Let's
make one thing clear
- Mr.
Benson did NOT bring this product to market
by himself! There are many who deserve
credit for helping him along the way.
First
and foremost - He gives thanks to God
for granting him the patience
required in order to bring this
product to market, as this journey held countless
obstacles.
The
following individual contributors and legal
counsel were very instrumental in making this
project a reality:
| Harold & Frances Benson |
Zane Ellzey |
| Carl Benson |
Mark Evans |
| Joy Benson |
Tom Fox |
| Wallace Benson |
Bob Harris, P.C. |
| Tim Chaney |
Jim Hunter |
| Ed Cline |
Peacock & Myers, P.C. |
| Cypress Industries |
Oscar Rameriz |
| Dave Darling |
Signs Now, Amarillo, TX |
| Brian Edwards |
Wald & Associates, P.C. |
Product
Development
"Just
the Facts, Ma'am," which may be boring for
some of you, but read on if you have some time
to kill.
October
1998 - After six-plus years with Applied
Materials working as a mechanical engineer, Benson
volunteered to get downsized during the third
round of lay-offs that year, after surviving three
other previous downturns in the industry... can
you say, "show me the money?” Benson
had an idea and he did NOT want corporate America
to "own" this one!
November
1999 - It became "legal" for
Benson’s hand to touch a mouse and apply some
"creative thoughts" to the concept of
inserting a barbed fitting in “mid-air”
and, on a portable basis.
June
2000 - Benson was rehired by Applied
Materials as a Customer Engineer and relocated
to Albuquerque, NM. Before settling in ABQ he
was on the road for training in Texas and California
for almost a full year. Upon rehire, Benson supplied Applied Materials with notarized documentation
of his idea, which later became known as the BarbMaster®.
It wasn't until the summer of 2001 that he was
able to get a prototype manufactured. Once the
prototype and theory proved successful it was
time to conduct market research. Several industry
experts provided enough positive feedback that
in the fall of 2001 our first patent attorney
was hired and the application process was under
way.
February
2002 - First Patent Application filed
and almost immediately it was rejected! That
documentation, previously mentioned above, established
Benson’s timeline for development and was invaluable
to his defense, as this became the "magic
bullet" that saved the day for the BarbMaster
I platform! Those Patent Office rejection
issues were immediately squelched and the decision
was in his favor. If it were not for those
five sheets of notarized documents this project
would have died long ago!
Summer 2003 - Patent was "accidentally
abandoned" by the U.S. Patent Office – Whoops
& YIKES! A rather
thick petition had to be filed by Benson’s new
attorney in order to overcome this alleged "accident."
The patent was successfully resurrected for the
second time and the Patent Office refunded the
petition fees.
December
2003 - Patent No. 6,658,711 was finally
issued.
Okay, so
now we need some money for tooling and raw materials,
along with a shop for modification activities
and assembly of the finished product. This too
was not an easy task because it took another two
years to find additional funding, that is, after
the disillusion of a partnership with a machine
shop owner that was formed in late 2003.
Q2
2006 - The product finally makes it
to market and, without having to give half the
company away in order to do so - Yeehaw!
Future
Product Development
What's
Next?
The BarbMaster II,
of course!
Challenge...
The BarbMaster I platforms have their limitations
because they can only handle hose/fitting applications
from 1/4" through 3/4" I.D. (inside diameter). Both of the
BarbMaster platforms currently released to market
cannot install a 1" fitting. WHY? Because
to accommodate 1" I.D. hoses the Locking-Lever
support tower must be extended vertically by 3/4".
Oh sure, one could probably squeeze a 1"
hose into either of the BM-1000 platforms and,
depending upon the brand of fitting and the strength
of the forearm of the user, they might be able
to install a 1" fitting into a 1" I.D.
hose. However, a better solution for these larger
applications is coming down the pike!
Solution...
There is a second patent that is currently
in the pending mode. To be more specific, it's
called a CIP - "Continuation in Part."
There is also a working prototype of the "BarbMaster
II" and it will easily install 3/4"
and 1" fittings. In addition, there are two
varieties of this tool that are currently in development, (i.e. one is for "standard" rubber industrial hoses
and the other is for "wire-braid" reinforced
hoses, like those used in high-pressure applications
of 500 to 3,000 psi).
Time
to Market... Simply send us $350,000
for the engineering, tooling, and basic marketing
expenses and we will have the die- cast molds created
in as little as three months. Benford Tools is
a start-up venture and considers themselves lucky
(Luck - " luck
is nothing more than preparedness meeting opportunity!"
- Alvis Evans, d.1997) just to have the
first two product designs released, manufactured,
and brought to market. One of our primary objectives
is to get the BarbMaster II to market as quickly
as possible; however, we must recover some of
the current sunk costs associated with the BarbMaster
I before we can move forward on these two products.
And yes, we are always seeking an outside angel
investor(s) that can provide the necessary expansionary
capital to help us reach these goals sooner.
Process
Technology
In the
past, inserting a barbed-hose fitting into the
end of an industrial hose required either "brute
force," the use of a hand-operated table-top
insertion tool, or Parker's elaborate $5K+ stand-alone
shop unit.
The main
feature of the BarbMaster I is that it brings
total "portability" to this process,
and secondary to that is an ergonomic, easy-to-use design. No longer does one need to rely upon
brute force to insert a barbed-fitting, nor does
it require one to remove the entire hose assembly
and bring it to a shop. The main objective and
"process improvement" of the BarbMaster
I was to bring portability to the process, and
these tools have met that requirement.
