Episode #163 - Worth Hearing

Transcript

Fully Threaded Radio Podcast – FCH Sourcing Networt

Topic: Episode # 163 – Worth Hearing

Date: April 15, 2021

Hosts: Eric Dudas

Brian Musker

Duration: 2:30:08 Minutes

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Intro: It's Fully Threaded Radio, Episode 163.

And we're asked to be the main sponsor of the event, which we were planning it and everything was going really well. We're excited to be a part of it. And then, 60 pigs had to die.

I happened to be the owner of a giant meat smoker that could probably smoke about 100 bracks of ribs at one time.

We wanted to create something that would give easy access to cert packages and would give an ease of flow of information. And then we wanted to build something at least to start with, that was a checkerboard on acid.

It's time for Fully Threaded Radio.

Eric: It is fully threaded radio voice of the FCH sourcing network. If you buy, sell, manufacture, import, try to import or have anything to do with industrial fasteners. This is the podcast for you. So glad you clicked in everybody Eric Dudas is here with you. And the co-host of Fully Threaded Radio is with me as well. He's the inventor of the industry renowned Scrubber Software and lifetime honorary Texan, Brian Musker. Bri.

Brian: How're you doing? I use my good takes on accent. Okay.

Eric: As you always do. I'm doing fine. It's a beautiful day here in semi-rural Northeast, Ohio. Mario chemtrail cloud in the sky here and feeling pretty good.

Brian: Good. Okay. The fact is you're going to see more chemtrails as airline travel starts going up again a bit.

Eric: Yeah, I guess that would be true. Well, I didn't mean to start the podcast off on that note at all, but there you have it right out there big one laying right there for us to avoid and that we will.

Brian: Oh, well, that's good to hear.

Eric: So, let's dig right in and let's dig into this Episode 163 of Fully Threaded Radio, we're publishing on April 15th, 2021. Funny how that date doesn't really seem to have the same ominous connotations as it does most years. Isn't it, Bri.? I just thought of that, Tax Day.

Brian: Yeah. Tax Day all big muddle at the moment.

Eric: Because the return date has been pushed back. Although if you're a periodic filer, you still owe the money of course, but hey, we're not a couple of CPAs here, so don't take our advice on anything. Let's stick to something that we pretend to know a little bit about and that's fasteners.

And on this episode of the podcast, we've got a lot worth hearing, especially during our lead off segment. We've got technical instructor, Randy Lammers and applications engineer, Aaron Keevan, with Würth joining us. They're going to tell us all about Würth knowing, which is a new webcast that hit YouTube recently. They're on their fifth or sixth installment of that series as we recorded this.

And if you haven't seen it yet, I think you're going to want to get out there after you hear this conversation. If you have seen it, I tried to answer a few of the questions that I had when I was watching it, getting a little bit behind the scenes and so forth. What did you think of the first couple episodes, Bri?

Brian: Well, I thought they were pretty good actually. We know it takes a lot of work to actually think your way through making these things.

Eric: Exactly. And we get into a little bit of that during the conversation today. Lot more behind the scenes than you might imagine if you've never been involved in something like that. On the other hand, people in the industry know that to do anything well, it takes a lot of effort. And that is clearly what has gone into this new webcast Würth Knowing.

On today's feature segment, we introduce a platform called SmartCert, and this was brought to our attention by Carmen Vertullo of AIM Test Lab fame. Among other things, Fastener Training Minute, Lyndon Lattie is the founder of SmartCert and he'll join Carmen as well as Matt Boyd of Parker Fasteners for a conversation that covers all the details you'll need to know.

And I think you'll get as excited about this potentially as Carmen Vertullo did, when he brought it to our attention. Plus Bri., You had to sit this one out, but we did cover the world of barbecue before we ramped up into the SmartCert part. So, I really wish you could have been there because I know you're a big fan.

Brian: I love barbecue. Okay. It's just as well I wasn't because the whole conversation would have been about that.

Eric: It almost did go off the rails. Fortunately, Carmen was really the facilitator of this conversation and he got me out of the way post haste and SmartCert is definitely something that you'll want to be aware of. If you're running any kind of a fastener organization in the modern era also today, warming us up for the fastener news report, Christian Reich of Goebel Fasteners drops in. Goebel has gotten a new Lockbolt system. He'll tell us all about that.

Brian: Stainless steel, my guess.

Eric: It sounds like Goebel's got a winner with this one. On the Fastener News Report today, Frank "Balboa" DeVito joins Mike McNulty. And he's absolutely bullish about fastener industry prospects for the balance of 2021. And if you've heard Frank on the podcast before you absolutely know what I mean.

On the other hand, Mike McNulty sounds very fed up with pro sports and most CEOs of large public traded companies. He unloads on the Back Page Report today. McNulty fans, love it. Mike also has a roundup of industry headlines for you. And it's a double dip of Carmen Vertullo on the episode today, folks, because on the Fastener Training Minute Carm tackles reduced load ability and hydrogen embrittlement.

Brian: Wow. One of your favorite subjects, how did you talk hm into that again?

Eric: Yes. Always lurking, always a danger. There’re actually several references to hydrogen embrittlement on today's episode. So, fans of that particular topic will not be disappointed. I don't think anybody's going to be disappointed, Bri., as I said, there's a lot worth hearing on today's episode and I think it'll also be worth hearing our fine lineup of sponsors. That's where you come in.

Brian: Oh, you're right. It's worth knowing about our great sponsors. The title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio are Stelfast, Brighton-Best International and Goebel Fasteners. Stelfast, 'For Service You Deserve and People You Trust.' Brighton-Best International, 'Tested, Tried and True.' Goebel Fasteners, 'Quality The First Time.

Also sponsoring Fully Threaded Radio, Buckeye Fasteners, BTM manufacturing, Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, INxSQL Software. ND Industries, Parker Fasteners, 3Q Inc, Volt Industrial Plastics, Würth Industry North America and Solutions Industries, 'Home of Solution Man.' So, thank you to all our great sponsors and friends. Couldn't do the show without you. And if you are a listener and you are looking for fasteners think of our sponsors first, because they make the show possible.

Eric: It was worth hearing. And we'd like to hear from you get with us any time. The email address is ftr@fullythreaded.com. We also bang around LinkedIn. We both get profiles out there, find us that way as well.

Well, Bri., We've got a lot to cover on the episode today and we'll get right to it. But I wanted to mention quickly that I received the new source guide from the American Fastener Journal. Finally dug through this pile of mail on the desk over here and it was in there and I'm glad I did real nice-looking book. Congratulations, Tom. This is a great resource.

We don't talk about this too frequently, but this is nearly a hundred pages comprehensive listing of all the companies you really are probably going to need to know about in the industry folks and the American Fastener Journal source guide 2021 now available. It should be on your desk. If you do any kind of sourcing or selling, really for that matter, open up the cover. Boom right there, Volt Industrial Plastics got all of that.

And there was another ad that struck my fancy as well as they tend to do, Bri., because it's good to see our sponsors well-represented out there in the wider fastener media.

Brian: Our sponsors are the best ones around why should they not be represented pretty well?

Eric: There you have it.

Brian: We're a bit passed, but still.

Eric: Case in point, ND Industries. Now, when you think ND, you think the highest temperature pre-applied nylon thread locker in the industry, of course, but did you know that ND is an approved 3M applicator?

Brian: Nope.

Eric: That's further proof. Why ND should be your one-stop shop for pre-applied fasteners, ND Industries. Of course, Brighton's got the center spread on this one, Bri., loud and proud their Proferred and Ironclad lines. Lots more in this issue too. And there's lots more Fully Threaded Radio to come everybody. Thank you once again for clicking in and we'll be back right after these messages, which are also very worth hearing. It's Fully Threaded--

Brian: Radio.

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Stelfast customers say it all. My name's Chris Jones, I'm the operations manager at Sunpack Incorporated in Florida. We certainly rely on Stelfast as one of our prime vendors. We view them more as a partner than just a vendor and that relationship just seems to build and build year after year, we do a little bit more business and have a very open line of communication. They've been a great partner. They've been good to us. So yeah, we're very happy. For service you deserve and people you trust. It's Stelfast.

This is London with Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, your first choice for hard-to-find metric fasteners. You're listening to Fully Threaded Radio.

Eric: Brian and Eric. You're online brothers in thread back with you. Hey Bri, we've got the FDI results coming up shortly with Mike McNulty and Frank "Balboa" DeVito. What I wanted to point out that we had a very strong response from FDI respondents in March. Well, it's at the end of March, beginning of April was the March numbers is what we were looking for and wanted to thank all of the participants.

Because at that time it was really kind of a slow time in general, we had the Easter break and a lot of people were on various forms of spring break, vacations and so forth. And there was definitely a lull in activity, but FDI respondents came through. Good solid turnout.

Brian: Good. Yes. And Bob Baer made up as usual graphs for me of the results. Very good. Thank you.

Eric: Thank you for doing that. GQ. If you're a North American fastener distributor and you don't yet participate in the fastener distributor index, we could use your help too. It takes just a few minutes each month. Get out to fdisurvey.com. The way we do this is there's only one person from each company, each eligible company who can do the survey.

It's not like we have a lot of redundant data in there, at least in theory. And I don't think we do, but that means that all recipients input is really highly valued. So again, fdisurvey.com. You can sign yourself up, we'll shoot you an email each month and you can hop in there with your input. We added a couple of supplemental questions this time around Bri.

I wanted to look at those now, Frank and Mike will talk about these as well. I don't think I'm giving anything away, but because they are so timely, I thought I'd just bring it out here before we get to Randy and Aaron from Würth Knowing. The first supplemental question was directly related to a lot of this chaos with the supply chain and material pricing.

And it was simply this, are you seeing higher material pricing from suppliers? So, respondents had a slew of options, but only two came back. 66% said they're seeing moderate increases and 34% large increases not a big surprise there.

Brian: In times of uncertainty. Remember that survey was taken at the time when that bloody great big container ship just got stuck sideways in the Suez Canal, which would have affected everyone's shipping up in Europe too.

Eric: When it rains, it pours. The second question had to do with something we've been hearing about. And then Charlie Kerr mentioned during Episode 162 about scrap pricing. And that of course can be used as a general barometer of materials. But we asked on the supplemental question, are you trying to move your surplus in view of rising scrap prices?

Obviously, when we first started out in this business, Bri. The website, fastenersclearinghouse.com, there's a lot of surplus involved. There still is today, but there's a lot of AI items out there, it runs the gambit, but we still have a lot of folks who use the network to list their slower moving stuff.

Brian: Yes. It used to be. That was the only thing they listed, actually.

Eric: That quickly changed. Anyhow, we can talk about FCH Sourcing Network for hours, which I guess we do. But back to the question, I was really surprised by this Bri, because with the rise in scrap material prices, I would have expected more companies to be aggressively pursuing sales. But as it turns out, 62% have no change at all in their attitude towards that particular issue.

And only 7% said, they're actively looking to sell theirs. Oh, 14% said they've actually sold some since the spike in scrap. And then there's this other weird category, Bri which I don't even know who these people are. 17% claim they don't have any surplus.

Brian: Well, there's always a group actually. And has been from day one. Everyone else has. How can that be?

Eric: They're like the guys during the conversation today with Mike and Frank that during the March survey actually answered that they had a decrease in sales. I'll tell you, every month has a few outliers, but this time real head scratcher. It was across the board, thumbs up, thumbs up, thumbs up. So, you really, wonder.

Well, that's the nature of surveys. That's the nature of business. There's always somebody out there who's having a tough time. Again, thanks to everyone who participated in the fastener distributor index this month.

Brian: Right. And if you just know that we always need more people to participate because the wider, the participation, the better, the results really statistically are. So, it's always a constant drive to get more people to participate in this. It doesn't really take that long. It's only once a month. And, there are a lot of people, fortunately have been very, very, very good at following us and contributing for years. So, join them.

Eric: Eric. There's a core group out there that are solid and a bunch of others come and go too. It's a good cross section. And if you've been listening to this podcast and using FCH Sourcing Network off and on over the years, there's never been a better time to jump in there too. If you go to fastenersclearinghouse.com, click the join link, you'll see that there's a new level of membership.

And this is perfect for those guys who just have, Oh, say 50, 100, maybe 200 lines that are taking up space on the shelf, getting dusty. And you want to get involved with FCH, but you didn't want to get involved on the full member basis. That was pretty much all we offered previously. Now you can get in at the directory level.

So, for under $100 for the year lists that handful of items, plus get a listing in our new and growing directory, which is a relatively new initiative for FCH. Should make a lot of people I think Bri, who have been hesitant over the years, hop right in.

