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Innovate to Thrive

I have spent just over 55 years in manufacturing and product development and cannot over emphasise the importance of Product Development in Challenging times to succeed when the Market situation improves.

 I think my first notable development project was back in 1969 when working for JH Shand ltd of Axminster my supervisor called me into the office and showed me a sketch of what looked like a piece of typewriter type on a stick which was to be produced for ICL as part of a new printer system.

He also mentioned that the stick needed to be the spring return mechanism for the head as the whole unit was to be forced up onto the paper by a hammer striking it at around the halfway point, but to work properly the whole part should be as light as possible.

Perhaps, I should mention that the engraving and cold forming part of the J H Shand company had for the last 50 or so years, been producing the typewriter heads fitted onto practically every type of typewriter ever made. If you look at any typewriter character print head, or finger, you will see the JHS mark in between the two characters. The founder of the company was World famous for his ability to engrave the Lords Prayer on the Head of a Needle. However, the main company was renowned for its tool making and manufacturing machinery development prowess. 

 Having spent a few hours thinking about it and doing some sketches on my drawing board I suggested making the component from a piece of stainless-steel shim stock .025” thick, and embossing the character in its top form. However, after discussion it was decided that embossing the character in the stainless steel material would not provide sharp enough definition to print a good quality image on paper. We considered brazing or soldering a steel cold formed character blank onto the shim steel finger but that would affect its temper and make it very difficult to re-heat treat, after the addition of said part.

 I suggested using one of our wobble, forming presses, to see if we could cold form a solid character shape onto the stainless steel shim, knowing that it would thin and work harden the remaining material, which in turn would further improve the spring characteristics in the process, if it worked. Since no one had any idea as to whether it could be done on work hardening stainless steel , I volunteered to design some tools and give it a go.

 Fortunately, my supervisor had enough confidence in this young 19-year-old apprentice engineer to give him a chance, because it worked and early in 1970 it could be seen printing the football results on the BBC Grandstand program every Saturday afternoon and JHS produced many thousands of print fingers for ICL.

 Fortunately, throughout my career I have been lucky enough to have been involved with lots of successful development projects but that is not the purpose of this blog.

 All too often we hear companies saying they are not doing any new development at this time, because the market for existing products has reduced due to the current economic climate.

 I want to explain why it is so very important to develop new products and to do it ideally when the market is depressed, or the Company is running short of work for some other reason.

This is because when it does eventually pick up as it usually does, that is when the Company who has the new product will make most profit. This is also a way of making the most use of nonproductive time to produce product that can be sold beneficially at a later date.

 Furthermore the influence of technology on all sorts of media platforms today, seam, to favour the new products over any thing that has been around for a while. This is especially true, when times are hard.

 Early in my career, as Managing Director of Wessex Precision Engineering Co Ltd, I associated with a very prominent accountant who worked for large well-known companies as well as governmental organisations and the one thing that he instilled into me, was that there were only two ways to make any real money in Industry, and that was to be the first one into a market or the last one out, but never to be one of the “also ran” as he called them. He also mentioned quite bluntly, that the only thing other than a profit you can make, is a loss!!!

 Some of his other advice included not being put off by someone making negative comments, because they are often fuelled by jealousy, and no one is ever successful without making a few mistakes or treading on a few toes along the way.

 I have also discovered to my cost that if you embark onto a course of development, you must have the determination to see it through otherwise everything is lost in the process.

 This is not the business for anyone who gets distracted or quits too easily. But it is one of the reasons why, we have the designs that many others can only dream of producing.

If Knowledge is key, then the fact that on this site there are over 18 different designs of various types of Air weapon, 4 Crossbows and numerous component parts, suggests that the combined knowhow contained within them probably exceeds, that which can be found anywhere else on the Net.  Please click on the pictures for further details of catalogue items.

Why Should you purchase one or more Air Weapon Designs from GET Designs?

Note*

The only design that is not entirely original is the Pheonix which draws its inspiration from the Webley Mk2 Service Rifle. However apart from the similarity of stock shape and the cocking method everything else is unique. The Webley Rifle had a heat-treated power tube assembly with a piston,fitted with a split piston ring, like that found in an internal combustion engine to utilise the explosive effect of the air and oil mixture to propel the pellet. Whilst ours uses technology developed for the Twin Piston Rifles to drive the pellet with an efficient clean air blast.