THIS month our feature story tells of an organization doing business in the specialized field of high production machinery. It reveals another of the many phases of the surplus and rebuilt machinery and equipment industry.
We are prone to accept the reconditioning and reallocation of intricate machine tools as commonplace because it has become so familiar to us in the industry. Little do we consider how unusual such work really is and how much of a demand it places on the intelligence and ingenuity of the men engaged in it. The average industrial executive, perhaps, has little idea of how greatly this kind of work may influence his business future. It should be sufficient to note here that the use of rebuilt and reconditioned machinery is coming more and more into general use by manufacturers in widely diversified industries.
There is scarcely a machine used in a manufacturing plant, mine, quarry or construction job that is not included in the list. Not only are machine tools reconditioned, rebuilt and offered for sale, but the list includes air compressors, cranes, converters, generators, transformers, forging machines, bolt and nut equipment, hydraulic machines, foundry equipment, stamping machines, as well as hundreds of other items too numerous to classify here.
To many of us the reconditioning of machinery and equipment is about as ordinary as overhauling the motor in a 1929 flivver. Before the opinion becomes general let us state clearly that not every machine can be reconditioned. There are classes of mechanical equipment that no one can afford to rebuild. There are other machines, too, so old that reputable dealers refuse to handle them. Obsolescence is a factor which must be considered, and we are not attempting to advance rebuilding and reconditioning as a panacea.
This fact remains. It takes specialized training, knowledge and ability to rebuild machinery and do the job efficiently and economically. From our point of view the specialists in this branch are carving a niche in the industrial world that has long gone unrecognized.