Bobby
I read with interest your recent commentary on Contact Systems. One item that caught my eye was your instruction to possible users of Contact Equipment to be wary of their used machines.
We at Magellan Service have been providing support to over three hundred manufacturing facilities where Contact machines are installed. This has taken place over the past seven years, and we have supported facilities with new and used Contact machines. We also provide reconditioning, training, retrofits, on site service, contract Preventative Maintenance, and phone support.
Having said this, we speak to Contact service personel on a weekly basis. Each time we have placed calls to their facility, someone is available for phone support. We also purchase spare parts from Contact. Parts have been readily available.
It may interest you to know, of the 4,000 plus thru hole machines manufactured by Contact, over 95% are still in production, not bad for a machine which began its life cycle over 16 years ago.
In addition, over 99% of the C3S's, AV's, AVX's, and Z's are still in production facilities running strong. When first introduced, it was one of the most desireable platforms for use in Contract Manufacturing facilities. They are flexible, easy to program, user freindly machines. You can call our offices at anytime and we will gladly run down the list of standard features that make this machine a proven success in the field.
Magellan Service has installed used Contact machines at learning facilities. The machines' low cost, flexible platform, and ease of programming/use make them a cost effective and user freindly training platform. I would gladly have you come to our facility, we have for years trained new users in a days time on all aspects of running and programming on these machines. Why spend thousands more on a machine to be used in a classroom environment?
Lastly, the C7 is not a bust. Yes, Contact has spent several years on its development, but the machine is in the field building real product. And if this platform ends up being nothing more than a development tool for the C5, so much the better for the end user.
Feel free at anytime to call for information concerning Contact manufactured machines. I have personally worked on this equipment for 15 years and firmly beleive that these machines are not going away.
Regards,
Robert Tomaselli, President Magellan Service Corp Office 860 489 5119 Mobile 203 232 4308
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