DC Velocity - February 2015

inbound

Videos are a great way to show how material handling equipment operates. We produce quite a few “how it works” videos ourselves, which you can watch on Channel 2 of our DCV-TV website ( www.dcvelocity.com/velocityvideo/) and on our Move It! Web TV show ( www.moveitshow.com).

Like us, the equipment makers, systems integrators, and service providers that share their own videos on DCV-TV’s Channel 4 believe that a video is worth a thousand still photos.

Most of the clips you’ll see on Channel 4 are all business, but a few are unexpectedly creative and entertaining. For example, two of the most popular videos on DCV-TV as of this writing are colorful animated films. One is about opportunity charging for lift truck batteries, produced by Ametek Prestolite Power. The car-toon-style characters in the video briefly demonstrate how opportunity charging works and talk about how it differs from conventional charging methods. Another, by Newcastle Systems, promotes the company’s mobile battery-powered workstations, which allow workers to bring scanners and printers directly to pallets and to loading and receiving docks.

Those two are clever, but we have to give a special shout-out to industrial battery maker Delta-Q Technologies for its witty production, “Super Charged Hits: 30 of the Best Battery Charging Profiles of All Time.” Inspired by 1970s late-night TV commercials, the one-minute video about Delta-Q’s product line entertains with retro-style graphics, a funky soundtrack, a fast-talking narrator (“Featuring all your lead-acid favorites!”), and geeky engineers in safety glasses bopping around a research lab showing off various battery models.

Watch these and other viewer-contributed videos at www.dcvelocity.com/dcvtv/ viewercontributed.

Repurposed Materials Inc. says it is not a recycler. Instead, CEO Dan Creacy prefers the term “industrial matchmaker.” The company’s mission is to bring together waste or unusable material and people who have ideas on how to repurpose it. We’re not just talking about grimy old junk here (although there’s plenty of that); Repurposed Materials’ business has enough cachet that it has even been featured in Oprah Winfrey’s O magazine.

The company will sell almost any kind of unwanted industrial products, including material handling equipment. For instance, a recent check of its website found 275-gallon IBC totes, used bulk shipping bags, plastic pallets, and conveyor belting.

Customers reuse the items they’ve bought in creative ways. Examples include turning giant mining equipment tires into livestock-watering stations, concrete utility pads into ballast for empty truck trailers, and rubber roofing membrane and “retired” vinyl billboard ads into cargo covers for flatbed trucks. One customer wrote in to say he was using old conveyor belts to build feeding stations for dairy calves, while another was using the belting to protect the bottoms of snowplow blades.

Repurposed Materials Inc. is headquartered in Denver and has an operation near Chicago. The company is looking to expand to Atlanta.

New life for old stuff

More than 350 attendees are expected to be on hand for the 19th Annual Northeast Trade & Transportation Conference, scheduled for March 30–April 1 in the historic seaside resort of Newport, R.I. And with good reason: The conference organizer, the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT), has put together a program that “covers the waterfront” when it comes to developments in international trade and transportation.

Among the topics on the agenda are West Coast ports and labor, the future of the Federal Maritime Commission, the impact of 3-D printing on logistics, and an update on U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s security programs. Speakers will include Port of Long Beach CEO Jon Slangerup, FMC Chairman Richard Lidinsky, and CONECT Washington counsel Peter Friedmann.

You don’t have to be from the Northeast or New England to attend! For more information and to register, go to www.conect. org/events/event_details. asp?id=528692&group.