Brian: Really had a great answer for companies that just had a few items. Our main drivers, are really companies that are 5,000 plus lines, they want to list and some very substantially more than that, but we never scaled it down that well to someone who only wanted really to list 50 lines or 100 lines. But now, we can do that pretty well and you get a really good listing in our directory as well.

Eric: Bri, is right. Looking forward to seeing out there everybody fastenersclearinghouse.com. Thank you again for listening. Everyone. We're going to get now to this segment, introducing you to Würth Knowing. Würth Industry North America has a new webcast that was launched recently, Randy Lammers and Aaron Keevan are the hosts of that podcast or is it a webcast? Guys, you're here now to explain all that to us. Good job on this. I've seen the first couple episodes. It's great to have you with us.

Randy: Thank you very much. It's our pleasure.

Aaron: Yeah, I appreciate that, Eric. Thanks for having us on.

Eric: Well, Randy and Aaron, I think our listeners who have seen the first couple episodes of Würth Knowing are extremely impressed and those who haven't yet are going to get out there and watch it. But let's fill everybody in. We've got a new webcast, it's educational, informational, and sometimes a little comedic. You're going to explain all that. Randy, why don't you get us launched off what's Würth knowing all about?

Randy: The intent is, is to educate and it all started back in, 2012 when, Würth asked me to put together what we call the Fastener Academy. And that was strictly education. And the idea was to get with our customers engineering teams and teach them. We kept answering on a regular basis, our own fastener assembly. Being part of the Würth engineering team we're out there in front of the customers, engineering departments only our assembly lines. And we keep getting asked the same questions over and over and over and keep teaching that.

So, the company said let's put together a training program and launch that. I'll be honest with you when I first heard about it, I thought, wow, what are you smoking? There's no way you can get an engineer's, time to go sit in a fastener distributors conference room for a day and learn about nuts, bolts and screws. How boring can that be?

Eric: We've heard that.

Randy: So, to my surprise, was I ever wrong, not only did they come, but we started turning people away. And so that has been extremely, extremely successful and well sought after. And so, during the COVID shut down, we kind of went, what can we do next? And, as you see on the show, I built a new workshop this past year. And about the time I was having the thought about, wow, could I do the fastener Academy virtually from the workshop? Our marketing team was having the idea of, can we film a show? And as we got together, then lo and behold, here we are.

So, we're now filming a show. It's all about education. We're certainly starting off with the, primary classes that were highly requested on the Fastener Academy, put them in a 20-minute format. And, we're very excited about it. We have a lot to teach and it's all about education and hope they were entertained enough to stay engaged.

Eric: Well, great job with it. Again, this is a new webcast and it's available on YouTube. I don't know if you're broadcasting out through other channels. Do you know that at this point, or right now is YouTube really the main platform for it?

Aaron: YouTube is going to be the main platform for it, Eric. I do know that our marketing folks have put a little bit on LinkedIn. So, you may be able to view some of that from there. The primary target audience for this whole series is going to be, folks that are in manufacturing, engineering, engineering in general. But I think watching the show, I think a lot of people can pick up from what we're actually teaching. It's not just geared towards engineering. My kids have watched it and picked up stuff. It's pretty awesome to see them actually understand some technical content, makes a lot of fun.

Eric: I think that's one of the reasons that the show is a success. And again, as you said, it's a very, very high-end production. I told you guys before we turned on the recorder, it's something that could appear on HDTV. That's how well done it is. And I'd like to understand some of the technical aspects of this. Of course, that's the way my mind works, but we'll get to that in a second.

Aaron and Randy, you're both, obviously from down South, Texas way, the show has that feel to it. And you're actually physically located what you said about an hour and a half apart, which is really right around the corner in Texas. Right?

Randy: Sure. It's just, put the family in the car and jump up and come up for a day. That's not far.

Eric: That's really your workshop. Isn't it?

Aaron: We measure things by hours here, not by miles.

Eric: Right, right.

Randy: I was going to say you asked about that actually, that actually is my workshop. It's just down from the house. And, it was built strictly to be my hobby workshop. That's exactly correct.

Eric: Did you ever imagine that it was going to be the set off?

Randy: Not at all. Not at all. Let me explain. We've had this one come up a couple of times, let me just back up and say, Würth is a family business. Yes, we're a large company, but we are a family business and the Würth family, makes it feel that way. And throughout our entire organization, you have that feel of this is something personal all of our employees take it that way. It's something personal.

And so, when we got ready to do this, the personal aspect of this being in my workshop, and then, you'll notice in the opening, you'll see, Audrey/Papa and then the date. And that's my granddaughter, Audrey, nine years old that helped me build, the first work bench.

And the reason why is she has analytical skills that are off the walls. And so, her and I buy these, makers kits and we put these makers kits together. And when they brought the building out to erect it, it was like a big erector set that came out and was plopped down on the land. And I sent her a picture and I said, Audrey, you got to come help me put this kit together.

And she actually thought she could come help me build this building. And so, what I had to explain her, no, Audrey, I'm just teasing. You have to have the right equipment, the right skillset. Then she goes, well, Papa, "Can I at least help you build your work bench?" And I said, "Of course, absolutely." That just made my heart melt.

Eric: I bet.

Randy: And so, she helped me build the first workbench. And so those work benches that are on the set, we built those ourselves. Audrey helped build the very first one. And that's why we have Audrey on that plaque. So, it's a very personal thing.

Eric: It's a sweet story.

Randy: Yeah. And it's a lot of fun.

Eric: I was really wondering, and I could tell that Skidmore Wilhelm bolt tension calibrator was not just a prop. I mean that thing's got a few hours on it. Good job with that. I know Carmen Vertullo was very happy when he saw that guys.

Randy: Well, he should be, though, there's a lot of miles on that and it's a good way of showing torque and load. It works very, very well. You're going to see it in future episodes.

Aaron: Yeah. And Randy and I spent quite a few hours, prepping for definitely the first two episodes going through and truly testing, we did our best to mirror what we were finding as far as results in the show that you'll see as you view it. Those are what we basically came up with as we were testing and prepping during those hours of work beforehand.

It's great that we were able to utilize some of that equipment in order to do that. And I know that we have, couple of places around America where we actually do that sort of testing in-house too. So, it just, lined up perfectly. It made it easy. It's so visual, really keeps you engaged too. This is exactly what I would expect to see. So, it was great.

Eric: It looks natural and that is one of the things that makes it look so good. Now, were you also Aaron, involved in that training program with Würth? Is that how you got into this or what's your story there?

Aaron: So, Randy and I had known each other, not really known each other. We've known about each other before we actually knew each other. I worked for a competitor, and he worked for Würth. I've been giving technical training, for quite a number of years. And when I came to Würth, I finally got a chance to meet Randy and it helped develop this Fastener Academy. So, I have jumped on board with that. In a sense you can say I've been given the tap on the shoulder.

It's, "Hey son, it's your turn." I think in the future, Randy does not take retirement. He, stays semi-retired at all times, he's still doing Fastener Academy. It's really great actually. I've been doing some of these digitally now in the past year, direct customer interaction. And I've been moderating for him and I've given a few of my own in the past.

So yes. Training has been a huge aspect and as my whole career and, I have that same passion for it. The same as Randy. I really like to see people get those aha moments. I really want them to understand the concepts. I think when you speak a common language together, it makes our jobs so much easier, so much easier.

Eric: So, when the decision was made to launch Würth Knowing. What? Did you just get a call one day and said, hey, we've got an assignment for you report over to the workshop, or how did that happen?

Randy: Well, the marketing team knew already that Aaron and I were working together, on the Fastener Academy. So, they already knew that Aaron, was someone that I enjoyed working with, we already had a great relationship going.

When they asked for the conference call to talk about this, Aaron was absolutely invited on that call immediately. So, the thought of him being included in this was right up front. So, it works very well, logistically it works well. And, the fact we were already working together on training.

Aaron: And I would add too. I think a lot of the dialogue that you see us have in the show, that's truly natural. We do outline things; I think that's important. You have to be able to hit some high points, but most of the time, it's just this natural dialogue, this back and forth that happens between us. Randy and I speak on a pretty, pretty regular basis and our conversations mirror a lot of what you see on the show.

So, I think marketing and our team there have knowing and watching us interact with each other, it just seems like a good fit. It is. It really has been so far.

Eric: So how long has it taken you to produce the first few episodes? I know this will probably change over time, but these first few, how much time did you put into those?

Randy: The first episode---.

Aaron: --four days.

Randy: I want to say the first two were tough. That was a learning period. We actually had to go back and redo a little bit on the second episode, the day we filmed the third episode. But it was a learning curve. There's no question about that. Many takes, do overs, trying to understand how you can start and stop. And there was a lot to it. It's amazing how much goes into it. And, my compliments to the production team

Aaron: And they're full eight-hour days. We start at typically around nine o'clock in the morning. Everyone has to travel in. Most of the time, the video production crew that we use is out of Houston and myself have to travel in.

Eric: That's where those Würth Corporate Jets come in handy. I'm sure you've taken full advantage.

Aaron: Sure thing.

Eric: Dan just flies those down for you.

Randy: I haven't seen one of those yet.

Eric: I noticed there's a lot of hand shots in your show also, guys. Is there a budget for manicurist?

Aaron: We talked about that, getting us prep. They laugh at me every time I show up to shoot day because I come in with a fresh haircut. I feel like I have to look the part. I have to stay consistent with the look. So, I make sure I shaved and got it real clean and high and tight up there.

Randy: Hey, I cut this hair on top. I cut that one or two hairs I've got on top. I always trim those off.

Eric: Especially when you're doing video, you're going to have to pay attention to those kinds of details. Don't change the conditioner you're using, in other words Randy. I have to admit that you both pull off the black shirt look very well. Not everyone can do that, but you guys can do at Texas, I guess it's all Texas.

Randy: There you go. It's all about Texas.

Eric: Well, let's talk about the episode topics. How do you decide on those? What do you have planned for the future? What are you looking to achieve as Worth Knowing unfolds? I'm sure it'll evolve, but what are you thinking now?

Randy: Absolutely. Torque tension was, is by far the most requested subject, in the fastener industry. And I tell people this all the time that, Würth has, where are we sitting around 74,000 employees globally. And I'll guarantee you, there's not a day that goes by that one of our employees is not getting a phone call saying, "Hey, I bought this fastener from you. What torque should I use?"

And we've had to spend a lot of time teaching our employees the answer to that question. And of course, it's, let me have my engineer contact your engineer. Well, someone who asked that question certainly doesn't understand what torque is. Because that was the number one subject, we led off with that. And then from there we had the other subjects that are also prevalent. And that of course is the low-hanging fruit for cost- savings is thread rolling screws.

Of course, we're about to launch, this coming week. The trailer went out this week, screws for plastic assemblies. And then, we just go on from there. What we see on assembly lines on a regular basis is certainly the subjects we want to cover and how we can help engineers, drive efficiencies, reduce cost to improve product integrity. That's what we're trying to accomplish here.

Fastener finishes is the other big, big topic. The fastener industry basically has been turned upside down. I will say this when I started in the fastener industry in 1974, yes, 1974. I caught the tail-end coming into the industry of the change over from cadmium to zinc. I remember when I started, we had a lot of customers that would, had cadmium specked and they'd call in and say, we want cadmium, and we'd have to go through the whole explanation that we no longer have cadmium. We have now zinc.

So, it's kind of interesting. I started my career with the industry turned upside down due to a fastener finish, and it looks like I'm going to finish my career that way. So, fastener finishes are a big issue. So, Aaron and I are working right now to put programs together, to cover the full, fastener finished issue. So that's a big one. That's going to be coming out that everyone needs to pay a lot of attention to. I work with all of the major companies to put a fastener Academy class together on this subject. It was approved by all of them.

I've been told it's probably the best compilation knowledge on fastener finishes across the board that's ever been put together. I've been told that many, many times. So, we're going to accomplish the same thing with the show and all that. And then we have many other subjects that we're going to encompass. We're going to include, other operations of the Würth group, into the show as well. So, we'll get into, their products.

Aaron: So that starts next week, right Randy?

Randy: It does. It does. We're going to bring in a 3D Printer. So that's exciting. So new technologies.

Eric: That's a huge initiative for WINA. I know a lot of people are looking forward to that and I'm just kind of biting my tongue guys, but I know you've got something big plan on the topic of hydrogen embrittlement.

Randy: Yes. Eric, I'm glad you brought that up.

Eric: Of course. That's my duty.

