3 Reasons Why a Ball Screw May Fail: Here’s What to Do If You Encounter This

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Ball Screw Failure|3 Reasons Why a Ball Screw May Fail: Here’s What to Do If You Encounter ThisPremature or unanticipated ball screw failure can be extremely frustrating, especially when it causes machine downtime. Thankfully, most ball screws can be repaired, and those that can’t be repaired or refurbished can be reverse engineered to meet the machine’s exact specifications. Before going into these repair options, let’s take a look at three of the most common reasons why a ball screw may fail.

Common Reasons for Ball Screw Failure

There are many reasons ball screws may fail prematurely, ranging from improper storage to overloading and even mismatching of leads between ball screws and ball nuts. Three reasons stand out among the crowd due to their frequency, so machine operators and owners should keep an eye out for these common problems.

Lack of Lubrication

Machine lubrication systems must be properly maintained using the correct type of lubricant. This helps to dissipate heat, reducing component wear. Insufficient lubrication is one of the most common reasons for ball screw failure, so machine operators should pay careful attention to this essential maintenance task. If the damage has already been done, machine owners can visit dynatect.com to get the help they need.

Eccentric Loading

Ball nuts and ball screws must be properly aligned to avoid eccentric loading, or sideloading. The ball screw assembly is only equipped to handle axial loading, so eccentric loading can cause the ball bearings to wear flat or break out of their return tubes. Eccentric loading can also create problems with overloading.

Excessive Speed

All ball screw assemblies are manufactured to withstand only a certain speed of operation, known as the critical speed. Exceeding this speed can cause the screw to vibrate or whip, causing misalignment and reducing ball screw longevity. Ball screw surface speeds above 8,000 inches per minute will almost always result in reduced rated life.

What to Do About Ball Screw Failure

The first thing to do is to call a specialized repair service. Some services offer 24-hour rush repairs, which may be the best option for those who need to get their machines up and running quickly. Otherwise, look for a company that offers quick turnarounds and economical replacement options.

In some cases, ball screw assemblies can’t be repaired. If it has sustained damage due to pitting or brinneling, the unit may need to be refurbished instead. The ball screw itself will need to be reground, and a new ball nut will be manufactured to fit the original assembly specifications.

Machine owners shouldn’t stop at repairing or refurbishing their ball screws and replacing them without first identifying and resolving the underlying problem. Lack of lubrication, eccentric loading, and excessive speed are all relatively easy problems to fix. If necessary, consult an engineer for help with correcting the problem. It will be worth the money since it will prevent the need for frequent repairs and costly premature replacements.

The Bottom Line

Ball screws have an impressively diverse set of precision applications, ranging from machine tooling to robotics, and beyond. These complex components are essential to the functioning of all machines that require linear actuation, so it’s important for machine owners to ensure that they are kept well-lubricated, clean, and properly aligned. When having a ball screw repaired, make sure to work with a reputable company that specializes in this niche field, and don’t shy away from hiring an engineer to help identify the underlying problem.

What is Transactional Email and How is it Used?

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Transactional Email|What is transactional email and how is it used?What is transactional email and how is it used?

Definition

“A transactional email is an automatic email sent to a single recipient to confirm a transaction or an event.”

Transactional emails have the highest opening rates because they are a direct response to a previous action; the user is somehow already waiting for them. In general, the click-through rates are incredibly high.

Transactional email is a service email that is sent after a user’s action, for example, a welcome message after registering on a website, a reset password confirmation, an auto-responder, a purchase receipt, etc.

Transactional emails are functional, and they are necessary for the normal functioning of your activity. If they are no longer sent, the function they perform ceases to be fulfilled, which can have severe consequences and cause you to lose many customers. Since transactional emails are so good for marketing, it is vital to ensure that they are delivered correctly to recipients and to trace it accurately.

Difference between email marketing and transactional email

Unlike marketing emails (newsletter type), which are sent in mass, transactional emails are sent to a specific recipient to confirm an action or notify them of an event. Typically, transactional emails include order confirmations, invoices, etc.

Types of Transactional Email

Invoices and receipts

Invoices and receipts can be integrated directly into confirmation emails but are sometimes the subject of a dedicated transactional email.

