Ten years ago, Tom Gough, founder and president of Induction Innovations®, was going door to door selling his flameless repair equipment. Gough entered Car Smart Automotive, a 14-bay shop that performs both mechanical and collision repair owned by Zoran Sarich in East Dundee, Ill. and Gough met a customer for life.
Gough’s live demonstration of Induction Innovations flameless tool, the Mini-Ductor®, immediately impressed the shop owner by offering a safer alternative to releasing metals from corrosion. Sarich has been using Induction Innovations products ever since.
A Flameless Approach
The Mini-Ductor removes objects, like nuts and bolts that are too tight, without an open flame. Before, when nuts and bolts were stuck on the vehicle, Sarich would have to drill or grind them out, which often caused breakage. If Sarich ever did use a flame to loosen anything up, he had to make sure that there was no danger of anything melting.
“Anytime you’re working around gasoline and different chemicals, you don’t want a flame around if you can help it,” Sarich says.
This process was tedious and ate up a lot of time. Now, with the Mini-Ductor, all Sarich has to do is wrap the appropriately sized coil around the object that is stuck and then pull the trigger to heat it up with invisible heat. Within a few seconds, a wrench can be used to unscrew the item. There’s no need to keep a fire extinguisher nearby. It can be used on almost anything that needs to be loosened on a vehicle.
“You just wrap the coil around the bolt, there’s nothing to check,” Sarich says. “It saves at least an hour of messing around and putting down plastic.”
Mini-Ductor® Venom™
Sarich recently upgraded to the latest model of the tool, the Mini-Ductor Venom. The Venom is the latest in the Mini-Ductor series. Sarich says he prefers the latest model because it’s easier to handle than the larger version and it comes with an attached LED light. The light is able to point to whatever the Mini-Ductor Venom is heating up. The Mini-Ductor Venom can turn a 3/4-inch nut red hot in 15 seconds.
Sarich adds that Induction Innovations also came out with a bunch of new coils that allow it to be used even more. With the angled design of the Mini-Ductor Venom, Sarich says he’s able to get into hard to reach areas much easier than he was before.
“I would recommend this to anyone in the industry,” Sarich says. “It’ll save you a lot of time and aggravation.”
A Worthy Investment
Along with being a time saver, it’s also saved Sarich a lot of money. Before, when Sarich needed to use an open flame to loosen things up, he’d need to fill up his Oxygen Acetylene tank every couple of weeks, which he said set him back a few hundred dollars. Within a few weeks, Sarich says that the product paid for itself. Sarich estimates that on average, he uses the Mini-Ductor Venom 15 times per week in his shop. Because the method doesn’t damage parts like the old-process, Sarich is able to save on material costs using the tool.
Building a Relationship
The benefits of the actual product are not the only reason that Sarich has stuck with Induction Innovations for a decade. Sarich says that the support that he receives from the company is outstanding.
“When the one that I originally purchased 10 years ago stopped working, I let Tom know,” Sarich says. “He came right over and took care of it within a day. He remembered me from our original meeting. It was like being reunited with an old friend.”