One big project Hartco undertook in 2009 was to bring our website up to date with a new look, new functionality, and a more user friendly interface. Our goal was to be able to provide our distributors and their customers with the ability to get the information that they need in a format of their choosing.

Our website includes a dealer section where our distributors can benefit by having access to the information that they need as well as take training courses that we are developing for the site. Each distributor can also view items such as pricing and distributor agreements.

Besides the easier to navigate layout, our end users will benefit from our new, dynamic and searchable knowledge base, where our interactions with some customers can be made available to other customers. Finding a distributor is now easier with our new locator. Customers can still contact us by phone or by e-mail; but we are also regularly available to chat in our online chat area.

Not everything is different, however. Hartco’s website still includes the “how-to” videos, product brochures, and our life helps section which provides reference sites for life’s many questions

Come take a look

Vinyl vs Rubber

We have the privilege of interacting with industry experts all the time. In a recent conversation with a sign-maker, I was asked to help him understand the differences that exist between the sandblasting masks made of vinyl and those made of a rubber compound. He told me that he knew that Hartco was less expensive, but that he had always used rubber and was hesitant to try something else. “You know,” he said, “I have my method and cannot afford to change if it costs me more than I can save!”

I began with what seemed to me to be the basics: Hartco’s SandMask is fully cured PVC while the rubber masks are made of an uncured rubber compound. Before I could go straight to the next point, the artist interjected and asked me “So what does that mean?”

I told him to imagine a rubber-band. He pulls the rubber-band and when he lets go the original shape is returned; this is an example of a cured rubber. When rubber is not cured, however, it has a different effect, more like taffy. It can be stretched in almost any direction, and it would be nearly impossible to get it back to its original shape once it has been stretched. This was something that the sign-maker understood. He had experienced trying to transfer his stencil and having the shape distorted from his intended design. I explained that Hartco vinyl SandMask is fully cured and his designs will hold their shape from cutting to blasting and all the steps in between.

I handed him a sample of Hartco’s vinyl SandMask and he immediately stated that it was too thin to blast. Apparently he had experienced pitting with rubber when it was too thin; this allowed me to explain to him that vinyl is a more dense product than rubber and that it didn’t need to be as thick as a comparable rubber mask to hold up to the same blasting pressures. I also took the opportunity to carefully cut the surface of the sample and show him how the white line is present where the material has been cut.

The sign maker hesitated. He appreciated the line where he could see what was cut and what he still needed to weed out. He liked the thinner mask that would track easier through his friction feed or pin feed plotter. He really liked that the vinyl wouldn’t distort his final image, but he has done it the same way for so long and was used to doing it one way. Change would be hard, would it be worth it? I could see that he was debating this, so I asked him the question that so many sign-makers that work in sandblasted signs can relate to. “How do you feel about the talc powder that has to be put on the rubber to keep it from sticking to the liner or to itself?” He knew exactly what I was talking about and I could see his frustration. I could see that the powder had been more than a nuisance. I explained that with Hartco, there is no powder.

Our customer has been loyally purchasing from their local Hartco distributor ever since.

Feature Update!

Our website has a new distributor locator! One of the most common calls that we get from the users of our product is to find a distributor in their area. Just enter your zip code and we will tell you what distributors exist within the distance that you select! Give it a try! http://www.hartcoservice.com/sandmask/dealer-locator