Thank you for taking a look at our new newsletter. It is our monthly publication with news, insights, and trivia/fun facts about the wire rope industry. Some issues will present safety and training tips; in others, we’ll recognize our employees and the contributions they make that help your business as well as ours.

At Industrial Wire Rope, we commit ourselves to offering our customers a full range of products with the best service in the wire rope industry.

 

Industrial Wire Rope Connector: Meet our Employees

We feel it is beneficial for you to be able to put a face to the people at Industrial Wire Rope who support you. Periodically throughout the year, we’ll introduce you to one of our employees.

 

In this issue, we introduce Chris Chappell.

Chris Chappell

Chris has been with Industrial Wire Rope for more than 10 years, and works out of our Hazelwood, MO location. He’s responsible for Outside Sales, and is a certified safety inspector for chain, wire rope ad synthetic slings. Chris is also certified in train-the-trainer on Crosby products.

With his remarkable tenure with Industrial Wire Rope, Chris can recall a lot of gratifying experiences. One that stands out was when he was new to the industry and to the position of outside sales person. Chris related the experience:

  • I started calling right away on one of the biggest construction firms in the St. Louis area. After months of phone calls, emails and meetings with this client, I finally landed my first order on July 2, 2007. Landing this first order was very exciting, however, there was one very big catch. The 4th of July holiday was in two days and my customer wanted a finished product on July 5th.

  • I had given them a two-week lead time on the items I originally quoted because parts we needed to assemble the items were on back order from the manufacturer — it was also going to take some time for us to assemble the product. With the 4th of July, not only did we lose a few business days due to the holiday, but we were shorthanded because other employees were taking vacations. I had to come up with a plan to get the product here on time and get the product assembled all while staying under budget.

  • I made numerous phone calls all over the country to find the parts and product I needed to make these assemblies. Late in the day on July 2nd I sent over a purchase order to a supplier. The product was supposed to be delivered early the following morning (July 3). We were going to spend all day assembling these items for our customer but the freight truck was late and didn’t show up until 4pm, leaving no time to assemble the items before the holiday.

  • My customer wanted the finished product on the 5th. I made the decision to come into work early on the 4th of July and assemble these items. While most of the country getting the BBQ grills warmed up, I was putting together an order for what would end up being one of my best accounts. What’s more, no freight companies were picking up on the 4th of July. That meant I had to wake up at 4am on the 5th to pick up the items I had assembled, and drive 2-1/2 hours to deliver them before 9am. Everything worked out though. The customer was extremely pleased with the product and service.

  • While it was tough at the time, looking back on it, this was the most satisfying moment involving a customer in my 10 years with Industrial Wire Rope. The company is still a regular customer.

As this dedication to the customer shows, Chris is a major asset to Industrial Wire Rope. In his spare time, he enjoys watching the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Blues.

 

 Wire Rope Eye on Industry History:

This month, we salute to the Shaduf! Yes, the Shaduf.

A painting of the shaduf collecting water

 

Have you ever wondered how the equipment our industry uses in a wide range of jobs first came to be? The “how” could probably take an interview with one of our ancestors, and we’d have to go way back into ancient times to do that.

Take one of the earliest versions of the crane, the shaduf. An ancient tool used for irrigation, it was the earliest form of a water-raising machine. Workers in Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as other African and Asian areas would use the shaduf to draw water from a lower level and raise it to a higher one.

First used about 4,000 years ago, the shaduf consisted of a long, pivoting beam balanced on a vertical support. A bucket hung from one side of the beam, and a heavy weight from the other. The “operator” would pull the bucket down to the water source and let the bucket fill. As it was released, the weight would draw the bucket back up. The operator would then pivot the beam to position the bucket over the area to be irrigated.

And the “rope” attaching the bucket and the weight? While fossil evidence of rope usage dates back as far as 17,000BC, ancient Egyptians get credit for likely being the first to develop tools for constructing ropes. This technology appeared about 4000BC, preceding the shaduf by a couple of millennia. The early ropes would have been made out of grass, water reeds or animal hair. That would be some tough grass or hair to raise a bucket of water!

 

Congratulations to WireCo!

In April, one of our suppliers, WireCo celebrated the 100th Anniversary of their Union Wire Rope brand. Congratulations to WireCo for a century of excellence and product leadership!

It’s a pleasure to do business with WireCo, and we wish them continued success on Union Wire Rope and the rest of their exceptional brands!

 

Until Next Month —

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