Randy: That is one that, is very personal to me. Aaron can attest to that. We've already filmed that episode so that episode will be coming up, that's episode six. Randy Lammers opinion on that subject. That you're going to hear as well, but it's a very near and dear subject to me, one that I've spent a lot of time on and yeah, that's, coming up in episode six. Hydrogen embrittlement, big issue.

Aaron: I think that one it's not an easy topic. It's never an easy topic to cover, whether it be technical or not, but it's mostly awareness. I think a lot of folks that are in the fastener industry can agree that they still have their customers that don't understand the concept or have never even been introduced to it. So, we're hoping that this at least starts to raise some flags for people.

And the way we put this together, the start of the show is a more serious kind of storyline, if you want to look at it that way, but it's really to put that in the forefront of people's minds, that this issue is a big issue and should be addressed. And raising those flags and putting that up on a format like we have with Würth Knowing puts it in the forefront of people's minds.

Eric: We've been talking about hydrogen embrittlement on the Fully Threaded Podcasts for 10 years. We'll keep doing it. It's good to know that the webcast Würth Knowing is an ally in bringing that message out to the fastener industry. It's great talking to you. We're talking with Randy Lammers and Aaron Keevan there with Würth Industry North America.

And this is something that everybody in the audience I'm sure is going to check out if they haven't already out on YouTube. Guys, as you know, the time flies when we get to talking. And you are great talkers, it's fantastic to see you out there on this show. And I want to let you run, but I also have to know one more thing, please, if you could. Tell me the background of these Uncle Moe's stories, because something tells me we're going to be hearing a lot more about Uncle Moe as we watch Würth Knowing

Aaron: He keeps coming in. He'll be there every episode almost go ahead, Randy.

Randy: The background is I was doing a Fastener Academy at a very large agricultural equipment manufacturer. So, I'm standing up in front of about 60 engineers, doing this. And, I don't know, these things just kind of come in this mind to mine. And I said, you know what? I have an uncle out in west Texas. And I just started telling a story about Moe without even mentioning his name.

And then afterwards, someone said, what's your uncle's name? And I said, well, his name is Moe. M-O-E. Moe? And I went, yeah, yeah. His name is Moe because when he was a little boy, he got his hair cut like Moe on the three Stooges. And like you put a bowl on your head and cut around it. And my mother and his other sisters started, calling him Moe. He's the baby of the family.

And, it stuck and it is stuck all of his life and all of his family and all of his close friends call him Moe. So that's where Moe came from. So, then he said, use his name when you tell the story. So, it just grew from there. And then someone said, what does he look like? And so, I grabbed a picture of him, put a picture of him on a PowerPoint. And so, then when we started to do the show, they said, oh, well, we've got to make a bobble head out of Moe.

He's a character like you wouldn't believe, when they made Moe, they broke the mold. And, he's always got something to say, very opinionated, extremely creative. He's a unique individual. And I have many, many, many stories. The family said, "Randy, why don't you tell some of these other stories?" And I'm like, "Because no one would believe those stories."

I'll tell you this real quick, Eric. I did this. He came to visit, we built our place here in East, Texas. He's out in West Texas. And he came to visit and we're sitting on the back porch one day. And I said, "Moe, I need to tell you about something I started. And I want to make sure you're okay with it."

I said, it kind of came out, "I'm doing this class at a big Ag company. And I told this story." And he goes "Well, I'm all right with that." And he goes, "What else are you telling them?" And I said, "Well, alright, let me walk through about a few stories that I'm telling." And he goes, "I don't care. Tell them whatever you want to tell them." And then my cousin Don sitting there and he goes, "Randy, why don't you start telling them this? Why don't you tell them that?" Nah, I'm okay with this.

So, kind of made Moe somewhat famous, within the industry. And, the family knows this. I will tell you this Moe did pass away August of 2019. And at the funeral, I did speak and told them that, an email was going out all across industry, that he had passed away. Because I get people ask me all the time, "How's your uncle Moe doing?" But I tell you what, I have a treasure chest full of stories that will live forever.

Eric: Well, you've got a great comedic device there, but also an educational tool with Würth Knowing. And I'm sure the West Texas legend Uncle Moe is going to grow from here. And thanks for sharing all that, Randy and Aaron nice to meet you as well. Gentlemen, congratulations on a really great new venture. I'm very excited to watch it go. We'll back off on angling for guest appearance requests for the moment, but I'm sure we'll be speaking again.

Randy: I would like to make one other point, Eric, the intent of the show was strictly educational. We would like for all of the industry of course, to watch and be engaged in the show, but I'm looking for this show to also go academic. And starting to have some conversations with some people in academia, where it could start be utilized in some of the mechanical engineering degree programs.

We're finding too many of the engineers coming out of colleges are not educated, own fastener assembly. And I'm hoping we can get some engagement there to teach people coming right out of college.

Eric: That sounds really smart.

Randy: And with that, I want to say thank you for the opportunity to speak to your audience today. We hope everyone does enjoy the show. We've gotten some good feedback out of it already. If anyone has questions or comments, please feel free to drop that in a comment. We're more than happy to answer those comments. We're here to help you in the fastener industry.

Eric: What's the best way for people to do that, Randy?

Randy: Go ahead and throw the comments, in underneath the show and on YouTube and we will address those.

Eric: Perfect. Randy Lammers, Aaron Keevan, Würth Knowing, check it out.

Aaron: Eric, thanks for having us on, I really appreciate it.

Eric: It's great to have you with us. We will be back in a moment everybody. It's Fully Threaded.

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Kevin: This is Kevin Chavis with Star Stainless Screw and you are listening to Fully Threaded Radio.

Eric: Brian and Eric back with you. We've got Christian Reich with Goebel Fasteners sitting shotgun with us. Hey man.

Christian: Hey, how are you doing guys?

Brian: We're doing great, Maddie

Eric: And good to have you back on.

Christian: Glad to be here.

Eric: It's the new segment, everybody. And we've got Volt Industrial Plastics presenting today as they have been for many years. We're very glad to announce they're signed on for another year. Volt Industrial Plastics. Hey guys, I know everybody's getting the spring fever pitch and now Christian, you're a big skier. We talked about that with you. Last time or one of the times you were on and I don't think you got out this season though, due to everything.

Christian: Last year was a bit of an odd year with everything going on. Not much traveling.

Brian: That's a bit of an understatement. I think if none.

Christian: No, it was definitely different.

Brian: Crappy. It was another way.

Eric: Down in Texas, springtime activities are needless to say ramping up like, digging out from snow. You're getting some exercise that way, aren't you?

Christian: Yeah. It has been a weird winter this year. We did get a few snow and then the ice storm that had us all, looking for infrastructure needs for about a week. We had that big ice storm down here in Houston. Roads were frozen over, the city shut down. A lot of us lost power and water for multiple days, but we came out of that. Okay. And now we're starting to thaw out and get back to springtime here.

Eric: People are starting to think about all kinds of things. Of course, Brian and I are sharpening hooks. We're getting ready to hit the water. Lot of people though are thinking about golf and WFA. Got a note here, Dave announced kind of an informal outing. They're calling it the Screwed up 2021 open.

Brian: I love it.

Eric: It's happening May 19th. You don't have to be an MWFA member. You get up to the Midwest in your various sales, traveling visits Christian?

Christian: Every once in a while, but not too often.

Eric: Okay. This would be a good one for you to hit. This is happening at the White Pines Golf Club. Get out to the MWFA website. If you want to jump in on this sounds like it's going to be some fun and it's a warm-up for the annual MWFA golf outing happening in August. We'll be talking a lot more about that coming up. Have you made it to the golf outing? I know you go to the tabletop show, Christian.

Christian: I have not made it out to the golf outing. Be something to do this year. I know there are multiple events for this year. It's going to be more active with in person events. I know we have some shows later this year and I've seen some social events for the associations and tabletop shows as well. So, we'll try to attend the ones that we're able to make.

Brian: I think the last time I saw you was in Long Beach, that was the last show there was.

Christian: It was early 2020.

Eric: Hopefully all this stuff will come off, I guess we'll see. Won't be long now. Got one other association news item. This one from the North Coast Fastener Association, many people associate May with the famous and legendary Distributors Social. Of course, that was knocked down last year. This year it's happening again, but new location, new time, it's going to be July 8th and it's going to be in Strongsville, Ohio, which isn't too far from independence, Ohio, everybody.

If you came in for that, you don't know the Cleveland area that well, it's not that far away. Strongsville happens to be a hotbed of fastener industry activity though. Brighton-Best is out there. Stelfast and of course, Solution Industries has their amazing new facility. And I've heard word guys that John Riddell and company will be opening the doors for their open house, which is another thing that had to get rescheduled. And now they're sandwiching it in with the Distributor Social July 8th.

Brian: That's cool. Because I haven't been to the new office.

Eric: You have to come in for that, Bri, do some fishing.

Brian: Yeah. I have to see where the moon is.

Eric: Of course, one other big news item. And the reason we ask you to jump on with us here, Christian, is because Goebel Fasteners has got a new lockbolt system. And this is big news for you guys. What's going on over there at Goebel.

Christian: Definitely. It's a new, exciting product line. We've been in R and D for this for quite a while. And we've completed the 3/16ths diameter parts and then we're currently finishing up the 1/4-inch parts as well. And so, what we created and were able to put together is a full stainless steel T304 lockbolt system, with a multi-grip design.

And so that is something that we found that the industry was missing. A more common part is the steel version. Sometimes they'll put a stainless-steel cap on top of it, to make a nice cosmetic finish. It's definitely catered to the truck and trailer industry. I'm sure you'll see on those Peterbilt grills, all those little heads on there, those are the majority lock bolts. Could be the multi-grip design or the classic six groove design where it has a fixed grip range.

We've worked diligently on that and we're able to successfully create a multi-grip design in the full stainless steel, both the pin and the collar to complete a full stainless system. So that's definitely got some advantages in regards to corrosion resistance and then, smaller inventory of parts instead of having multiple parts for different grip ranges for different material thickness applications. Now you can just have one or two parts and that will encompass all those different grip ranges. So, it's good for the OEM manufacturer to speed up the assembly process.

Brian: Wow, well, I'm surprised given how these things are ubiquitous in the trucking industry, really, how come they've never made a stainless steel one before. I'm staggered by that.

Christian: It's very tricky, to get the stainless-steel material to brake, right. So, there are certain requirements when a lockbolt is installed and set, it has to have a certain amount of grooves in the collar and brake flush. If you can't get the pin to brake flush, then it's not an acceptable installation and has to be reset. And so stainless steel in its material composition itself is very ductile material and it's very hard to get it to brake flush and not jagged.

So, we were able to fine tune a different design. It is also a patent design. We have patent pending on the system because we did change the design aspect on it. And we found very special material, sort of stainless steel to use in the production process. And we were able to successfully get it to brake flush most of the time.

Brian: So, I would think this would be pretty attractive for the people because mainly there's a lot of, the final looks about trucks. People are very concerned about how shiny their trucks look and they don't want rust and chip on the side of them.

Christian: Yes, exactly. Especially those trucks that travel all over North America up in the north and also down by the coast have very high corrosive environments. So, if you have a steel pin underneath, it's going to corrode and then, run down that front Chrome grill and it's not going to look very nice.

Brian: They're all over the place. They are used in the trailer part of the tractor trailer combo thing. That's mainly how the whole truck, the sides of the tractor, the trailer parts built too.

Christian: That is true. And also, in other applications as well, as far as like agricultural equipment, construction equipment, metal fabrication, power plant systems. We have also found them in telecommunications, enclosures and bridge structures as well. So, it's definitely not just, catered to one, they’re variety of applications.

Eric: Well, it sounds like you were doing a lot of R and D work while you weren't allowed to go skiing, Christian.

Brian: Right.

And I'm not shocked by that. You're going to be showing these at the shows this year is no doubt. What do you have to share with fully threaded listeners as far as your offerings on this, in terms of availability and maybe some marketing offers you're making definitely?

Eric: We have full stock on the 3/16ths diameter, both in the G10 pin and the G20 pin. And that refers to the grip range of the parts. And then we have the collars and standard flange and medium flange right now. Those are all in stock here in Houston, Texas, ready to ship. We are working on finalizing the 14-inch parts. So, we'll have that first pin, the G10 pin, the lower grip range, with a standard collar.

And we're working on getting the longer pin as well as the medium flange for that size, hopefully later this year. And so, we'll have those available. There'll be at the shows. You can come out, put your hands on them. We can also set some onsite and some test applications. And then if you have any questions on maybe, application specifics or anything like that, feel free to give us a call.

