B&B precision

High Velocity Oxygen Fuelled (or HVOF) applied coatings are used in industry for components that need to perform at extreme temperatures, high wear and corrosive environments. B&B had invested heavily in this new technology but had struggled to find demand. Although HVOF is used in a variety of industries it is not necessarily known throughout engineering and is not a popular choice when compared with other coatings produced from electroplating. There were three major challenges with this project. The first was informing people of the process itself. Thermal Spraying encompasses four different processes of which HVOF is included, all are similar but different. Within HVOF there are a number of different materials that can be applied but often these are sold under brand names thus confusing potential buyers. Even where a company might be willing to try a new procedure, getting that approved is a slow procedure. Even where people knew/used HVOF it was unlikely they knew about B&B as a provider. With this project the key was to think long term and build slowly. I put out a large amount of technical data and information online and through targeted mailers which built up in terms of familiarity from explaining the process to understanding one coating against another. I also chose specific targets where accreditation would not be as much of an issue to send material to and a co-ordinated email campaign as well as post. The effect was that B&B was able to move onto the first page of google for HVOF coatings, as well as top of google for a number of keywords for instance ‘Tungsten Carbide.’ B&B were able to generate over £450,000 of enquiries within 8 months, with people regularly citing blogs and emails as a reason for their enquiry. They even had to start running nights and weekends so as to keep up with demand, and are now looking at doubling their capacity in this field.