Having showcased its Band-It Bantam tool CO75 at last year’s Electra Mining Africa exhibition, the 2014 sales of clamping systems solutions provider Banding & Identification (ID) Solutions increased by 3%, says Banding & ID Solutions South Africa (SA) business manager Rosa Remendos.

She attributes the shift in sales – from 8% to 10% – to the company’s ongoing promotion of the Bantam tool’s various applications.

This year, Banding & ID Solutions SA will continue to promote the tool by holding demonstrations for end-users, including dairy producers, the food industry and chemical plants, to increase sales by 12%.

The compact, lightweight, ratchet action tool has a built-in cutter, with three-way handle that adjusts for one- or two-handed tensioning; it is zinc-plated for corrosion resistance.

The Bantam tool is used to apply stainless steel strapping and buckles, coated bands and clips, as well as Band-It’s Ball Lok Ties. Additional applications include insulation fixing, cable bundling, hose bundling, sign erection and cable and wire management, as well as constant velocity boots.

It is used across various industries, including mining, civil engineering, agriculture, transportation, food, industrial automation, telecommunications, manufacturing and processing.

Banding & ID Solutions SA sales representative Bertie Ferreira adds that the tool is used exclusively by Toyota Racing Development, which is currently one of the most accomplished and acclaimed motor sport brands in the southern hemisphere.

This tool is user friendly, as it is useful in tight areas that have limited access. It is also designed for the easy loading and removing of material.

Ferreira tells Engineering News that customers who use this tool include on-site end-users such as electrical contractors or contract workers.

“As soon as the guys work with this tool on site, they never go back to the previous tool they were using, which is typically too bulky,” says Ferreira, adding that the Band-It Bantam CO75 tool has proven to be superior in a number of ways to Band-It’s C001 tool, its predecessor.

This includes the round hole in the nose of the Bantam tool, through which a steel ring can be inserted to attach the tool to a lanyard and/or harness. This and the tool’s pole-mounting application are particularly useful for the safety and convenience of workers who work at height and who, by law, are required to wear a safety harness.

Remendos says, although many suppliers still use the old, more labour-intensive Band-It C001 tool, the Bantam CO75 tool has the advantage because it is a one-hand-specific tool, available at an affordable and competitive price, compared with its predecessor.

Initially designed in 2002, the Bantam CO75 tool was revised in 2006 and improved in 2009.

The design of the tool has remained unchanged throughout the revisions, with different settings adjusted and calibrated to bring the tool to its current standards, states Ferriera.

Band-It tools supplier Band-It Idex, based in Denver, Colorado, in the US, considered the challenges and the gap in the marketplace and conducted research to develop the product in 2002.

At the time, consumers were commenting that the product worked well, but could not reach certain difficult-to-reach spaces, and was not suited to certain applications, which resulted in the the tool being revised.

Although the product is assembled in and supplied from Denver, Banding & ID Solutions SA offers spare parts for the tools, with in-house repairs and services, which saves customers money.

As an alternative to repurchasing a new tool when components fail, customers can travel directly to Banding & ID Solutions SA, in Spartan, to replace or maintain any parts they require, with a 24-hour turnaround time.