“The key is finding end users that are receptive to what we want to promote, which is value and service” states Ray Passini of the A.J. Rod Company. Ray found  just that with Jim Turner at Reliable Turbine Services in Houston, TX.  Reliable Turbine Services is a world leader in steam turbine parts manufacturing. Jim was experiencing long cut times and frequent blade changes, which prompted Jim to ask the A.J. Rod company to assist in improving their sawing operation. A.J. Rod promptly brought in Felix Ramos, the local Regional Service Technician at WIKUS, into Reliable Turbine Services. Over the period of a couple days, Felix was able to provide a complimentary preventative maintenance service on their Kasto and HEM saws, train their saw operators on how to properly set speeds and feeds for the material being cut, and prove out a substantial cost and labor savings with the WIKUS Duroset bandsaw blade.

“Having Felix stop by was invaluable and he helped optimize the performance of both our machines. Saw cutting used to average 20-25% of the labor budget on each job we had, and now it’s down to roughly 7%. We used to average 32 to 35-minute cut times and with the WIKUS blades and proper training, we now average 6 minute cuts. Sawing used to slow down production for us and we were having to wait on material cutting, but not any longer” says Jim Turner of Reliable Turbine Services.

When asked as to why WIKUS is the blade line that A.J.  Rod choses to partner with, Ray Passini of the A.J. Rod company states “There are multiple reasons, but firstly is that there is a local service technician that can travel to any geographical area that we have coverage that can provide preventative maintenance or troubleshoot a saw, that’s very important. Secondly, we have a metal sawing center that permits us to weld blades to order and get them to our customers at the drop of a hat.” When Ray is in the field doing business development and working diligently to assist customers with process improvement and cost savings, WIKUS bandsaw blades are always amongst the products he pushes first. “If there is an account I’m having difficulty getting into because they don’t have an open mind or they aren’t very receptive; I tell them… Hey listen, if you want to test any one product that I have, I want you to test our sawblades. We have phenomenal success with WIKUS blades and I know that I can provide you with a cost savings” says Ray.

“WIKUS is committed to sawing excellence, and I’m so excited for Jim and the Reliable Turbine Services team, that they were able to experience such a huge labor cost and cut time savings” states Jacob Lilley, Regional Sales Manager for WIKUS, also based in Houston, TX. “Many of our new customers tell us that they’ve never had anyone at their facility spending hours with them working to improve their sawing operations. We want everyone to know that we are in the field everyday working to ensure that customers are using the proper blades, running the appropriate speeds and feeds for their application, and that their operators are trained on how to cut all different kinds of material.” This success story is only one amongst dozens of others like it around the Houston area since 2021 began. When given an opportunity to improve upon any given sawing operation, WIKUS will always rise to the occasion to support our channel partners
and their customers.