Brian: That sounds like pretty interesting stuff.

Eric: Gloebelfasteners.com is the place. And that sounds like a pretty well-rehearsed pitch, Christian, you know your stuff. It's always good to hear a trained professional, practicing his craft. Appreciate it.

Christian: Any topic.

Brian: As opposed to us amateurs.

Eric: Glad to say Goebel Fasteners is a fantastic title sponsor of Fully Threaded Radio as our Stelfast and Brighton-Best International. We have a great lineup. Christian. I promised that we were going to revisit the whole issue of the correct pronunciation of Goebel.

As you know, there's some controversy and we keep kicking it around here on the podcast. I'm going to suggest now that instead, since it is the news segment and so many people really can't wait now to hear what McNulty has to say, that we defer that for the next time you visit. And until then Brian and I will have fun with it and we'll do the best we can. And you know, where we live, if we make a really tragic error in that department. Okay.

Christian: Alright. Sounds good.

Eric: You're a great sport about it. Everybody. We've got the news coming up as is our tradition. Would you care to do the honors Christian?

Christian: Definitely. Thanks for having us guys. And now with news about screws, you can use here is Mike McNulty

M McNulty: Thanks, Christian. This is Mike McNulty from Fastener Technology International Magazine, bringing you the Fastener News Report, which is sponsored by Volt Industrial Plastics, makers of the world's finest plastic fasteners.

Major league baseball has gleefully cast aside it's already slipping masks to fully join America's 21st century corporate political academic and entertainment oligarchy led by the massively wealthy and woke members of the American Intelligentsia. Also known as masters of the universe, but I am still focused on fasteners and ready to deliver today's Fastener News Report.

In this episode, Frank DeVito from Solution Industries joins us to reveal the latest results of the fastener distributor index, also known as the FDI. Also, in today's broadcast. We have our top story on the Barton Cold- Form division of Optimas.

As well as newsmaker headlines from Rick Rudolph Associates, Ohio Nut and Bolt Buckeye Fastener, Würth Industry North America. Fastbolt, Nedschroef, Semblex, Auto Bolt and the LeJeune Bolt Company on the Back Page Report. We're going to talk about public company CEOs. We'll get to all of that and the latest FDI results right after this.

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M McNulty: The seasonally adjusted fastener distributor index for March, 2021 came in at 66.0, basically the same as last month excellent result of 66.1, which was the highest FDI in over two years. Fastener distributor index data is collected and analyzed by the FCH Sourcing Network and Baird. The FDI seeks to identify demand pricing and outlook trends within the American Fastener Distribution Industry.

To get some insight on these results. We talked to Frank DeVito from the management team at Solution Industries. Hi, Frank, thanks for joining us on the Fastener News Report.

Frank: Hi, how are you? It's good to be here. I appreciate you having me on.

M McNulty: I'm good. And it's good to have you back. In my notes, last time you were here was October. So here we are moving into the second quarter of the new year.

Frank: Thank the Lord at this point.

M McNulty: That's right. And you're joining us now with the FDI it's an explosion uncharted territory. So, what do you think about the latest results?

Frank: Absolutely. It's great to see things moving forward in a positive direction. You get a little surprised that it's as low as it is. I don't know anybody, at least who I talk to that. isn't trying to keep up at this point. So that's exciting and just kind of gathering the sale side, not to jump around on you. But I just looked down at the sales side and it's 90%. So, there's quite a discrepancy from 66 to 90. So, you would anticipate a little bit higher.

M McNulty: Yeah. But relatively speaking, it's pretty high overall index. It also compared also to last month too. So, when you get a good result, the next month it's still more bullish than before. And you're right. The sales index surged over 90, and then also we can jump into the forward-looking indicator. The FLI also saw a good acceleration and it reached a new record of 78.5 shattering last month's record of 73.9. And it's the 10th straight month of positive forward-looking outlook. Things just keep getting better.

Frank: Yeah, absolutely. And, again, you just hope that trend continues, and you're just looking at different regulating, bodies. You just see huge projections over the next five years. The IMF is, projecting global GDP to grow, less than 20%, from 2021 to 2025. So those are always good numbers with the US or at least the next two years, 5%, little over 5 and then 2022, 2 1/2. Again, they adjust these numbers, as they go, but always good to see that positivity. And even on the global trade, I see the WTO is looking at increases of 8% in 2021 and 4% in 2022.

M McNulty: Are they saying that for the US or for global?

Frank: Global. The 5% and the 2 1/2%, was strictly to the US but on the global trade side of things, that's global and we sell global OEMs. We tend to look at those numbers, as far as infrastructure goes, whether you agree how we pay for that's another conversation, another sore subject.

M McNulty: Still be printing money and borrowing money. As long as the rates are low doesn't matter how much you borrow. I don't know about that. Still have to pay it back.

Frank: Still have to pay it back but the sales numbers look good.

M McNulty: Oh, yeah, 90%.

Frank: For sure. And energy continues to grow strong. And with some of the clean energy that's coming out now. So, you see some of the bigger energy companies, Exxon, Chevron and BP, all pivoting to clean energy. So, I'm sure that'll spur some more growth and then automotive looks pretty solid. So as far as the future goes over the next five years, we're certainly excited about at least the next two. And again, things change, but I think overall, looking forward is really positive. And again, I'm a little surprised at the numbers as low as it is too.

M McNulty: You quoted some five-year forecast numbers from the World Trade Organization.

Frank: The IMF.

M McNulty: IMF, okay.

Frank: IMF. Sorry about that.

M McNulty: That's okay. No, you said it. I got them mixed up, but that's a pretty bold forecasting five years.

Frank: Yeah, exactly. Putting it out there, but if anybody needs the chart, I can show you the charts and stuff that I had looked at and pull. I watch things again on a global perspective for us, because again, we sell through global distributors to globally OEM. So, we're always trying to monitor that a little bit and make sure where the trajectory is going to be. And we're planning accordingly, hopefully.

M McNulty: So, is every spot in the world right now, pretty healthy or hefty?

Frank: I wouldn't say that, you still got patches, because of the coronavirus, but obviously Asia has done well. And they're kind of the first portion and you see coming out of the US obviously positive signs and we're running right now. At least in the fastener industry as far as industrial goes. Obviously, there's entertainment, leisure travel, that's still hurting, but there's still signs of that coming back.

But from industrial side of things, manufacturing, most PMIs are doing well. That again, everything that I look at, and if the US comes on pretty strong, we're just kind of waiting on Europe a little bit. I think once this thing really opens up.

M McNulty: The lockdown and stuff.

Frank: Yeah, exactly. But once this thing opens up, it's full go and we're super busy now. And, I would anticipate, like you said, a lot of people in industrial space are trying to hang on to this thing and trying to stay ahead of it.

M McNulty: You had mentioned that you think, automotive is looking pretty good. And, do you guys do anything with aerospace manufacturing, just out of curiousity. You mentioned travel is sucking wind obviously, but what about making of aircraft? Do you know if that's coming back at all?

Frank: I'm not seeing a whole lot coming back yet. I think it's just over time as people start really traveling. I know Boeing had a lot of orders canceled, for a while there, and I know they have grounded the 737, again, I think.

M McNulty: I wouldn't want to be that person who came up with that program.

Frank: Yeah, for sure. I don't know. It's maybe time to make some changes there.

M McNulty: They probably did.

Frank: There're different aspects to aerospace not just on that side of things, there's space travel coming and things going up on Mars and space station and there're satellites. And there's rocket mining.

M McNulty: Defense.

Frank: Yes. Defense. There's just so much outside of just commercial aircraft being built. But, again, aerospace is going to be excited about too, I think. For sure.

M McNulty: Well, that's good to hear. Let's move on to the six-month outlook. It got even stronger this month. And last month we had 88% of the people expecting it to be better six months from now, which takes us down in October and 6%, the same with 6% expect it's worse. I don't know who those 6% are, but they might be the same group that had lower sales this month.

Frank: Could be for sure. I know it's anonymous, but I think we could lend them support, I want to see the entire industry do well.

M McNulty: Sure.

Frank: If there's opportunity to improve or help grow.

M McNulty: Those are the people getting hammered by the supply chain problems

Frank: And certain segments of our industry is inventory heavy. If you don't have it, then they just move to the next guy and buy it. It's commodity base. So, I can understand that for sure.

M McNulty: Thanks for the memories we're moving.

Frank: For sure. And I was in that world, it wasn't fun. You, carried quite a bit of inventory. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

M McNulty: Let's take that into the commentary, which again, this month was dominated by supply chain constraints and importing material into ports remains hard or challenging congestion, containers, shortages, things like that. Are you hearing the same thing, are you seeing, this is just going to be a problem we have to deal with this year?

Frank: I definitely think it's going to be a problem this year. I think there's some alleviation down the line, but if domestic import suppliers are limiting inventories, the poor congestion still there. I think that's a little bit more short-lived. Not sure it's going to get a whole year, again you can't predict anything, but we've been in talks with Mariska as far as bringing in product for us.

And, they're saying capacities are there maybe containers aren't quite in the right spot, but they're getting there and they think it's short-lived as well. So that's encouraging on that side. And I did see on the south side of thing, along the East Coast and Southern Coast, there was some easing of the poor congestion, at certain ports.

So, hopefully on the side of things, the West Coast, they get things straightened out over there. But I think with all the tariffs and China and anti-dumping duties if that didn't happen, wouldn't be as restricted as we are now because we have a lot of people move supply, to different suppliers and some other countries. And again, I'm just talking, COVID not domestically, but would that alleviation, help innate a little bit? I don't know. I'm just throwing it out there.

I think however you look at it and in a supply chain as a whole, the largest producer manufacturer in the world country, and they essentially cut parts of that out. So, this just may be a thought, and our prices are good. Logistics is good. All pricing is moving up, raw material. I think pricing and supply chain, we probably be in a little bit of a rut for a while.

M McNulty: Yeah. Pricing and costs were another theme in the comments. There's one comment here said, "We've seen an average price increase of 7%, which lowers our profitability." So that's material prices. On contract customers. "Once the anniversary date of contract arrives, we will adjust customer costs to offset these increases." I think a lot of people if they're locked in this stuff, they're in trouble, maybe.

Frank: Yeah, for sure. I think that's part of it as well. And then you hope, you can get some relief. We've seen a little softening. I don't want to say it's a weakening, but at least from our overseas costs a little bit of a dip, less than 1%, but at least I feel cost is leveling off. Raw materials and finished wire and commodities still remain high where they're at. And then obviously logistics pricing is moving labor costs.

Hopefully there's a steadying a little bit and we can see a little bit of a down turn, prices are historic highs at this point. At least since April, 2020, we've seen a little less than 29% steadily increase from raw material cost. So that's hard to swallow, but might be short-lived again.

We're hearing picketing choosing overseas as well. So as far as what they want to run and it's getting tighter, and lead times aren't so bad right now. And I say that it's not standard, but I've seen a little bit of lessening there too. So, it might be short-lived, but we'll see where it lands over the next six, seven, eight months.

M McNulty: There were two supplemental questions this time around for the people who filled out the survey and one was, "Are you seeing higher material pricing from suppliers?" And 66% or about 2/3's said moderate increases and 34% large increases. So, it's basically what you're saying too. And I would say that the 20- something percent increase is, I would say is large.

Frank: Now that's been over a year's time. It's just gotten a little up a little as it goes, but still, if you look at it a year ago and your costs are up, 25, 30%, that's a big chunk and that doesn't even include some of the transportation issues. And again, labor costs, if you can get labor at this point,

M McNulty: Does that affect you guys at all getting new workers?

Frank: We're struggling, for sure. We're definitely hiring, on that side of things and we've had ads out. And across the spectrum, it's been a little tough to onboard some people, more so on the warehouse side, but even, entry-level, mid-level customer service and sourcing type, areas, we've struggled. Candidates there. But you look at unemployment and unemployment is around 6%.

So, it's been hovering, low sixes for few months now, but I think most of that might be just, restaurant workers and that type of stuff, service industry. I don't know that for sure again, but that needs to come on board,

M McNulty: Alright. The other supplemental question was, 'Are you trying to move your surplus in view of rising scrap prices?" 62% said, no change. 7%. We are now looking to sell ours. 14 said we have sold some of ours and 17% said we do not carry any odd lots surplus. Is this something you guys have some experience with or anything to add to this result?

Frank: I'd say what surplus? Everything I have I try to share up.

M McNulty: How about a garage sale?