This kind of transactional email is particularly the case for:

  • Services not requiring delivery tracking
  • Subscriptions requiring the sending of an invoice at regular intervals

Tracking control

Your communication after a sale should not stop at the confirmation email. The various order follow-up emails have a crucial role in managing the wait.

You can send an email to notify your customers of the different stages of the order:

  • Order preparation
  • Shipped
  • Arrival order

Order confirmation

Your customer expects the transactional email the most. It is essential if you sell products or services online.
Pledge of seriousness and confidence for your customers; it must fulfil several objectives:

  • Confirm that the order has been taken into account
  • Reassure the customer
  • Send him all the information necessary for follow-up (order reference, access to his account, customer service contact, etc.)
  • Give him an estimate of the delivery time

This email plays a vital reinsurance role, and it often happens that the user has doubts about taking into account his actions, hence the importance of confirmation emails.

For some customers, ordering online is still something unusual and sometimes anxiety-provoking: a particular order confirmation email should reassure them that you are serious.

Password reset

The password reset email allows you to configure a new password via a single link. It is one of the essential transactional emails to set up: without it, your users who have forgotten their password have no way of being able to access their account!

How to set up your transactional emails?

Transactional emails are based on the SMTP protocol and require a specialised solution to ensure constant and reliable deliverability.

Use a dedicated and reliable solution

The best option is to go through a specialised transactional email services to manage your transactional shipments, such as sendgrid transactional email.

Sendgrid indeed offers many advantages compared to transactional emails included in CMS such as Prestashop, Magento, Woocommerce:

  • Real-time monitoring of performance indicators: deliverability, openings, etc.
  • Ability to customise your templates
  • Optimal and instant deliverability

Using the native solutions of most CMSs, you have no way of knowing if your transactional emails have arrived at their destination!

Separate your transactional mailings from your marketing campaigns

It is also essential to choose a solution that allows the routing of transactional emails to be separated from marketing emails.

Transactional emails are a vital point on your site and should not be penalised by the necessarily lower deliverability of your marketing mailings.

A problem in a marketing campaign can quickly lead to a decline in your reputation with email providers. You must, at all costs, avoid this impacting your transactional mailings.

Tips to Improve Your Transactional Emails

Finally, here are some tips to improve your transactional emails:

  • Keep the email concise and very clear. The user already knows what he expects, so be synthetic.
  • Send them a few seconds after the user action.
  • Use the most beautiful and most uncomplicated model to encourage clicks.
  • Place your contact details at the bottom of the page (footer).
  • Always send from an active address, better if authenticated.
  • Pay attention to the subject, and it must indicate the content of the transactional email to make it immediately recognisable in the inbox.

10 Top Reasons Why You Need To Hire Crane Services For Your Business

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Crane Services|10 Top Reasons Why You Need To Hire Crane Services For Your BusinessWith the rising demand for construction, many people are trying their luck with the construction business. Although constructing high-rise buildings and modern houses is not a piece of cake, everything is possible with a little hard work and dedication. However, purchasing construction equipment with a small budget is out of the question.

Construction has high machinery demands that might cost an arm, especially when it comes to coughing money for cranes. The majority of businesses face this issue. Surprisingly, there is a way out for every problem. How about you hire crane services rather than purchasing cranes? Here are 10 top reasons why you need to hire crane services for your business.

1. Efficient Material Handling

Do you think manual labor is enough on construction sites? Honestly, lifting those heavy blocks of cement is not a human’s cup of tea. They might lift it one by one, making it forever to complete the construction work. This is the reason why you spot cranes at every worksite; they can lift several blocks at a time and placing them where it belongs. Besides, you have an option to install tower cranes or self-erecting cranes to handle all the materials efficiently.

2. Less Time-Consuming

If it takes manual labor 15 minutes to shift material from one place to another, cranes can do it in 2 minutes. Thus, it not only saves time but makes the construction process a lot faster. At the same time, if you are thinking to get your crane, then it might take several days to install the machine. You would have to get a license, train the workers for using such heavy machinery, and follow all the safety precautions.