In addition,
for production settings, where one needs a "stationary"
insertion tool, the BarbMaster can easily be held
in place by a table vice. These BarbMaster I platforms
are ready for high-volume production use -- simply
place the Travel-Bar into a vice and presto, you
have a stationary table-top fitting insertion
tool. (Note: A vise mount adapter is currently being prototyped and will soon be available. In the meantime, don't worry about clamping the lower portion of the Travel-Bar and Hose Mounting Platform into the vise via the mounting bolts. These 1/4" bolts are 8-18 stainless steel and so you will not damage any protective coating by doing this. If the ends of the bolts get damaged, so what, the platform was never meant to be taken off and/or disassembled. If the tool breaks using this procedure, simply send the tool back and we will replace it.)
Pease see
the pictorial representation of the BarbMaster's
function, features, and ergonomic design on our
Product Page.
Go
to Products Page
Product
Quality
Quality
- All of our product/raw materials
are purchased from American-based companies,
most of which are ISO 9000 process certified.
As you have noticed by now, our product is nothing
more than the extension of existing technology
that has been adapted to the high-tech industrial
plumbing arena. Yep, we simply migrated the Pusher
Mechanisms and Travel-Bars from existing COTS
(common off-the-shelf) bar-clamps. There is no
"rocket science" here folks, just common
sense.
These "bar-clamps"
are manufactured by either Irwin/American Tool
or Jorgensen. The Irwin product is the Quick-Grip®
Clamp (No. QC-518) and the Jorgensen is the ISD®
Bar-Clamp Spreader (No. 33018). Both of these
tools are engineered to high standards and are
great products for what they were designed. Although
Benford has chosen to use and modify these COTS
tools, there is always room for improvement.
Current
Challenges...
1.
The BM-1000i (Irwin) is limited in pushing power
for aggressive barbed-fitting/hose combinations
(e.g. Swagelok® brand hose and fitting assemblies).
However, this is the "tool of choice"
for those less-aggressive fittings, like that
of Parker brand Push-Lok® , Goodyear's INSTA-GRIP®, and WINGFOOT® 200/300, Gates®, Aeroquip®, American Coupling®, and other similar, pliable low-pressure hose applications where barbed-fittings are used.
2.
The BM-1000j (Jorgensen) has what appears to be
a thinner/weaker Travel-Bar, although they claim
the pusher mechanism has 40% more pushing power
than market ( i.e. "market" being Irwin's
Quick-Grip® QC-518!). When comparing "vertical
flex" of the two travel-bars, well, the Jorgensen
ISD Clamp/Spreader indeed has more flexing action
when loaded than that of the stronger Irwin travel-bar.
Flexing of the Travel-Bar is not what Benford
considers a desirable feature but there are limits
as to how much carbon one can have in a steel
bar before it becomes BRITTLE!
SOLUTION...
Create a single tool that's reengineered to exceed
the current requirements. Hopefully, within the
next 24 months, we can generate enough cash flow
in order to create our own design and molds for
the pushing mechanism and Travel-Bar assemblies,
which will provide Benford the opportunity to
better control these engineering concerns. However,
until then we must live with this potential "flexing"
challenge.
APPLICATION: For use with push-on fittings at working pressures of 300 psi or less. For low-pressure hydraulic and pneumatic systems such as shop air systems, general industrial, maintenance and automotive applications. These tools are not for use with steel-braid reinforced hoses.
3.
Rusting of the Travel-Bar!
Yes folks,
these Travel-Bars will rust/oxidize if the factory
coating is damaged and exposed to moisture. Heck,
a few of these Travel-Bars already have some light
rust occurring on them when they arrive at our
modification facility in Texas. In addition, these
tools operate on the premise of "FRICTION,"
like that of a caulking-gun push rod; and as such,
no matter what coating one applies to these Travel-Bars,
it's going to come off during normal use!
This challenge may not have a quick-fix, but rest
assured, we know it exists and it is a concern
that will be addressed in the future. In the mean
time, our production staff will never send out
a "pre-rusted" Travel-Bar - PERIOD!
4.
Travel-Bar finish requirements...
During
the shipping process these tools are jarred around
quite a bit; and as a result, many of the Travel-Bars
have bare metal nicks and scratches present on
them when they arrive at our modification facility.
ALL of our fixtures used in the cutting and
drilling processes are made from wood, in
order to eliminate any additional damage caused
by our own in-house processing. The only "metal"
touching these Travel-Bars in our shop is the
blade for cutting, and the drill bit for drilling
of the mounting holes.
In order
to counteract this challenge, ALL "non-cleanroom"
Travel-Bars are recoated with a specially formulated,
very thin, oil-based, flat-black enamel. This
is a durable and tough coating that can also withstand
temperatures of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. Heck, many of
the Jorgensen bars actually seem to work better
with this coating, versus that of the factory
coating. Only about 1 in 5 Travel-Bars are "worthy"
of being selected as a cleanroom tool, as minimal
paint has been applied to these newly-added holes
and the one bare-metal end, which occurs from the
cutting and drilling processes. All Travel-Bar
holes and bare ends are hand-painted with an industrial
paint pen, no matter if they are cleanroom
bound or not.
For non-cleanroom
applications it is recommended that one keep a
light coat of oil on the Travel-Bar in order to
help prevent oxidization of any bare metal that
might be exposed.
Benford's
Quality Policy
& Objectives
Benford's
quality statement is as follows: Our purpose at
Benford is to develop and deliver superior-performing
industrial plumbing tools that redefine and exceed
the current industry standards. We are committed
to continuous improvement throughout the quality
process, assuring consistent conformance to the
customers' requirements and expectations.
These
objectives can only be achieved at Benford by
a culture that embraces an extreme customer-centric
set of values, attitude, and focus, and implement
that focus through the daily involvement of every
employee, contractor, and supply-chain vendor.
We gauge our success by our customers’ satisfaction.
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