Frank: Exactly, we'll take any sales we can get. We have some product shelf-life type stuff, so we have to monitor that, getting some of the secondary, some of the adhesives and that type of stuff have some shelf life. But beyond that, we're not seeing much unless we really mess something up and then we'd have to dump that.

It's funny back in January, our scrap guy came and said, "Hey, hold off until the first week of January. And then you're going to see this big push of scrap." And he was right. So, then we took advantage of what we had at that point. So, we haven't had much scrap at this point but it's a good thought. For sure I know Charlie was on Fully Threaded. Charlie Kerr, and he did a great job on conversation around that and some other things about raw material costs. So, he'll do a better job explaining anything on that than I ever will.

M McNulty: Yeah, he gave a good analysis and I shared his discussions about the recycling operations with my kids. And they're like, "What? Wait until we tell our friends, these plastic bottles, they're just gone." So, rinse out those cans, the guy comes by with a metal detector and get them.

Alright. Well, as far as the FDA goes, it looks like it's going to keep on trucking here. And I think that's what, Baird said in their report too. They're expecting things just to keep being good.

Frank: I see the same. I don't see any change in the near future foreseeable. And look for a strong second half, 2021 to be really strong and it might be a little bit of a leveling off.

M McNulty: Especially if people start traveling again and business travel opens up.

Frank: Absolutely. That'll be nice.

M McNulty: We're headed in the right direction obviously, and I hope everything keeps going well. So, let's move on to the last subject. What's new at Solution Industries. I know you've got Training Week coming up and also something with NCFA, North Coast Fastener Association you're going to do the tour?

Frank: Yeah, absolutely. So, Fastener Training Week, we're excited to host and appreciative that they allow us to do it. That's May 3rd through the 6th, so there's still some time to sign up. So again, that's your wind sears, but we will be socially distant. So, we're still in that mix there. So still feel safe to come on our campus. But yeah, we're excited to have that.

M McNulty: If people want to do that training week, they go to the Fastener Training Institute?

Frank: Yeah. We don't have anything to do with sign-ups or anything like that.

M McNulty: So that's where they'd sign up?

Frank: Yes. Jo Morris, I'm sure would get in contact with her and she could get you signed up. But yes, that's all through the Fastener Training Institute at that point. So, we just, had the opportunity to host it. It's got pushed back a couple of times, but it's here, this one's sticking.

M McNulty: This one we're doing it.

Frank: So, it's sticking. And then the Distributor Social of course, is on July 8th. So, that that's open to anybody, but before that starts, we're having tour and a lunch through our facility. We originally tried to do this as an open house a couple of years ago, but due to COVID, it just didn't happen. So, it's a nice event, for sure.

And it's a relaxed environment and there's no pressure coming in here at Solution as well. It'd be pretty relaxed, but get something to eat, talk to our people. See what we do a little bit. We're a transparent company, so we're excited about that. We're on the supplier spotlight and the secondary operations and Fastener Tech International. Can I say that, Mike?

M McNulty: Yes. You beat me to it, I've got the page number, so I'll mention in a minute here.

Frank: Beautiful. And we're going to be on the cover of Link and have a cover story there on the evolution of Solution Industry. So, we're pretty excited about that. And we're at every association, across the country and we'll be at all the national shows. So, feel free to engage with our people, just get a handshake or eventually a hug or whatever you're comfortable with.

M McNulty: Bumps, handshakes.

Frank: Yes. Absolutely.

M McNulty: Chest bumps or something. And then you mentioned Fastener Technology. If you open up the April/May issue of Fastener Technology International Magazine available at fastenertech.com, you can turn to page 38 to see a picture of Frank, as well as the Solution facilities. That'll be involved in the Fastener Training Week. And then if you turn to page 85 and 107, you'll see a couple sightings of the iconic Solution Man, check it out at fastenertech.com.

Frank: Absolutely. And again, feel free to contact me or any of my staff or anybody here at Solutions. We encourage any engagement, with our staff and our people here and our employees.

M McNulty: Good. Well, it sounds like you guys are doing a good job and you're working hard to fill all those surging orders.

Frank: We are trying, we're trying, we're hanging on by the seat of our pants at this point. It's expedite Heaven at this point, so we're doing the best we can for sure.

M McNulty: Good. It's always a pleasure to talk to you and have you on the Fastener News Report to talk about the FDI as well as everything else, fastener related that you guys are doing and keep up the good work.

Frank: Thank you. Love being here. I truly appreciate the opportunity to share with you and Eric. So, thank you so much. Take care.

M McNulty: That was Frank DeVito of the management team at Solution Industries. The FDI number for March was 66.0 versus 66.1 in February, 2021. Visit fdisurvey.com to participate in the process and get a detailed PDF copy of Baird's monthly analysis.

Now for today's top story Barton Cold-Form in the UK, a manufacturing division of Optimas Solutions and experts in cold forging technology since 1932 announced machinery and technology upgrades totaling over $3.6 million. Operating from a state-of-the-art 55,000 square foot facility the investment allows Barton Cold- Form to increase capability and capacity.

And it includes the addition of advanced Nedschroef five dye, cold formers, a Smart thread roller, and a Smart pointing machine. The Nedschroef cold heading machines from Belgium enable Barton to produce fasteners with an increased range of 6 to 175 millimeters in length. And 2 6to 18 millimeters in diameter at volumes as high as 7,000 parts per hour.

The Smart machines from Italy compliment the Nedschroef cold formers by offering increased speed, reliability, and high levels of quality. Much of Barton's current output is supplied to OEMs and Tier 1 automotive customers. And increasingly they supply products in electrification technologies, including electric vehicles, charging stations, and the required infrastructure for both.

Next step. Today's Fastener Newsmaker headlines. In acquisition expansion and contract news. The IFE group has announced the assignment of Rick Rudolph Associates to promote IFE products in new England.

BG Fastening and Engineering Industries. A Fontana Group of company based in India has upgraded one of its continuous mesh belt furnaces.

Ohio Nut and Bolt, Buckeye Fasteners and Modern Fasteners recently installed a new ERP System from Microsoft. Imperial Supplies has relocated its North Carolina warehouse to expand operations.

IVOSTUD in Germany and Hanyang Stud Welding in Korea announced a strategic partnership. Galtway Industries expanded following record growth in 2020. Würth Industry North America also known as WINA formed a new company called the Würth Additive Group to provide expanded 3D Printing Products and Services. And Captive Fastener Products are now available through Fastbolts Product portfolio and locations.

In personnel news. Nedschroef Group announced that its supervisory board has appointed Paul Raedts as CEO and Arjan Verheij as CFO following the resignation of Dr. Matthias Sckuhr, currently CEO, who is stepping down to pursue work at Fruedenberg Sealing Technologies.

Optimas Solutions has appointed Daniel Harms to the position of Chief Operating Officer. Jorgen Rosengren, Bufab's President and CEO has informed the board that he intends to leave the company for a similar role in another industry.

And Jinsoo Kim current Semblex President has been promoted to lead the international businesses of Jinhap and oversee operations outside of Korea, which include Jinhap firms in China, and Semblex in the USA. And at the same time, Gene Simpson, current Semblex Chief Operating Officer has been promoted to replace Kim as CEO and President.

In certification and approval news. Auto Bolt is now IATF16949 certified. And the LeJeune Bolt Company's Torque and Angle Fastening System has received RCSC approval. And speaking of RCSC, which stands for the Research Council on Structural Connections.

The Fastener Training Institute and the Industrial Fasteners Institute are hosting an April 28th webinar on RCSC specification for structural joints using high strength bolts. You can get details on all of these stories and more in Fastener Technology International Magazine, and the Faster News Report, monthly newsletter, both are available online and in print. Online additions can be read at fastenertech.com.

Now let's turn to the back page to talk about public company CEOs. The Coronavirus may have upended many businesses and top performers as well as rank and file workers, but CEO pay at the 300 largest public companies in the USA in 2020 surge to a median level of US $13.7 million per year, per person. Up 7% from the previous year and on track to set a new record at nearly double the pay level of just 10 years ago.

Now I'm a long time and firm supporter of the free market economy. And for people getting paid fairly for the value that they bring to the workplace, but something seems oddly off to me. Especially when these CEOs are unabashedly engaged in political pressure and progressive activism to implement the pet agendas of other massively rich public servants that seek to control and undo the Federal Republic of the United States of America while limiting the actions and wills of state and local communities.

Now in an effort to see where the fastener industry is represented by these CEOs, I took a look at the top 300 public companies, which have an annual revenue entry point of about $10 billion for number 300 and $542 billion in yearly sales for Walmart at the top. My research turned up several fastener users, but only five companies that actually supply fasteners as part of their product offerings.

NuCorp comes in at number 139. Stanley Black and Decker at 220. Howmet Aerospace at 226 ITW at 229 and Grainger at 278. Other notables outside the top 300 were Wesco at 379 and Fastenal at number 525. So, what does this mean if anything, for the fastener industry? To me, it suggests that these folks are far removed from the reality that most of us live in.

And that includes the average and way above average earners, as well as successful private business owners. I'm fairly concerned at the newly accelerated and one-sided political activism coming from the CEO's outside of their long-term practice of holding cities and State’s hostage for tax breaks and concessions. What we have on our hands is a concerted power grab encouraged and orchestrated by many in the federal and legislative branch of the US government.

A perfect example of this suspicious activity occurred just last weekend as 100 top executives from major corporations held an online strategy meeting just to discuss tactics to stop the plan election reforms that are in works in several States. This activity is most likely unconstitutional, not to mention un-American and unethical, but super dangerous as we certainly have a clever and powerful 21st century oligarchy on our hands with many CEOs, jockeying for positions while lining up for duty.

And finally, for a Back Page bonus question, did you know that last month, the new US Secretary of State disbanded the 2019 commission of unalienable rights? This commission was started by the last Secretary of State, not to discover new American principles, but to furnish advice and promoting universal and natural rights and foreign policy.

Rights that are enumerated in the US declaration of independence and the US constitution. And just a few days after this commission being disbanded, our new president established a commission on the Supreme Court of the United States to analyze the arguments for and against Supreme Court reform.

In other words, the executive branch of the US government is trying to reform the judicial branch of the US government. Something that I'm sure was not in the checks and balances plan of the framers of the constitution. So, we have a 2021 tale of two commissions, one that seems to be true to the US constitution. And another, that seems to be true to trying to undermine it outside of the established process of amending it.

This Has been Mike McNulty of Fastener Technology International bringing you the Fastener News Report. Please send your news pictures, comments, corrections, or complaints to me at mcnulty@fastenertech.com.

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Eric: And now the immutable Carmen Vertullo.

Carmen: Well, hey everybody, this is Carmen Vertullo with the Fastener Training Minute coming to you from the Fastener Training Institute in AIM Testing Laboratory in beautiful El Cajon, California, and I am immutable. However, from time to time, Eric does mute me. So, you don't really get to hear the best part because he always mutes that out.

In any case today, we're talking about a topic that as is often the case comes through an email question and this question had to do with a very small socket screw about an M5 that had a special head on it. This head was not a low head. It was actually what's called a very low or extra low head. And as a result, this property class 12.9 socket screw was not capable of bearing very much load because of the head configuration.

Now some standards do a pretty good job of accommodating this situation. One of those standards is ISO 898-1 from which the 12.9 comes from, and it gives it a special term. That special term is "reduced loadability", which kind of sounds like it should come out of a State of California firearms regulation. But this has to do with firearms. It has to do with screws. And when we return, I will tell you about the intersection of reduced load ability in hydrogen embrittlement.

Eric: Knowledge is the key to success in the fastener industry and the Fastener Training Institute has the tools you need to succeed from advanced to beginner's training courses. The Fastener Training Institute provides a wide variety of resources to boost your team's ability to operate at an elite level, go to fastenertraining.org, to see the schedule online and in person classes coming up and reach out with any questions or requests for custom course materials, the Fastener Training Institute, fastenertraining.org.

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Carmen: Welcome back everybody. This is Carmen Vertullo finishing up with the Fastener Training Minute. Today we're talking about reduced loadability. This concept is very important for those who use fasteners, where we have a head configuration that's non-standard.

That is, it's not a standard socket head cap screw, or a hex head cap screw, but there's something about the head configuration and or the drive. The internal drive typically that removes so much material from the head that the head does not have enough strength to take the full advantage of the strength of the faster material.

And in these cases, the standards call these fasteners reduced loadability fasteners. So, we can't really take full advantage of the strength of the fastener. So, we have to know how to accommodate this. In most cases, one of the more common ones for example, is our standard alloy steel socket button and flat counter sunk head screws from ASTM F835.

