In the machining and fabrication world not much matters more than your production time per part. In order to increase production, machinists are constantly looking to increase their feed rate while maintaining quality and of course preventing a dangerous situation where a part comes loose.

Increase Feed Rates With Increased Clamping Force

At Dimide we specialize in making heavy-duty impact wrench compatible clamps that effortlessly deliver over 5,000 lbs of clamping force. Needlessly to say, 5,000 lbs of clamping force is a lot. For reference a Hummer weighs between 4,800 lbs and 6,600 lbs which is well within our clamps load rating. This means you could either park a hummer on a part to hold it down (assuming you manage to fit all 4 tires on the part) or you could use one of our clamps. You may be wondering how you could benefit from having the equivalent of a literal hummer holding down your work. The answer to that is simple, if your parts can't move and can resist significant vibrations due to the massive clamping force then you can significantly increase your feed rates and therefore reduce your production time which leads to increased business and revenue!

Real Life Success

One of our customers and local machinists was milling a large peice of steel and was having trouble keeping the peice still while using some of our competitors clamps. Prior to using the Dimide Clamp, he was trying to use four kant-twist clamps  which was as many as he could fit on the parts surface. Unfortunately even at a low feed rate the part just wouldn't stop moving. Being down the streets from Dimide, he decided to give our clamps a try. Using a 1/2" impact wrench he tightened down the clamp to over 5,000 lbs of load and tried machining it again. This time not only did the part not move at all, he was also able to significantly increase the feed rate. As you can see in the video, his entire mill was shaking, but the part stayed perfectly in place thanks to the high clamping force of the Dimide Clamp.

When we were first starting Dimide we had an easy but critical choice to make, where to manufacture our products, in the USA or overseas. To us it was an easy choice, we felt that it was our responsibility to help our customers through more than supplying solutions, but also through giving our business to those who make our business possible.

This form of logic seemed obvious to us, unfortunately, many other tool manufacturers don't feel the same way partially due to consumer pressures to continually cut the cost of goods as much as possible regardless of any loss in quality or USA manufacturing jobs. Looking at products and their country of origin it has become rare to find a Made in the USA product. Home Depot, Amazon, Harbor Freight, and others have been continually growing simply by offering the lowest priced goods. It's common to go into a harbor freight and buy a clamp for $2.99. However, what most of us have also learned is that when you buy a clamp for only $2.99 you'll be replacing that clamp about once a month when it breaks doing basic jobs. It may be tempting to spend the $2.99 as a spontaneous purchase, but when it comes to tools you really do get what you pay for. Understand that the cost of replacing the same $2.99 clamp twelve times every year is $35.88 per clamp per year. When you buy low-quality tools the price and frustration of having the tools break frequently quickly adds up. Instead of spending your money on low-quality spontaneous purchases, its better to spend the money up front for a quality clamp that lasts decades saving you hundreds while providing a much better experience and functionality.

Besides simply supporting local manufacturers put food on their tables, there are several other advantages of being Made in the USA including better oversight of the manufacturing process, improved quality, intellectual property protection, reduced shipping time, and not dealing with customs. Due to the increased loading placed on our clamps through being designed for impact wrench compatibility, it is crucial that we work closely with all of our manufacturers to ensure material specifications and manufacturing specifications are met. There is a lot of work that goes into ensuring an impact wrench won't strip or deform a screw even after 1,000s of cycles. With hearing of all the nightmares of overseas manufacturers downgrading material specifications to save a penny due to a lack of oversight and knowing that it would require high strength chromoly steel made with special processes to meet the strength requirements for impact wrench compatibility, we knew going overseas simply wouldn't work. Many products that are manufactured overseas also end up having to deal with copycat products that can be damaging or destroy businesses.

As engineers we also have the advantage of having the capacity to create our own specialty tooling so that we can improve efficiencies in manufacturing while maintaining or even improving product quality without going overseas.

It is our goal to continue being Made in the USA to support those manufacturers who support us while also delivering value through innovative solutions and dependable tools that bring back the quality of tools that has been missed by many.