Do you think it’d be safe to venture off to the steel city for the following in a couple of weeks? It’s a free seminar in Sheffield that anybody is welcome to attend:

How can the BSSA help you during the downturn? Come to our free seminar and find out about opportunities available to BSSA members:

o Training in the downturn – how Metskill and the BSSA can help small and medium size businesses with skills training, including help to access funding;

o A chance to hear about the BSSA Buying Group and how it can save you money when purchasing a wide range of products and services;

o Advice and training from the BSSA – what help can the Association provide?

The forum will provide chance to discuss these opportunities and how they could benefit your business.

Non – members welcome

BSSA Forum Agenda

16.00 Registration & refreshments

16.30 Introduction – Nigel Ward, BSSA

16.35 Training in the Recession – Lisa Herbert, Metskill

17.00 BSSA Buying Group – Mick Rice, Independent Buyers

17.25 Advice, Training and Education from the BSSA – Alan Harrison, BSSA

17.50 Questions

18.00 Networking & Buffet

19.00 Close

You’re supposed to register your interest prior to the 16th of June so they know how many butties to make. There’s all the info you need here.

This credit collapse/meltdown/armageddon is a curious one to fathom. Do you not think? What are you lot seeing and hearing?

It seems like any response seems wholly inappropriate. For example, if you acknowledge there’s a squeeze going on but then follow up with how it isn’t affecting you and you’re bucking the trend, you’re a bit of an arse. Or, if you’re carrying on like you’re Prince circa 1999, you’re a bit more of an arse. And then if you race around like a financial Chicken Little, you’re an arse that’s on fire.

Now I received this email earlier today that falls into a category all of its own:

To say that 2008 didn’t come without its challenges would be an understatement. To say the New Year won’t bring new ones would be an overstatement. We’ve been there. We understand. ThomasNet.com is part of a larger organization that has survived, among other things, two World Wars and one major Depression. Experience has taught us how to navigate rocky roads and how to help businesses like yours do the same. This time is no exception.

To that end, we’d like to pass along some tips that can impact your bottom line as you consider and develop the upcoming year’s strategies:

• Evaluate your current suppliers to secure a healthy supply chain that will keep your operations moving

• Find out if your parts or products can be sourced locally to minimize shipping costs

• Keep up with new product releases to remain competitive and inspire new ideas

• Consult white papers to research new processes and technologies

• Grow your business without expanding your sales force

Now I’m sure Thomas.net are being well meaning here but maybe they could’ve added a bit more gravitas by invoking the spirit of Churchill as opposed to an England football chant. Still, as if I know what it’s like to steer a steady ship in choppy waters. I’d barely started my tea-time paper round when the Falklands kicked-off.

I’ll accept this is shaping up to be fairly swift and merciless, and there’s many a sheet metal fabrication or engineering shop shut down or dead round our neck of the woods. But the chaps were telling me over Christmas they’ve never known a busier potential January. It’s always been a quiet month, so they simply can’t work out where the upsurge has come from. In fact, straight after the credit crunch crunched, everything ground to an immediate halt – they were even looking at having a full two weeks shut down over Christmas and New Year. But that didn’t even transpire.

Maybe it’s a case of companies having held off for a couple of months and we’re only seeing what we would’ve seen in October. Maybe the pond’s a little smaller and people are having to look for new suppliers. Although I doubt it’s got much to do with tumbling steel costs.

Still, an unseasonably busy January a full 2009 does not make, so maybe it is time to batten down the hatches, dig in and roll those sleeves up.

Thomas.net, while a bit austere, could be right on the money.

Harland & Wolff Ship Broken for Scrap

The linked photoset from this weekend’s Guardian:

April 12 2008: Belfast, UK: The MSC Napoli cargo ship lies in a dry dock at Harland and Wolff ship builders as it is dismantled for recycling. The ship was grounded off the English coast after getting into difficulties during bad weather in January 2007. After she was split into two pieces, the largest front section was floated to the Harland and Wolff shipyard for recycling in August 2007. After the removal of approximately 80 cubic tonnes of waste oil and other pollutants 150 workers began the task of cutting up the high grade steel of the Napoli by hand. The steel is then smelted locally in Belfast and will most likely be used for ship building. The whole process will be finished in three to four weeks.

This is one for Jasper seeming he spent his apprenticeship in the shipyards of Glasgow. I’d like to say he’s bored us rigid with his tales of welding ship floors, but we still don’t have a clue from day to day what he’s talking about. Think of it as a blessing in disguise.

But I’m also pretty confident it’ll get everybody who swarms round The Tinbasher for out-of-date scrap steel prices hot under the collar, too.

Syd Mead futuristic illustration for United States Steel

This is part of an absolutely marvellous flickr set of what United States Steel thought the future might hold. It’s a touch more optimistic than their British counterpart, Corus, who only managed to inspire the dystopia that is Blade Runner with their monstrosity of a steel plant in Port Talbot.

However, USS obviously didn’t figure current prices into the equation.

[cap doff]

I always get mightily confuddled by various steel grades and types. Oh, I have the basics from 304 to 316 down pat, but when our Steve at Steel Strip mentioned to me that he’d started selling small quantities of spring steel I had to scurry off to Wikipedia to find out what spring steel actually was. All we get is this paltry stub:

Spring steel is a low alloy, medium carbon steel with a very high yield strength. This allows objects made of spring steel to return to their original shape despite significant bending or twisting.

Silicon is the key component to most spring steel alloys. An example of a spring steel used for cars would be AISI 9255 (DIN and UNI: 55Si7, AFNOR 55S7), containing 1.50%-1.80% silicon, 0.70%-1.00% manganese and 0.52%-0.60% carbon.

Most spring steels (as used in cars) are hardened and then tempered to about 45 on the Rockwell C-Scale.

According to Machinery’s Handbook, “The spring materials most commonly used include high-carbon spring steels, alloy spring steels, stainless spring steels, copper-base spring alloys, and nickel-base spring alloys.” According to the same, the most widely used spring steel is ASTM A228 (0.80–0.95% carbon) known as “music wire”.

I presume we’re not talking about slinky spring steel?

It makes a change to hear of somebody prepared to service the little guy…..as it were. Here’s Steve’s raison d’etre and combined mission statement:

Whilst steel mills regularly insist on minimum order quantities of up to 5 tons, and stockholders upwards of a ton, we have recognised the need of smaller engineering companies who may require as little as a single sheet to complete a project, or to replace a part in an aging piece of plant.

It can be frustrating and time consuming for an engineer to spend hours on the telephone trying to source small quantities of spring steel, only to find the supplier loses interest the moment he realises the small quantity involved. To be honest it’s as a big a problem often for the supplier as for the customer! Not for us.

So, if you’re looking to buy spring steel in small quantities I’d recommend you go and have a word with Steve over at Steel Strip as he’s a top bloke. Or, you can give him a bell on 01709 324379. (Yes, he can ship worldwide.)

Oh, and I can assure you I’m not on any commission. I just like it when people aren’t trying to stiff smaller companies – especially when they happen to be a mate.