In the late 1960s, a six-man tool-and-die shop procured an order for stamped parts destined for the Long Beach Naval Shipyard (LBNS). It was the first marine contract for Research Tool Die (RTD), which opened in 1952. The stamper and tool builder spent 30,000 dollars on the project when it received word that the customer had passed away, and not only that, he had died broke. Losing that amount of money at that time could have sunk the small operation, but fate begged to differ, and the strength and dependability of the maritime market has helped RTD stay in ship shape. Back to the LBNS story. In lieu of the cash, RTD decided to keep the tooling and approach the OEM customer itself. But the shipyard no longer needed the parts supplied by that tooling and had switched to something else. "The new part was a wire-rig bracket, a u-shaped channel bracket that holds cable aboard a ship," recalls Ray Perrault, RTD president, whose father started the company. "We asked to bid on the new part and came back with a piece-part cost around 68 cents. The shipyard was producing the part at its inhouse sheetmetal shop and conducted a cost study to determine the better deal. The study found that our 68-cent part cost the shipyard 3.50 dollars to make itself. Earning that contract led the shipyard to bring other parts our way and allowed us to carve a niche in the marine hardware market. If there were four companies serving this market we would all starve to death, but with only three we all do well. We supply parts for everything from upper-grade pleasure yachts to aircraft carriers. Anything longer than 200 ft. we have something on it."
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