However, hiring crane services can help you escape all his hustle. You also have the option to hire the person who operates cranes. So, consider going with the option of crane hire.

3. Variety of Machines

Do you know there are different types of cranes? Every construction site has a different requirement for machinery and crane. If you are hiring crane services, then it exposes you to a variety of machines. You can opt for a mobile crane if you want to hoist the material or a tower crane to work on skyscrapers.

Similarly, there are loader cranes and overhead cranes for lifting heavy and different sorts of material. Believe it or not, purchasing all these machines requires a gigantic investment. Alongside being light on pockets, hiring crane services would provide you with all the machines you need.

4. No Maintenance & Repair Costs

Dealing with heavy machinery is not a child’s play. Several technical glitches or engine are misfunctioning, which can halt the entire construction process. However, when you are hiring crane services, all these problems are no longer your headache. The renting company would be responsible for all services and maintenance of the cranes. If it stops working on the construction site, you only have to inform them, and they would replace it with another one, maintaining a smooth flow of work.

5. Saves Money

Some businesses look for financing options when it comes to getting machinery for their construction site. It makes sense if you require the machinery for every project. However, if you are doing this to satisfy the needs of a single project, it can land you in trouble. Alongside repayments, you have to cast away money on interest payments too, shrinking your profits significantly. Therefore, consider renting the crane every time, fulfilling your need for different machinery.

6. Escape Insurance Fees

You can’t bring cranes to the site without any insurance. It involves working on heights on the top of the sky, making insurance mandatory. The ratio of accidents on construction sites is quite high, and you can’t end up risking machinery you just purchased, adding another expense on your list. This is the reason why the majority of businesses hire crane services to dodge these unnecessary costs. However, getting an insurance cover for employees remains essential.

7. Promotes Quicker Processes

Honestly, loading and unloading material with the help of manual labor is possible, but it can take days. Hence, it is better to rely on machinery and equipment to fulfill these monotonous tasks. Many construction workers also develop back injuries due to heavy material lifting. Therefore, using cranes doesn’t only speeds up the entire process, but motivates workers to perform efficient tasks. After all, in today’s world, modern cranes can hold tons of material and while carrying it 10,000 meters high.

8. Weather Doesn’t Halt Operations

Humans can’t work during heavy rain showers or windy days since it is very risky to climb buildings. All these external factors can halt operations, but things are different when working with machinery. They can work in the rough and tough climatic conditions. Therefore, explore the option of hiring a crane to maintain a smooth flow of work. The operator working on the crane has a protected cabin, helping him run the crane efficiently.

9. Ensures Safety

Many construction sites face accidents due to a lack of safety measures. After all, the workers are sweating under hectic conditions while performing risky functions. Well, if you use machinery to replace this dangerous work, it would reduce the number of injuries. The workers would feel satisfied and also increases their productivity levels. Cranes are completely safe; workers work with all the safety manual and equipment, avoiding safety violations.

10. Swap with Latest Equipment

Do you see the changing technological trends? Similarly, equipment and machinery are also evolving and introducing new functions. If you are considering purchasing equipment, it is impossible to cope with the changing trends. However, while hiring cranes, you can enjoy using the latest cranes and machinery on your site. At the same time, you swap equipment easily too. For instance, you can get a high-tech crane for a high-rise building and over loader for building houses.

Wrap Up

Every business demands some risky decisions and calculations. In the construction business, it is always about getting the right equipment. Some owners are skeptical about purchasing heavy cranes and equipment while others are exploring options of renting services. Well, if you can’t decide, look above to see the 10 top reasons why you need to hire crane services for your business.

Five Management Tips for Manufacturing Companies

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Management Tips|Five Management Tips for Manufacturing CompaniesWhen we speak of manufacturing, we’re often reminded of the factory floor itself, with its workers and automated machines working in harmony to mass-produce equipment and consumer goods for a global marketplace. We rarely think of the managers who make these things happen – and that will be the focus of this article. Managers are able to adapt their factories and production lines to build effectiveness and efficiency – and this is where the five tips below come in, showing you where and how to manage your production facility for the biggest gains in 2020.

