It’s almost the first of November and to date there has been no mention of extending the very popular IRS Section 179 program.  Section 179 is one of the (very) few items from the 2008 stimulus package that is a real tangible benefit to small and medium size businesses.  It allows for bonus depreciation on asset purchases (including leases and installment purchases) of up to $250,000 on your company’s 2009 tax return.  If your company is going to have a tax liability for 2009, its time to start a little planning.  Your tax preparer is very aware of the program, (if he’s not, you need a new tax preparer) so talk to them.  If Uncle Sam wants to be in for a third of your purchase, who are you to deny him.  More information is also available at www.section179.org

We are working an getting the page up New Page is here, but wanted to get this information out to those of you that were unable to see the M-Series Debut at Pack Expo.  We recieved a tremendous response, and are very pleased with sales thus far, here are a couple of pics and the specs are below.

The all new EPI M-Series

Smart, Small, Simple

· Compact design - Main Plate dimensions 6” x 8.5”

· Accepts 8”, 12” or 16” unwinds (12” standard)

· Modular design allows for limitless configurations of unwind/rewind

· Easily convertible from right to left hand orientation (approx. 15 minute change over)

· Standard speed 1200 in (30m)/min. (speeds up to 6,000in (150m) /min are optional)

· CE Compliant

· Color touch screen HMI

· Legendary EPI simplicity – Train operators in less the 10 minutes

· Designed for stand alone or machine integrated applications

· Standard web width 5”

· Optimized for direct apply, wipe-on and merge applications

· Remote mounted controls for ease of integration/operation

· Hard anodized Aluminum, Stainless Steel, UHMW and Urethane construction.

· Built in the USA

Get more information

It’s been a few weeks since we got back for Pack Expo 2009 in Las Vegas (Pack Expo 2010 is in Chicago Oct 31 – Nov 3) and as always, we have been diligently following up on leads. There is a trend that we have noticed growing over the last few years that seems to be coming to a head…..that is the customer’s demand for information clashing with the supplier’s desire to protect their intellectual property. This was highlighted in a conversation we had with an R&D engineer for a fortune 100 company who attended Pack Expo Looking at labelers for equipment he is developing. This is a REAL customer, with a REAL, FUNDED, project, with a REAL company. After creating his short list of candidates, he went back to document the available equipment with pictures and notes. He was stunned to find that of the 8 companies on his short list, only 2, just 2 would allow him to take photographs of the equipment that they had on public display! One supplier’s employee went so far as to verbally accost him!

This goes to an idea that hasn’t yet filtered to the old guard industries just yet. It is the concept that we need to bring our customers in, we need to share all the information we possibly can, tell them what we do, how we do it, and why we do it that way. We need to open up on our manufacturing technologies and show them our software methodologies. This builds comfort and confidence in our skills, in our technology and in our ability to meet their needs, when faced with the option of an inclusive process or buying a black box, which are they going to choose?

Let’s be honest, there just aren’t that many secrets left and patents are only as strong as your desire to defend them. The belief that you are protecting your market by withholding what you believe to be proprietary information is flawed, security by obscurity is dead, it costs sales and alienates customers. How do I know? Our new customer told me so.