The Thomas Blog

Custom Cold Head Fasteners Can Help Keep Costs Under Control

Costing is one of the most influential factors in our manufacturing world today. There is an ongoing trend among companies across the globe to become “cost driven.” By reducing expenditures in a manufacturing process, profit is therefore increased by spending less to produce a product.

But what happens when you’ve exhausted all other options, and those monthly numbers still aren’t reaching expectations? Cold headed fasteners and components have come a long way in the past 100 years, and now is the time to consider your options.

If you’re looking for an economical solution to an expensive fastener or component problem, custom cold headed parts could be the answer to increasing your bottom line.

Video: The Star Wars Fighter Jet Comes To Life

One of the coolest and most iconic vehicles from the Star Wars universe has come to life thanks Gerlinger Steel & Supply, a Northern California company. They just built a life-sized version of the TIE fighter, the symbol of the imperial fleet in the original trilogy.

You Can Now 3D Print A House In 24 Hours

Looking to buy a new home but have a limited budget?

The folks at the San Francisco-based startup Apis Cor might be able to help you. They just built an entire house within 24 hours using 3D printing. 

You can find the company's 400 square foot house in a small Russian town. The company used a mobile 3D printer to make the walls, partitions and buiding envelope for the house.

Unfortunately, not everything could be done with the help of a 3D printer — the roofing materials, wiring and thermal insulation had to be done manually. 

8 Valuable Resources for Industrial Business Leaders

Every day, we use 2.5 quintillion bytes of data posting on social media, pinging GPS signals, downloading music — essentially, just living in the digital world. Do you know what a quintillion is? It’s one million, raised to the power of five. It’s one thousand, raised to the power of six. It’s a one followed by 18 zeros. It’s a big number. Suffice to say, we’re making heavy use of the digital resources at our disposal.

3 Tips to Getting Your Dream Customer's Attention With Content

If there’s one thing better than leads, it's leads from dream customers — those perfectly ideal potential clients with perfectly ideal potential orders. The problem is that dream customers probably seem more like unicorns or Bigfoot to you than actual, achievable contacts.

A New Platform Will Strengthen The Health Care Supply Chain

While building a strong and risk-free supply chain is essential for buyers in all industries, when it comes to health care, the stakes couldn't be higher. Even the slightest hiccup can lead to a catastrophic loss of human life. That's why the United Nations World Food Programme and NEC Corporation joined together to help streamline and strengthen the supply chain. 

Manufacturing Industry Jobs Update: February 2017

At THOMASNET.com, we are big champions of American manufacturing and reshoring. In fact, we work with suppliers who produce amazing products made in America every day, and we play an instrumental role in helping small- and medium-sized suppliers grow.

But how can we measure growth for the industry overall? A good barometer is the state of the manufacturing workforce. That’s why we will be regularly diving deep into the latest information from the Bureau Of Labor Statistics to take the pulse of hiring in the industry and to highlight sectors that are growing.

Insight on the Top Marketing Challenges in 2017 for Manufacturing Companies

While most industries jumped into using social media, email marketing, SEO and other digital marketing tactics almost a decade ago, manufacturing is finally coming around.

Unlike traditional print placement and ads, we all know that creating an online presence isn't a "one and done" mentality. More and more companies in the industrial space are building up their websites and traffic — the marketplace is quickly getting crowded, so marketing is now more important than ever.

How Industrial Companies Can Spend Their Marketing Dollars

Industrial manufacturing has been a driving force behind the U.S. economy for decades, but when it comes to digital B2B marketing, it's typically behind the curve.

The reliance on word-of-mouth recommendations and cold calling is no longer the only option for companies, and marketers have been slowly stepping up their game in the past few years.