Coming Soon:
Nothing for the moment.
For our Broadcast and Film Markets we recently
introduced a full line of Rathbone Energy
Broadcast Lithium Ion Batteries and Chargers
(manufactured to my specifications)
Broadcast Lights and Equipment (manufactured
to my specifications)
Broadcast Camera Bags (manufactured to my
specifications)
Broadcast Monitors
Focus Adaptors and Filters
Tripods
Viewfinders
For several years we have searched out tool and die in the United States to
manufacture the tooling needed for injection molding. We have local
plastic companies who aggressively want the molding work and offer to do the
work on their down time from larger orders to keep from sending employees home
early.
But, in all these years every US tool and die company we have met with wanted
to treat us as they have all the US Auto manufacturers. They look at us as
their cabin on the lake, third home, etc. The average quote for tool and
die has been +/- $36,000.00 for simple Proformer and ProPag / Hytron type cases.
In September 2006 I visited with the Vocational Directors of two local
community colleges and two local high schools asking for an internship from the
community colleges and high schools. The community colleges informed me
that they did not compete with local vendors. The nearest was 75 miles
away.
I was also there to interview potential electronic technicians to discover
those programs were pulled from the local colleges and high schools in most
states several years ago because the job market did not support the income
levels wanted so the jobs were continuing to go overseas to people who would
work harder and smarter for much less money. At least until they were
Americanized.
I train my technicians in-house, never ending, until I finally had access to
a few Mexican friends from the one local Mexican restaurant whose business,
because of our economy, was slow. Even with communications batteries I
only need to show them a technique one time. While I work I no longer hear
constant chatter or have absence issues. They are there every day, you
have to tell them to break, and they thank me for their jobs. They
actually like their jobs and working for me.
I would not leave the office of one of the local high school vocational
directors until he agreed to follow me back to my facility and see our needs.
He then informed me that they were more interested in training their students
for skilled labor in tool and die and preferred to focus on the automotive
industry.
I stated that I knew a kid who had graduated the year before, had focused on
their vocational training, and is working at a local restaurant. From
exhaustive searches for a better landlord at the time I had traveled through
several counties and could find large manufacturing facilities that had been
closed from five to 30 years. Good facilities where the manufacture was
tired of fighting with unions and internal theft of not just property, but also
of time, and had moved off-shore years ago. The realtors refuse to lease
or turn the buildings into incubator business facilities.
So I asked this vocational director exactly where his students were being
hired for skilled labor as welders or tool and die because all the surrounding
manufacturers had long since left the US for better pay rates and staffing.
He turned around and left.
Later I discovered these tool and die companies usually in turn farm out
their work to China anyway.
What do you do? I know that the
battery pack leader in the broadcast industry has gone off shore for
many years to have their packs built. When I open their packs
the components say Made in ____, Not the USA. Recently I came
across the company that actually builds for them. Many times
in the past we have requested to build their products here in the
Appalachia's but with No success. Nonetheless, we are thankful
for their success because rebuilding their products has feed several
families here.
So, reluctantly I
began a search for manufacturers in China, preventing the employment
here of additional local staff. My Lithium Ion Broadcast
Battery packs are manufactured in China to my specifications using
Panasonic, Sanyo, and now, some LG cells. LG got a foot in the
door when the Panasonic Anode plant caught fire and battery cells
were being allocated.
 
Lithium Ion for Broadcast
Buy American
             
                   
               
Tuesday, September 06, 2011 02:15:37 PM
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