can run out to and pick something up in a pinch.

Strengths: Huge catalog of industrial parts and components. Quick shipping and delivery.

Needs to improve: McMaster-Carr still has Grainger beat in terms of price and selection, but Grainger still makes for a great alternative.

Overall I've always been pleased with Panavise products. Their build quality is good and they seem to be the only company that produces holders that were designed to hold components for assembly and soldering. With this in mind, I would love it, if Panavise would expand their line to include a precision line of vises that would allow for small incremental movement of parts you're holding. I've been using Panavise holders for 2 decades at this point, and there doesn't seem to be much in terms of innovation or evolution from these guys.

Strengths: Panavise Products produces vises that are meant to be used to hold parts and/or components during assembly. These vises serve a niche in R&D in being a semi-precise vise that's capable of holding circuit boards, connectors and other electronic components for either soldering or when an extra set of hands are required but not available.

Needs to improve: Although Panavise serves a niche in the market, I find that they lack a "prescision" line of holders/vises that allow the user to make small incremental positioning changes. Adjustments are typically pretty coarse so setup can still be somewhat difficult even with one of these quality vises.

I worked on a project with Heraeus where they were the manufacturers of a ground wire with several complex features and tight tolerances. Their team worked closely with our team during development and I credit them with resolving some key issues that we had with our design. The Heraeus team was able to accomplish what several other similar companies could not. The quality of their work is exceptional. They always worked with sense of urgency, giving us realistic timelines and always delivering on time.

It was a pleasure to work with these good folks. Everyone from their engineering team to their business development team seemed to be in tuned with what needed to be done. I would definitely do business with Heraeus again.

Strengths: Heraeus manufactures OEM components and devices for the medical device industry. They excel in core wire grinding, coil winding and guide wire assembly/manufacturing.

Needs to improve: There are some limitations to what Heraeus is willing to do. They seem to be less interested in producing complete packaged products. They understand what their core competencies are and wish to focus on those core competencies instead.

I've used Hydromer Inc's coatings for 6+ years. Originally, we'd ship our products to hydromer and have them coat them at their facility. The results were mixed. Although the quality of their coatings are great, it seems their coating methods and fixtures are sort of crude. Our products would routinely be damaged during these transfers. After a couple of experiments we realized that our products were being damaged as part of the coating process. Hydromer was extremely helpful while we investigated the cause of the issues we were having and they were even willing to listen to us and see how they could improve their own processes to prevent this type of damage from occurring.

Eventually we decided to develop our own coating process and use Hydromer's coating solutions which turned out to be great. We still do business with Hydromer, I still consider them to be a good company, just beware of what you're asking them to do for your company.

Strengths: Hydromer produces quality coatings for catheter/balloons that are effective and cost effective.

Needs to improve: Fixturing and tooling setups used at hydromer can be crude. If contracting hydromer to physically coat your product be sure to perform inspections before and after to very your product isn't being damaged during coating.

I spent a few years working on a project where Accellent was the source of the main sub assembly. During development, Accellent demonstrated a lot of flexibility and was able to help us develop our component by using their expertise in the field. They displayed a sense of urgency and we worked well with them throughout the development of the project.

Unfortunately, once we were done with development, and the project shifted towards manufacturing, there was a change. The urgency was gone and quality/yields suffered. I spent a lot of time "proving" that the issues we were experiencing were indeed a result of the sub assembly they were providing. In the end the experience left me somewhat sour on Accellent and has made me apprehensive about continuing any sort of relationship with them in the future.

Strengths: Experts on Dip Coated PTFE, braiding and catheter sub assemblies.

Needs to improve: Quality and yields are somewhat lackluster.

Mitutoyo instruments are some of the most common tools I've been exposed to in my 20 plus years working. I have ALWAYS owned a mitutoyo micrometer and caliper set. My personal set is at least 15 years old and has always delivered accurate measurements and have been maintenance free throughout their lifetime. In the design of machines throughout the years, I've always chosen Mitutoyo micrometer heads and scales in my machines because I trust their reliability. Although they're priced on the high side, they tend to pay themselves off with years upon years of trouble free service.

Strengths: Mitutoyo is an industrial manufacturer of industrial measurement and metrology products. Mitutoyo has one of the largest catalogs of measuring devices as they supply everything from go/no go gages to high prescision tool maker's microscopes. Their instruments are as rugged and robust as well as well they are accurate. Rest assured if you're looking for a long lasting precise measuring instrument, Mitutoyo has got you covered.

Needs to improve: As common as they are, Mitutoyo tends to side with the more expensive measuring devices. If your project budget is tight there are cheaper alternatives for sure.

Over the last 15 years I've personally purchased a couple of testers from MSI and have come across their equipment with 3 separate companies. The equipment is well built but some of their design choices are questionable. Example: In one case we purchased a large machine that included a large water bath, The water bath needs to be regulary cleaned with Isopropyl alcohol but was built from poly carbonate. In another case the machine came with a 1 lb weight that was supposed to be used to calibrate a .5 lb load cell.

