Back to the roots - Product Roadshow to navigate sales in Thailand through the Covid-19 Crisis
During a crisis such as Covid-19 it is even more important to maintain a strong customer experience. Understanding the changing dynamics of Covid-19 regulations and finding new ways of approach in person and digitally are the new normal.
We at ZwickRoell love meeting our customer face to face and bringing them the experience of operating the machines. We value engaging in discussions about testing technologies and the future development requirements. As the safety restrictions didn’t allow us to organize some of our annual events and bring the customer to us, we decided to go where our audience is and bring the testing to the customer by launching a Product Roadshow for Melt Flow Testing. A roadshow provides an opportunity to demonstrate the product and conduct a training. This type of event brings the product to the client, instead of a client’s searching and potentially finding competitors.
Responding to Covid-19 challenges with testing solutions for Personal Protective Equipment
In fight against Covid-19 new applications emerged, such as ensuring a high quality of polypropylene (PP). PP is used for spun-bound and melt-blown resins in medical face mask and in medical protective clothing, and functions as a filter providing products high filtration efficiency against the smallest particles.
For quality assurance of the PP an extrusion test is performed. While the spun-bound resin has a lower melt index, the melt-blown resin is three times as high, which places particular demands on the testing system. The volume flow index (MVR) of these polymers typically lies between 1200 and 2000 cm³/10 min.
With the Mflow, ZwickRoell offers the right instrument to address this challenge. It enables the measurement of high MVRs, and with die plug ensures that the material stays in the extrusion barrel during preheating and that afterward, the test is automatically run with high quality.
Mflow Roadshow was born
With this in mind, but not forgetting the typical melt flow applications, our partner in Thailand, SCS Instruments, prepared a roadshow whereas the center stage belonged to our Mflow index tester. It was a great opportunity to create product awareness about ZwickRoell’s melt flow tester product range and to showcase the new intuitive and workflow-oriented touch operation of the instrument.
It enabled SCS to stay connected with existing customers and to get the attention of new potential customers. The roadshow targeted 3 customer groups: raw material producers, end product users and universities doing research of materials. SCS was able to visit 9 customers in 1,5 months and returned with 4 new orders.
We liked the idea of the Mflow roadshow very much as it enabled us first-hand impressions about the possibilities of its usage for our research. We learned about the product quality and experienced competence of ZwickRoell partner SCS. We are confident to have gained good future local support.
Prince of Songkla University, Material Science division
Increase image, win new customer and increase revenue
During the live demonstrations we received positive customer feedback on reliable test results achieved with the Mflow. A precision piston transducer ensures accurate measurement of piston stroke when determining MVR. The contact point is very close to the piston, minimizing possible angle errors from the outset.
Another engaging talking point was the testing software testXpert III, which is accessible on the touchscreen directly on the instrument or via PC. Both versions offer intuitive and workflow-oriented operation and an immediate evaluation of test results.
Further features of Mflow such as the pneumatic weight-lifting, the simplified cleaning function or the automatic die plug opening after each test were highlighted by our customer as an extra benefit for the daily user.
Prince of Songkla University, Thailand
IRPC, Thailand
Customer satisfaction leads to trust, loyalty & referral
Last but not least one of the most important decision criteria we heard from our customers is to have a reliable supplier with a good local after-sales support. We are glad to be seen in Thailand as competent in plastics industry and taking good care of our customers. A truly Win-Win situation at the end, as our satisfied customer helped us with referrals.
“It is of utmost importance for us to make sure the raw materials we further use are up to our quality standards. Testing of incoming goods should be as intuitive and effective as possible, minimizing unnecessary steps yet delivering accurate and reliable test results. With Mflow’s piston travel transducer in combination with the testing software testXpert we found the perfect solution.”
Tetrapak Thailand, Quality Control Department