In those cases, even though that screw has the same material that the socket head cap screw at 180 KSI would have in the smaller sizes anyway. We only can load it to 150 KSI because of the reduced loadability brought about by the head configuration.

Now we run into some other issues with this as well in the metric world in ISO 898-1 which we brought up earlier, they accommodate this very well in the testing standards. The testing part of ISO 898-1tells us which products have reduced loadability and how we're to go about accommodating that during testing.

But when we run into a part that has extreme reduced loadability, such as the extra low socket head cap screw, we can barely tighten that fastener down without breaking it. Or sometimes we can't tighten it down at all, anywhere near the desired load because the drive is so short and we can't get enough torque on it even to tighten it to its reduced loadability capability.

So, one of the ways we can fix that is use a lubricant. In other words, a little bit of grease on the screw or a coating that has a very low K-factor reducing the friction will give us some extra load for the same amount of torque. In the application situation. it's very common to see an engineer say, "Oh, I don't have room for a hex head, or I don't have room for a socket head. I'm going to go to a button head or a flat head."

Not realizing that those screws, even though they're made out of the same material and have the same characteristics in terms of strength as the standard screw, they can't bear the same load. We had a situation here recently with that very low socket screw. And we discovered the problem through a hydrogen embrittlement test. We were doing the stress durability test on that screw and they failed.

And in the process of seeing them fail when the head came off, there was a hole right through the head where the socket was and there was very little material at the head body junction. So, one of the things we have to be aware of is these reduced loadability screws when they're from ASTM F835, or when they're from ISO 898-1 property class 12.9.

In those two situations, we have an intersection of reduced loadability and hydrogen embrittlement, which makes these parts particularly susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement. So, the reality is there is really no good reason to ever make a flat head or a button head screw, or a low head socket screw out of this property class 12.9 or F- 835 material because they're not capable of taking advantage of the load.

So, if I could turn things around a little bit here, I would go back and say, "Hey, let's fix these standards up and let's not make ourselves vulnerable to hydrogen embrittlement with these screws that are particularly vulnerable because they have this very small cross section at the head body junction."

And thus, we have reduced loadability when we try to load them, we pushed them even further into the hydrogen embrittlement susceptibilities zone. And in fact, this is born out in reality because we see a lot of failures for hydrogen embrittlement with button heads and flathead screws have these high hardness values.

Well now, you know, everything there is to know about reduced loadability and the risk intersection of reduced load ability and hydrogen embrittlement. This has been Carmen Vertullo with the Fastener Training Minute. Thank you for listening.

Leo: This is Leo Coar an editor at Distributor's Link Magazine, and you're listening to Fully Threaded Radio.

Eric: Feature segment time and Carmen Vertullo is rejoining us. We just heard him on the Fastener Training Minute. Of course, Carm. Thanks for being here again.

Carmen: Nice to be here, Eric. Thank you.

Eric: You've been on me for a long time talking about SmartCert and I think got a pretty good way to approach this today and you're here and really like SmartCert, don't you?

Carmen: I absolutely fell in love with SmartCert when I first found out about it because it solves a multitude of problems and I've had multiple experiences in the past with clients and others, where if SmartCert had been around, it would have prevented some pretty serious problems. And I'll tell you about some of those later, but most of all, I'd met Lyndon a while back, probably at a trade show or somewhere. I think he was working for Century at the time.

And, I knew he was a cool guy. I think he was sales management or something like that. And I was really hoping at some point we would get a chance to work together on something. And when he called me about this, I said, Oh, I remember you. And he told me the concept and it is one of those concepts that takes a second or two to grasp. But once the light bulb comes on, it's like, oh my goodness. Why has this not been around a long time ago?

Eric: Right. And if it's good enough for you, it's good enough for me. So that's when it caught my attention and Lyndon Lattie is with SmartCert and he's here with us. Hey Lyndon.

Lyndon: Hey, how are you doing?

Eric: We're hanging in there. Thanks for joining us. There's another surprise well, I guess it's not a surprise if you read the show description, but Matt Boyd with Parker Fasteners is on board for this conversation too, because as many people know, Parker Fasteners always forging the 'future.' SmartCert is one way you're doing it. Hey Matt.

Matt: Hello, Eric. Thanks for having me on.

Eric: I jumped at the chance of course. And I'll tell you why, in addition to what we already know in just a second, this is a little bit of a weird segment guys, because we're recording unbeknownst to you, the Fully Threaded listener with video going, which we're not recording, but it's a whole new recording experience for us, for me at least. So little strange interpreting all these visual cues that I all these episodes have not had previously. So yes. Thank you for flashing that Carm.

This is just a really fascinating subject that I know very little about. So, Carmen Vertullo, if I pronounced that correctly, Carmen. Yes, you're flashing all these fasteners at me. I think something's going to have to change the world of video is all new to me. I'm going to let you sort of guest moderate this one or guest facilitate the conversation, Carmen.

Before we move hardcore into that, I have to mention Matt. I was out on LinkedIn the other day, prepping for this as I usually do. And you got to tell me what is Smoke on the Water and where was my invitation man? And my mouth was watering, looking at that barbecue party. What was that recruiting effort?

Matt: It's Smoke on the Water was the event too. I don't know if you noticed that, but it was held at the Hidden Lake venue, which is a local Buckeye place to fish and hang out with your family. And they do special events there. And we were asked to, to be the main sponsor of the event, which we were planning it and everything was going really well. We're excited to be part of it.

And then the sponsor called us and said, "We just slaughtered 60 pigs for all these, bracks of ribs that we're going to supply to everyone that's there.” So, that was a little sad hearing that, 60 pigs had to die, but it was a great event.

Eric: Not in the name of barbecue.

Matt: Yes. I know. I guess that's just the end result of barbecues, but we had a really good time. So, what we're really trying to do is really expand, our presence within the local Buckeye community and really make sure that everyone in the area knows who we are and we're looking to make local impacts. So not only are we doing the social side of the community, but we're also looking at doing some service projects as well.

So, you'll see some of the service projects that we have planned later this year on LinkedIn as well. And, we want to make sure that not only is Parker Fasteners a fun place to work, but we're also making a difference, not only in the industry, but also in the local community as well.

Lyndon: Matt, I just want to point out that the pig thing is very sad. And what also is sad is that when I look on Facebook, like Eric said, and I see that there's a friends and family event and I'm in Arizona.

Matt: Oh yeah, you got me there. You will definitely be invited next year.

Eric: My brother wears a t-shirt from time to time also being a great fan of good barbecue. And it says, "Meat is murder, tasty, tasty murder."

Matt: In this case, it was 60 pigs.

Carmen: Hey, I happen to be the owner of a giant meat smoker that could probably smoke about a hundred racks of ribs at one time.

Matt: Wow. Well, you could do about 50 of them.

Lyndon: I take that as an offer Carmen.

Carmen: And he'd bring the pigs, bring the meat.

Eric: Right. We keep it offline. But normally when we record the Fastener Training Minute, there's at least a couple of minutes of conversation about, Oh, brisket, prep, stuff like that. Because you do what, a couple dozen briskets at a crack sometimes don't you for your church. Carmen?

Carmen: If we have a big enough event, we've done hundreds of ribs and briskets and tri-tips and pork shoulders, pork butts. Pork butts make the best pulled pork, man. It's so cool. You reach in there and you go to grab that bone and it comes right out. And then, you know, it's done.

Eric: I think there are a lot Barbecue fans in the fastener world. That's for sure. Maybe Matt, what you should have done on that recruiting poster. I saw that on LinkedIn, you should have said, in addition to all those great benefits of working at Parker, complimentary Friday, barbecue lunch or something that might've got you a few more applicants.

Matt: We're always looking for good people, being a growth company and having such a good year that we're having, finding good folks to come work for us. And then also making sure they stick around is definitely key. So, I'll take that suggestion and I'll run with it, Eric.

Eric: Brighton had an open house a year or two back.

Carmen: I was there. I was there.

Eric: That was fantastic.

Carmen: In Cleveland. The Cleveland branches? What does this have to do with SmartCert?

Eric: Well, it is predominantly fastener related. Isn't it, Carmen?

Carmen: It is smart. It is smart. Let's get to the cert part.

Eric: Thank You for reminding me about that. Alright folks, for those of you who maybe you're vegan or who knows for whatever reason that you're not interested in barbecue, let's talk about SmartCert. Carmen, why don't you take over here? Tell us, start by helping us to understand what is SmartCert and why are you so excited about it?

Carmen: Well, here at Aim Test Lab. One of the things that I think is a hallmark of how we operate with our clients and our customers and our partners and friends is we'd like to be able to identify those tools and other things, relationship methods that are cutting edge. That really enhance our transactional situation, our relationships situation. And whenever we see one, whether it's a piece of equipment or a test method or an organization you might want to be involved in or something an organization has to offer, we'd like to share it.

And so, I think it brings great value to AIM Testing Laboratory when we are perceived as somebody who is in the know about the latest and the greatest stuff out there. So, when Lyndon presented this to me, I thought, well, let's bring this under our wing and see if we can, be a champion of SmartCert because we see everything where sometimes I feel like we are homicide cops. And so, everything looks like a murder to us out here in our lab.

So, we see all the things that go wrong on every level from the end-user, to the distributor, to the importer, from the manufacturer, from the raw material supplier, from the processing people the platers where the certs either aren't quite right, or more importantly, they're not easy to access.

And I will tell you from a quality management system perspective, and Matt knows this, Lyndon knows this, anyone that has a registered quality management system knows that the whole underpinning of your system is records. And there are lots of records in any manufacturing operation, or even service provider. But for us in the fastener industry, the record that represents our product, that is a certification that backs it, is the pinnacle of that record system.

And first off, we should be proud of it. Some of them look so terrible. This isn't about what they look like, but you want your records to look good, but you also want them to be accessible. And when I say accessible, I mean immediately accessible to someone that needs them. And this solves a problem that on so many levels for people that have QMS's and for those that don't would look at this and say, "I wish I had that when this happened."

I'll tell you a couple of quick stories. Years ago, this was before AIM Testing laboratory. When I had a consulting company, I had a client who had sold some flat heads socket screws that were actually purchased in Europe, brought to the United States plated in the United States and sent back to Europe for use in a truck manufacturing operation. You can imagine what big importer it would be that would be doing that kind of stuff.

And, the parts were supposed to be baked after plating, according to the specification. And they could not prove it. They had a great plater, they probably did everything right, but these parts were at the point of use and they could not prove that they had been plated. Eventually they did prove it, but it was too late. They were taken out of play. They found another solution to the problem.

And if that box had had the QR code on it and you don't really know what the implication of that for SmartCert is because Lyndon hasn't explained it to you yet, but he is going to in a minute. If that box had that QR code on it for SmartCert, they could have scanned that QR code and had that cert there on their phone, in their hand, on their computer immediately.

We run into the same kind of a problem with structural bolting on job sites, where someone needs access to a certification or a test report. Nowadays that's kind of solved and it's really a ham-fisted way of solving it to be honest with you. This method we use now is we just put a plastic bag with Certs taped on every keg that goes out into the structural bolt market.

I'm not a big fan of that. It solves the problem, but someone's going to rip those certs off of there. And they're going to go do something with them and you still don't have them, whereas SmartCert solution. As long as you have the label, that's on the product with the QR code on it, you have access to whatever test reports the manufacturer wants you to have access to. And I think very shortly it won't be spectacular because everyone will have it. You'll be conspicuous if you don't have it, we'll wonder, well, you don't have bar coding yet?

I don't know if all of you remember back in the 90's, when the fastener industry, finally, 30 years after everyone else discovered barcoding, now we can't survive without it. And this is similar. I suspect there are other industries that have similar technology to this. Maybe not, maybe Lyndon, this would be great if for once the fastener industry was an early adopter instead of laggard in terms of getting a technology going.

So, I'm excited about it. I think for some of our clients, especially Parker Fasteners and some others, it's going to help them up their game in terms of access to their records. And I think also for us, when we try to convince our customers, when we see the records that they send us of their product, that their records are important and they need a little bit of work.

After having a really nice record, having really nice access to it is just icing on the cake. It's the Crown Juul. I think of QMS records access is to have something like this and maybe I'll let Lyndon explain to you how SmartCert works now.

Lyndon: That was the kind of story that even though it's sad and parts got scrapped, actually is music to my ears because that's exactly why we built SmartCert. And we built SmartCert to solve problems of scrapped material information that's not in the right place where it needs to be. Lost time by having to go back and dig up certifications from the quality system, the quality department, maybe they're even in another building, or maybe they're even in another state.