Staff

As a manager, your first responsibility is towards your staff. Without staff who are motivated and happy, it’s difficult to run a business. It’s difficult to get them to work the extra hours you may need them to work, and it’s even harder to have them put their all into their work each day. As such, man-managing your staff, with regular meetings, appraisals, and pay rises will help get the most out of your human resources each week of the year.

Processes

You should also, as a manager, be taking a close look at the processes through which your business is working. For instance, your overall production process – from raw inputs to your outputs – is one overarching process, with several smaller processes within it. To really understand these various processes, you should audit your entire production cycle in order to get to grips with where you might, as a manager, be able to intervene and improve upon some of the processes that are central to your work.

Equipment

Astute managers should always be on the lookout for the newest and most reliable equipment to bring into their manufacturing facility. Without the best equipment, you’re unlikely to run at the highest-possible capacity in your facility, with gaps in production when certain elements fail or break. Be sure to use the most advanced in the load cell developer field, and the most impressive sensors and switches, in order for your production crew to continue producing through the weeks and months ahead.

Health and Safety

All facilities – whether offices or factories – require you to be responsible for health and safety. Laws in your locality will stipulate this, by showing you a number of responsibilities that you have towards your staff. While you may not be liable, should your staff suffer injury at work, your company surely will be – and this is something you want to avoid at all costs, as damaging litigation from a former employee will be an unwelcome distraction from your day-to-day operations.

Operational Planning

Finally, managers will hold regular meetings with senior figures across the company in order to divine where, in the future, the company ought to move. For instance, monitoring the market for signs of fluctuation and change can be important for your business – it means you can anticipate demand ahead of time, and put plans in place to ride out dips in demand, or to make the most of the peaks.

Managing in the manufacturing industry is a tricky task – and that’s why this article gathers together five top tips to help you make the most of your managerial role, boosting your company’s performance at the same time.

Temporary lockdown: What to do if your business has been hit by coronavirus

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution and Managing Your Business Article |Coronavirus Lockdown|Temporary lockdown: What to do if your business has been hit by coronavirusAs we all know, the world is coming to something of a halt courtesy of the recent coronavirus outbreak.
To say that it is unprecedented would be an understatement of the highest regard. Many countries have insisted that businesses have to be shut down and for the economy as a whole, this has monumental repercussions.

For self-employed individuals, this is a scary time. It’s going to be difficult, and for the time being at least not many people are going to hold many answers. Sure, the government might be pledging various support packages, but it remains to be seen what sort of difference this will make.

Bearing this in mind, today’s article takes a look at three areas which you should be considering if your business is bracing itself for a lockdown (or has already). Again, it might be of little consolation for the time being, but by keeping an eye on these areas it might do your chances of prevailing out of the other side of coronavirus the world of good.

Consider your storage options

Like it or not, this might be a time where you have to close your main premises. Some companies will decide to do this to cut costs, while others might decide that they just aren’t getting the footfall to merit staying open.

However, if you sell tangible products, you still need somewhere to store items. This is where you need to research storage units, or alternative smaller office space, as your business gets through this period. Both of these solutions can save you money in the short-term.

Be as flexible as you can with your employees

As we keep being told, this is going to be an almightily tough time for everyone in the world. Jobs will be lost, and some people really will be struggling to financially survive.

This is where you need to offer as much flex to your employees as possible. Granted, you can’t put the future of your business at risk and there will be times where tough decisions have to be made, but whenever possible try and add a degree of flexibility with your workers. It might be offering them the chance to take unpaid leave now, or even take their annual leave. Some people will realize the difficult positions that businesses are currently in and will accept these decisions, if they at least know in the back of their mind that they will have a job waiting for them when this crisis is over.

Communicate to customers whenever possible

We’ve entered an era into the unknown; nobody has ever experienced this before and it means a lot of issues are up in the air.

This is the time where communication is key. We’ve gone past the stage where we can stay quiet and hope for the best, customers will want updates as to where your business stands on the virus. This will largely depend on the nature of the industry you are involved in. For some, it might be the occasional email about stock levels, while for others it might be reassurance about the steps you are taking to minimize the risk of the virus spreading. Either way, communication is key during this period – people still need to know that your business is operating.