I realize these are "mistakes" that should be considered oversights, but when you pay a quarter million dollars for a piece of equipment, you expect these issues to be worked out.

Strengths: Machines Solutions designs and builds highly specialized process equipment and testers for use in the Medical Device Industry. Crimpers, laminaters, and several testers.

Needs to improve: There are two issues that I've had with MSI equipment in the past. 1. They are insanely priced for what you get. 2. Some of their design decisions affect machine performance and reliability.

I used SKB for a project where I had to build several kits for a marketing team to promote a product launch in hospitals world wide. The cases I had built were a custom size, I provided a sketch of a multi-tiered insert that would hold an anatomical model, cameras, a display along with a couple of bags of a liquid solution. The cases I received were exactly as I had ordered and fit my parts exactly the way I envisioned. The kits built were received well by marketing and provided them with the tools they needed for a major product launch. Since then we've reused the cases for similar projects and in one case we actually ordered a new insert for an old case from SKB which wasn't a problem.

Strengths: SKB cases is considered an industry leader in the design and manufacture of custom polymer transport cases. They can assist you in designing your custom case any size or shape with inserts to fit your custom parts. The cases are rugged enough for travel but look good enough that you can use them as part of your presentation.

Needs to improve: Depending on the type of case you are seeking, these cases can be extremely costly. Delivery times can also be a bottleneck.

Over the years I've purchased a couple of power supplies, multimeters and an oscilloscope from BK Precision. I was pleasantly surprised at the high quality products I received. Most of these items were purchased for specific projects, but I do have a 10 year old power supply that sits on my desk that I bought from BK that continues to deliver a stable source of power on a daily basis for bench top troubleshooting purposes. I can't say I've ever had any issues with any of the products I've purchased from them.

Strengths: BK Precision offers an expansive line of test and measurment solutions for industrial operations and research activities. They produce everything from signal generators, power supplies, oscilliscopes and multimeters at affordable prices.

Needs to improve: BK Precision does not have the name recognition that some of their bigger competitors have. That being the case, their products aren't as easy to come by as some of the others, so it might prove difficult to source one of their controllers.

I used Comcast for internet and telephone service for a few years because of some great promotions they had that were catered towards a small business. Over the 2 years with that service, I had 5 or 6 service interruptions that would last several days and in one case lasted several weeks. Although Comcast was apoogetic, they lacked the sense of urgency to correct my issue and their repairs (typically taken care of by a contractor) were more temporary fixes than permanent.

As soon as my contract was up, I promptly switched providers and haven't looked back since.

Strengths: Comcast provides a variety of business solutions for telephone and internet access that are affordable.

Needs to improve: Comcast's service can be unreliable and their customer service lacks the small business sensitivity that your small business needs.

I've used Zebra printers to print labels for more than 15 years in the medical device industry. Their printers are robust, easy to program and produce high quality printed labels. These printers are expensive but can provide years of service.

Strengths: Zebra Tehcnologies supplies commercial printing equipment and supplies for packaging labels. Their equipment is robust and specialized for industrial use. Their prescence in this niche space is their strongest advantage.

Needs to improve: Being specialized equipment, service can be expensive and/or difficult to schedule. It's not that their equipment requires lots of service but if you can plan ahead you'll save yourself the headache.

I've sent samples on a couple of occasions to Harland for coating. They do a great job. The samples I got back were in excellent shape and the coating was highly effective. Besides that I demoed a friction tester that was actually very good, but ridiculously expensive, so we chose to go in another direction. Overall, what's prevented me from working with Harland more often has always been the price factor.

Strengths: Harland develops hydrophilic coatings for tube-like products as well as friction testers to test those coatings..This is a specialized space with only a handful of companies that can perform this type of work.

Needs to improve: Harland tends to be prohibitevely expensive which can prevent your project from using their products and services.

I've only started using Automation Direct in the last 6 years as I started working for a smaller company that had tighter budgets. Even though I no longer work for a smaller company, I find myself continuing to use Automation Direct not because of their affordability, but because of their simple yet robust controllers that I've come to trust. In some cases, I've ordered products from Automation Direct in a pinch and they delivered my order overnight. You'd be hard pressed to have Omron, Allen Bradley or Parker provide service that quickly.

Strengths: Automation Direct carries a wide line of PLCs, machine controls and interfaces. Affordability and selection are their key strengths. They offer this affordability and selection while still offering robust and quality built products.

Needs to improve: Automation Direct mostly sells in-house products that aren't considered premium mainstream products. If you're looking for an Allen Bradley or Parker controller, Automation Direct won't carry them.

I've used Dynatek testers for 20 years in development of both cardiovascular and peripheral stents. Their testers are considred the industry standard, are reliable and can be trusted to tackle your fatigue and coating durability needs.

Strengths: Dynatek Labs produces highly specialized fatigue and coating durability testers that can be utilized to test coronary, peripheral and neurovascular stents. Besides producing and selling these tester you can contract Dynatek to test your products for your project, delivering a report that you can attach to your regulatory submissions.

Needs to improve: Dynatek's equipment is standardized and requests for customization are normally not obliged.