We wanted to create something that would give easy access to Cert packages and would give an ease of flow of information. And then we wanted to build something at least to start with that was essentially platform agnostic. We wanted to build something that everyone could use, including, e.g., if you create a SmartCert package, you put it on your package, you put it inside on the packaging for the part itself.

And then if Parker Fasteners sends that out to their customer and they are not a SmartCert subscriber, they can still have access to that with their phone or their iPad. And they can pull those Certs up just like anyone else could. That's kind of the freeware version of SmartCert.

So, we wanted something that could be used by everyone and really benefit the entire industry. And take that step towards our digital future, by creating a pretty easy to use and pretty simple format that everyone can access that takes care of the problem that you're talking about, Carmen.

It takes steps towards making sense out of Cert packages that are holding up beautiful parts. And that was that was the other thing that bugged me. I've been 20 years in the industry, in fastener manufacturing to start out and then fastener distribution. And I always wondered why we did such a great job making excellent parts that go into amazing equipment.

And we have excellent things like VMI programs to help make companies more efficient. We do all these great things. And then we just forgot about the certifications that slow everything down. And that's what SmartCert was designed to take care of.

Carmen: I think it's well-designed for that. And I remember, when you first brought it to me and I saw it the first time and my partner Rob was with me and we kind of said something like, well, it looks like it's just a URL attached to a QR code that leads to a file. Why can't anybody do it? What keeps me from putting a bar code or a URL code on my product and why do I need SmartCert to do this?

And it occurred to me once you showed me the underpinnings of the system and the file structure and the security that goes with it, and the access control that it's a little bit more complicated than just a URL. And in addition to that, I like to bring my wife flowers home.

She likes flowers and it's an easy thing to do. I could grow the flowers in my backyard. I'm not that much of a green thumb, but I could probably grow my own flowers and they might even be well received by her, but you know what, it's a lot easier to pick them up on the way home.

So, it's not in our sweet spot as a manufacturer to be developing SmartCert type technology. Matthew is going to tell you, he'd rather make screws and solve fastening problems, than deal with something like that, especially when it's so easily and readily available and well rung out. Right, Matt.

Matt: That is correct. And I'm glad you brought that up because, before Lyndon presented SmartCert to us, we actually, were looking at doing something very similar and it was something that we wanted to do, we wanted to create ourself. And then what ended up happening is Lyndon like you, Carmen came to us and presented his plans.

And what we found was the SmartCert from Lyndon's original ideas, it ended up being a lot cooler than what we were wanting to do ourselves. So, it was something where we wanted to jump on board, really drive this idea. And, it's really exciting for us because we've been able to work with some of our key customers and not only implementing SmartCert within our own business.

Sending the product to them, with those QR codes that give them immediate access to the certs, but we've actually started making plans to also, put those QR codes, not on the fasteners itself, but on some special packaging that we do for some of our customers so that their customers have those Certs at the point of use when they're actually installing the goods.

So, we feel like it's really a no brainer, and after being a customer and using it now for a few months, we've actually been surprised by the amount of positive feedback where customers continue to call me and go, "Hey, this SmartCert, it's pretty cool. Where do you sign up for this?" ‘

And so, we've had a few referrals we've been able to give Lyndon, but it's really cool to see, how it's grown and interest has spread just from sending a simple box of screws to someone.

So, the plans that we have to implement SmartCert, we're just really in phase one, I have to get, of all people, Mr. Carmen, and Rob involved at AIM Testing Laboratory to start sending their certificates that they perform, of the testing of our fasteners back to us, instead of sending it via email, they have it sent through the platform of SmartCert. So, they can immediately go into our work and process package that we have inside the software.

So, then we can very easily review it, make sure everything, is in tip-top shape, insert it into our cert package and include that into the software when we send it out, when we send the parts out to a customer. So, it's not only going to benefit customers, but it's also going to drive efficiency within our supply chain.

Carmen: That's a great point, Matt. And it reminds me of back in the day when some of the bigger suppliers started making their inventory available to distributors online. So instead of faxing around and calling and getting quotes, you could see who had what pretty easily, and they integrated that into their ERP. And that skipped a huge step in the process.

And it's not necessarily that it's such a labor-saving thing, but it's a time-saving thing. And I don't mean time in terms of man hours. I mean time in terms of calendar time, because if you can take a day or two out of the process of having your product ready to ship, because the certs are now already in the folder where they need to be, as soon as we're done with them, or as soon as you're done with them. Even if you're maybe producing that cert on the manufacturing level, that's golden.

I can tell you right now, when stuff comes in our lab, there's product waiting to ship until we finished our work. And once we finish our work, then you have to get your cert and then you have to put your cert into your system, and then you can ship your product. That's already there that eliminates at least some portion of a day, if not a whole day from the lead time

Matt: We agree. It's really been seamless so far. The thought of learning a new software is a little daunting sometimes, but I had to admit that, Lyndon and his company's done a wonderful job. You don't have to be an expert to use the software and to get things done the way you need them done in a timely manner. So, the efficiency is great.

We've been able to create, 10, 15, 20 cert packages in a day using the software. And, it's really nice being able to edit the packet, to put different certificates in certain order. So instead of printing all that stuff out in color and scanning it in color, and, "Oh, man, I just forgot one of the certs. I have to redo it all." Now we're efficiently dragging and dropping certs into SmartCert and it's allowing us to be so much more efficient. So, we're getting more done throughout our quality department.

And, I think my only critique of my team at this point is, some of the orders are larger orders and we have pallets of parts going out for one lot. I want a QR Code on every single box and they were putting four on a pallet. And I said, "That's not good enough. I want a QR code on every box." So, that's what we've started doing now. And, we're starting to see the impact being made with our customers, but I'm excited to see the impact made with our customers' customers as well.

Carmen: Hey, Lyndon, could you tell us, Matthew mentioned that the QR code, believe it or not, there may be some folks listening to this that don't know what that means. So, explain that. And also, what is the available technology in terms of getting that QR code onto an existing label format or will our label printers that we have now worked just fine? Do we need new label printers? Let's take a look at that side of it.

Lyndon: The QR code is now pretty ubiquitous in our COVID world, because every time you go into a restaurant, that is how you pull up your menu. And you can debate whether people like that or not, because if a standard menu is what we're used to, and the QR code is a little bit more, I think some people look at it and go, "Just hand me a menu."

Carmen: Go deeper than that. Go back in terms of explaining what it is, believe it or not, there are people who don't know what that little weird symbol is on the table.

Lyndon: I'll start there. It's that little weird symbol that has a bunch of squares in it. And it looks like basically a checkerboard on acid. It has just random squares. And the reason that looks like that, is the pattern actually repeats multiple times within that QR code. And the reason for that is the designer of the QR code and the inventor of the QR code, worked for a company called Denso Automotive Supplier. And it's about 25 years old.

And they wanted something that would be durable. They wanted something that could be on packaging, get crumpled up, get mangled a little bit, and then still be readable. And so that's why it's usually square. You see them sometimes in circles, but the real data is wrapped up in that QR code. And again, it repeats multiple, multiple times within that box. And so, it's something that is really almost like, Matt, your latest, t-shirt addition back to the future.

We are actually going back to the future with the QR codes, because now they're emerging again, to give information to people in a lot of different ways. And what SmartCert does is it takes that QR code and really makes it fully functional for what we're using it for, which is cert transfer. And, it really takes it back to where it started out, is it supposed to be on boxes with parts.

Carmen: And that that code gets on that box because within Parker's ERP or anyone's, for example, that code is loaded and attached to that part somewhere in their system. And the label printer is able to access that QR code and integrated into the label or printed on a separate label, if you want.

Lyndon: Yeah, you can do either one. So, at the point, when you create that cert packaging, you click "Create SmartCert" that's when it builds that QR code. And then you could take that and you could print that out on a standard printer label. It can be dropped in as a PDF into any format or any PDF doc you want. You can do a lot of things with it at that point, but we built it to work off of standard printers. We built it to work off of multiple printers, and it's actually built on a Microsoft platform. So, it recognizes all your current tools.

Carmen: And I'm thinking into the future, or maybe the very near present, we could attach that QR code to a gauge in the lab and scan that gauge and see the calibration record.

Lyndon: Yeah, you absolutely could.

Carmen: We could tattoo it on to an employee's forehead and scan it and get their training record.

Lyndon: You could do that too. And you know what? You could update that training record too. And that's important because once the original user creates the QR code or the original creator of the QR code, you can then go back into SmartCert. You could pull that one up. If you made it last year, you could pull that one up and you can edit that as long as you're the original creator of that QR code. Other people can't.

So, once you've sent it out, unless you go back in under your login, then you're the one who can manipulate that. So, if you want to update that forehead, QR code, you could.

Carmen: I remember asking you that question, and it was a really powerful answer, powerful feature that the QR code can exist in perpetuity, and you can add records to it. You don't have to change the QR code to add or edit records. Additionally, you can eliminate the QR code, you can kill it.

Lyndon: You can kill it. And then the other thing that we wanted to make sure that was fairly difficult to do was to remove certs out of the QR code package. And so, it asks you a couple of times, whether you want to do that, and you have to have master user permission in order to do that. And that's obviously to avoid creating incomplete QR codes.

So, we don't want to corrupt anything by taking something out and then running into that same problem with your plater over in Europe, where they didn't have the complete package, this one, you can add things to it. And it's really easy to add things to it. But we wanted to make it a little more difficult to take certs out of there that's to create that flexibility.

And I think Matt, you have a use case where you have already created the SmartCert QR code maybe it's in the hands of the warehouse guys already, and they're putting it on the boxes. And then you can actually update that package with a picture of the shipment, right on the pallet.

And they, again, load that up right on their phone, into that QR code so that when the customer scans it, they not only get the package, they get the parts, they get the package of certs from Parker, but they get a picture of what it looked like as it left the Parker facility.

Matt: That's correct. And it really raises the level of customer service that our customers receive. I'm sure that, some of you or some of the folks on the podcast listening, I've had this issue where, you tape up and package an order really nicely. And, you give it to, your third-party logistics folks, and when it shows up to the customer, it's a former shell of what it once was, it's in terrible shape. And all of a sudden, their screws or whatever, you're shipping, there're some parts missing in the boxes.

And then, they immediately look at the sender and say, "You did this." And, so we've been taking pictures of our shipments for years now, just to ensure that, we hold accountability to the folks that are shipping the product. But now, instead of going through the files and taking that picture of a random pallet, what it looks like a random pallet and send it to the customer and say, no, we shipped it correctly. Here's a picture of it. Now go to your freight carrier and work through that issue.

Now they have access to see exactly what it looked like as soon as it comes through the door. So, they can immediately, when a pallet or a box from Parker Fasteners arrives, they can immediately put their phone on it. They can get us the cert package, but not only that, they can get a picture of what it looked like before it left our facility. So immediately they can tell the freight carrier we're missing boxes, or there's some freight damage right there. And we're going to need to go ahead and notate it on the bill of lading.

So, once I go through the order, and I realized that I'm missing some parts, we can score up with you, Mr. Freight carrier, not unfortunately Parker Fasteners or whoever sent the goods. So, it's not only holding us accountable to, our work on the quality side, but it's also holding the freight carriers accountable to, their work and getting in a product from Buckeye Arizona to, wherever the destination is.

Carmen: Lyndon the obvious question. I don't know if you ever watch Pawn Stars on TV or not, but sooner or later, they'll always get around to ask him what's this thing worth.

Lyndon: I love that show.

Carmen: So, tell me for a user like Parker that probably would be someone generating hundreds of QR codes a day, maybe, or at least dozens.

Someone that only needs a few at a time or someone that needs thousands. What are the various levels of, buy-in on this and how do you set it up? How long does it take to get the ball rolling? What equipment might you have that works with it and what might you need that you don't have?

Lyndon: So, equipment wise, I'm going to start with the last part, first. Equipment wise, we specifically designed SmartCert to be something that you already have, the equipment that you need. One of them is your computer. One of them is, internet access and a web browser. And then another one is, your printer, whatever label printer you're using. But the other one that's pretty key to this is your phone.

So, big part of this, QR codes have been around forever, but the new thing is that QR codes are now readable by everyone's phone and everyone has it in their pocket. So, you can get access to it easily. And then that's the theme of how to get going on SmartCert too. We wanted access easily. And so, someone would start by going to our website aramidtech.com or get smartcert.com directly.

And it's a very simple login process. This is a cloud-based system. So, you will create a password. You will, then get your access and it's a subscription service. So, you enter in a credit card and sign up for a subscription. It's really simple to get set up, just takes a few minutes.

