Terry Tuerk, Senior Product Manager of Metabo USA, spoke with Stainless Steel World Americas about the company and one of its new products, the new MAG 28 LTX 32, while at FabTech 2011.
Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your role within the company?
Where are your clients located?
They are located throughout North America, but there are concentrations. Chicago, the rust belt of the U.S., is our strongest area. In Canada, Toronto and Southwestern Ontario are other strong areas.
What sets this company apart from the rest?
We are a German power tool manufacturer; our products are still made in Germany. In the power tool industry that’s becoming pretty rare, especially if you look at our specialty which is angle grinders. Our niche is angle grinders and abrasives.
Are you targeting any new customer bases or branches of industry?
Yes, we’ve got a couple of new things. In terms of stainless steel, we’re working on the Inox program which has been out for around a year now. We’re really building into a different trade group and targeting a more specialized fabricator, not your metal fabricator making tanks, doing pipeline work. We’re focusing on specialties, people making railings, gates, decorative ornamental iron etc.
And we have a new product called the cordless mag drill, which takes us into a whole other market as well. It’s the world’s first cordless magnetic drill. The drill uses a 25.2 V Li-Ion battery to power the tool in addition to a permanent magnet, independent from the battery. It’s a special magnet, a rare earth neodymium iron boride magnet, with 2500lbs of pull when totally attracted to the metal. It is a two speed tool that can drill up to 1 ¼’ diameter holes in steel. People who are looking at that and buying this product now are not asking about the price first, they say “I need it”. Let’s say I need to drill two or three holes in the beams on a ceiling; I’ve got to bring out a generator and string 500ft of extension cord to do this. With the cordless magnetic drill, I can just take the machine up and I’m done. It’s a big time saver and a big labor saver.
What are you most proud of at the moment?
I would go back to our angle grinders; we make the best angle grinders in the world and the best abrasives in the world for them. That is our heart, that’s our heart and soul.