And then when you're a user, so for Matt's case, they would have their dashboard and then they would have the "Create SmartCert button." And when you click the "Create SmartCerts button," you put the information you want in for that cert package. And then you simply drag and drop your files into the SmartCert system, and it will load them up.

Most people are doing PDFs because those are secure documents, but you can put in Word files. You can put in a lot of different things. You can put pictures in there. You can't load movies in there right now, but we may have a feature where you can do that. If there's a, "how to" that would load automatically when you add something that was maybe a complex system or something that you wanted to have a demonstration.

Once you've added all the information that you want to add and loaded your cert and dragged and dropped them in, you just click create SmartCerts and then you're ready to go. You can either print that QR code and put it on your boxes and print out a hundred of them. If you have a hundred boxes or you can grab that and drop it into a PDF file as well.

The other thing you can do is you can share it directly right out of the system. And so, there's a share button. You click that you enter in someone's email address and it'll send that entire package and it'll give them the opportunity to create their own guest account if they're not a SmartCert subscriber. But the neat thing is, is if they are a Smart Cert subscriber, once they get that and open it up, it'll automatically populate into their dashboard. So, they'll be able to see all that without doing much of anything.

Carmen: And then how do they pay for it? Is it like per QR code or per month or per year or one time charge or per user? How's the pricing structure for it?

Lyndon: It's a subscription service. So, it is what is commonly referred to as a SaaS piece of software. And it is monthly subscription. There's a setup fee, that is a one-time and then you're ready to go. And it is just put your credit card in and get rolling.

Carmen: And I can have however many QR codes I want?

Lyndon: You can make as many as you want. As a matter of fact, we encourage you to make many, many of them and send them to as many customers as you possibly can, because then that perpetuates the SmartCert. That gets people aware of it. As soon as you scan one and you go, "Hey, what is this? Oh my gosh, there's my certs right there." Then that is our best advertising.

Matt: I'll add something real fast Carmen, if you don't mind. What's nice from our perspective, is sending a SmartCert to a customer, a distributor who was also using SmartCert. They can take it right into their SmartCert software and then they can make edits. So, all they have to do is inspect the product, create their own CFC, add that to the front of our paperwork. If they want to take that photo out of the shipping, they can then take that photo, drag it out.

Anything else that they want to add or take out, they can do that right then and there creates their own QR code for the lot, based on their buy and resell the product and get it up to the end user. So, it's a really streamlined process when the supply chain is using SmartCert, from the beginning to the end.

Lyndon: Carmen that's how we wanted it to be exactly by design. We had to step back. And I think we mentioned earlier that, if a company made it and they used it internally, or they only used it, you're not creating that open environment where the SmartCert can actually help from the smelter all the way to the aircraft.

It can actually work through the entire supply chain and it's just a matter of trading or passing that SmartCert along and really creating I think an easy to use and easily accessible, way to track those certs and to trade those certs with your customers and vendors.

Carmen: Well, I have to give you congratulations and thank you for the privilege, Lyndon of getting to watch this thing come, not quite from its birth but I was pretty close.

Lyndon: You were close. You guys both were right there at the beginning.

Carmen: Yeah. Getting to see it come along and watch your hard work and dedication and your teams do it and seeing your brand, come together and getting all of your supporters and endorsers in line and including things like this show. I'm sure soon enough you'll be able, or you're able now, but you'll have some kind of a Zoom or something. It's hard to explain how software works over the radio without a screen in front of you.

But, when people can actually do a Zoom meeting and you can show them on the screen, how it works, that would be a really exciting, I know you've done a few of those for clients. We got to see it, but getting to see that happen in a mass setting is something I'm looking forward to. Maybe at a trade show instead of on the day.

Lyndon: Yeah. There we go. Well, Carmen, I really appreciate that. And thank you for those kind words. And coming from you, it means a lot. And the beautiful thing is we're just getting started. We are like Parker Fasteners. We are always looking towards the future.

And so, the other nice thing the fact that it's a subscription service is we can add over the air updates to the software and you may wake up one day and have a new feature that you didn't have the week before.

And we are constantly working on development and we're working on development to make it even easier to use. We're working on development to make really easy integrations into future ERPs and quality management systems and to make it. Actually, we'd like to move into being able to have you really not think about certs anymore.

Right now, they're a major pain point in the industry and our end goal, where we want to end up is so that parts talk to each other. We don't have to really deal with that anymore. And that's the future of where we're going. And SmartCert is just the first step.

Carmen: We've thrown a few terms around here that aren't fastener terms and it always bugs me when I hear someone on the radio or the TV use an acronym, assuming that everyone knows what it means. So, ERP is just that computer system term. I think it means "Enterprise Resource Planning."

Lyndon: Yes.

Carmen: Something like that. And you mentioned the term, SaaS sauce, which I think is "Software as a Service.”

Lyndon: Correct again. You are a two for two.

Carmen: For those, alright. For, non-IT guy, it's just like, you got it. It bugs me when I watch sports on the TV and they use all these abbreviations for things, why can't you just put "Left Fielder" instead of LF to make it friendly to the people that don't know that kind of thing. There's plenty of room on the screen.

Matt: And then one thing I want to add to Carmen and Lyndon and Eric is that, if you're a distributor listening to the Fully Threaded Radio and you're interested to see SmartCert, work in real life, all you need to do is contact Parker Fasteners. The sales team would love to sell you, some parts off the shelf. And when you receive your box, after you place your order, you will have those nice QR codes on there. And you can put the SmartCert and the Parker Fasteners product insert package, right to work.

Carmen: So, let me throw this little piece of future idea out there for you, for anybody. And, this is not new technology, but imagine you have a box and you're not really necessarily concerned about certs, but you'd like to know more about the specification of the product. The QR code, and you download an IFI cut sheet or some kind of a catalog page that tells you everything you need to know about that product in terms of its dimensions, its mechanical properties, its typical uses or even a video that show you how to use it.

Eric: My mind is wandering with, possibilities guys. There are so many and I mean when QRs first showed up in the world, it really opened our eyes and then they kind of faded away because they didn't seem like they had a lot of, well, they had a lot of applications, but let's face it in the fastener world. We didn't have a solution like SmartCert and there is one now. So, I'm getting pretty excited about it.

But of course, my crossover keeps appearing with barbecue involved. And I think that means that we must be getting to the point where we're going to call this one, a segment and I'm going to thank all of you for joining us. We can pick up on this, but I do want to give Lyndon one opportunity again, to remind everyone where they can get further information on SmartCert. And maybe at that point we can set up an opportunity to go get some pulled pork or brisket and talk about it further.

Lyndon: Our company is Aramid Technologies and we are at aramidtech.com. That's A-R-A-M-I-D-T-E-C-H.com. And that's the best place to get information on SmartCert and get updated on what we're working on. And there's a nice little video in there. That's about two minutes that it really does a good job of boiling down what SmartCert is and how it works.

Eric: Perfect.

Carmen: No one took the bait, but QR stands for quick response.

Lyndon: QR does stand for quick response. You are three for three, my friend.

Carmen: It's all set up Lyndon. It's all set up. I was Googling all that stuff. I didn't know what any of that meant.

Lyndon: You did really well.

Eric: And by the way, stay off Carmen's lawn. We've got to talk. You're getting a little persnickety, but thanks for being here. You're the kind of guy we need on it. Leading up a conversation like this and an industry like this and Lyndon, thank you for joining us today too. It's great to meet you.

I look forward to possibly talking further because I see a prototype with Parker, FCH and SmartCert down the road in the near future. And of course, Matt Boyd, Parker Fasteners. You're the man. I can't wait for my invitation for the next smoke on the water man.

Lyndon: Yeah, me too.

Matt: You got Eric. You guys will have to come out and enjoy some barbecue and beverages with us.

Lyndon: Thank you guys for the opportunity to share SmartCert with the bigger community. We're just getting rolling.

Eric: This is the place to do it. Hey everybody. We thank you for sitting in too. You'll be hearing more about SmartCert and you'll be hearing more Fully Threaded Radio. We'll right back.

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Rosa: This is Rosa, the Proferred Riveter at Brighton-Best International. You're listening to Fully Threaded Radio with Eric and Brian.

Eric: Well, Bri, several new products, platforms, lots of fastener industry Intel, some training, another episode. Very well worth hearing. Wouldn't you say?

Brian: Yeah, well I would sort of say you can never have too many things about hydrogen embrittlement okay.

Eric: That's a good point.

Brian: A view that you would have been lapping up, everyone knows you're focus on the whole industry.

Eric: Well, I wouldn't go that far, but I am quite satisfied. You are correct. Hope you enjoyed it too everyone. Like to thank our guests on this episode of the podcast they were from Würth Industry North America and the Würth Knowing webcast, Randy Lammers and Aaron Keaven.

Christian Reich with Goebel Fasteners warmed up the Fastener News Report today, which featured Mike McNulty and Frank "Balboa" DeVito of Solution Industries. And we just heard Carmen Vertullo. Lyndon Lattie and Matt Boyd of Parker Fasteners talking all about SmartCert. Thank you, gentlemen. And thanks, Carm for double-dipping with the Fastener Training Minute and tickling all our fancies with that hydrogen embrittlement info.

The title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio are Stelfast, 'For Service You Deserve and People You Trust.' It's Stelfast. Bright0n-Best International 'Tested, Tried, True.' Brighton-Best. Goebel Fasteners, 'Quality the First Time.' Goebel.

Fully threaded is also sponsored by Buckeye Fasteners, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, Fastener Fair USA, Fastener Technology International, INxSQL Software. ND Industries, Parker Fasteners, Solution Industries, 3Q Inc. Volt Industrial Plastics and Würth Industry North America.

Let us know how we're doing folks, how you're enjoying the podcast, or if you have ideas, thoughts or questions for us, the email address is ftr@fullythreaded.com or you could catch us occasionally at association meetings and fastener events if, and when they happen again. And hey Bri, I mentioned ahead of the Fastener News Report today that the MWFA has a big 75th anniversary actually Fastener Week coming up in August.

We all hope that's going to happen well after we recorded that and before we turned on the mic for this closing segment, I received in the mail, a really sharp looking promotional flyer for this event. Somebody over at MWFA is really on the ball, Bri.

Brian: You mean apart from Nancy?

Eric: Nancy is always carrying the ball for MWFA. That's true. I don't know. I'm wondering if our friend G. H. III doesn't have something to do with it also, but in any event, congratulations, MWFA. This is a great looking flyer and it's pretty exciting because it's got the whole week lined up, which features of course, the golf outing, which is on the 18th, the Fastener Show, which is on the 17th and all kinds of other activities, but conspicuously, absent, Bri, I noticed there's no reference at all to the Tough Mudder.

Brian: So therefore, Bob Baer and not having anything to do with that one, I can tell.

Eric: Well, I thought maybe they wouldn't be using their clout and so forth with the association. They would have something in there, but no. So saw something fly by on LinkedIn that they put together promoting the Tough Mudder event. And what we're speaking about, everybody, if go back the last few episodes we've been talking about this the weekend ahead of Fastener Week, Bob "GQ" Baer and G. H. III are heading up a team of fastener people.

They're going to hit this perilous obstacle course known as the Tough Mudder. Those guys are easy enough to find. So, if you're interested in participating in that, I think they still need a couple of team members. Although the roster has filled out quite a bit, it's a pretty good list of fastener people at this point, including Jake "Valdez" Davis and John "Coolhand" Butler among others.

Brian: I would have thought at least a few tips to how to get in shape, first thing.

Eric: The training tips are flying fast and furious among the committed. I have no doubt about that. There's just nothing in this flyer about that. But anyway, it's still coming off fear, not everybody fellow Mudders. You can get out to mwfa.net to sign yourself up for these various events. If you didn't get this flyer, but good job over there, Team MWFA and good job, Bri. On another episode of the podcast, we're going to put this one in the can.

Brian: Right.

Eric: Next episode, look forward to a few segments. We've got lined up already, including George from Buckeye Fasteners. He's going to be talking about some of that automated equipment they're running over there at Buckeye should be pretty good.

Brian: Oh cool.

Eric: Yup. It'll be another one worth hearing. Thanks for hearing this one everyone. For Brian Musker, this is Eric Dudas. Get out there, sell some screws, sign up for the MWFA. And we'll talk to you next time.

Brian: Until next time keep well.

Conclusion:

Fully Threaded Radio is a production of Fastener Clearing House. Music provided by Audionautix.

Episode #163 - Worth Hearing

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