Background as to How Hand Tools Transformed the Construction Industry

Episode 2: Improvements to Electrical Tools

Continuing on from Episode 1, -from the time when all site tools were only powered by electricity and usually from long extension leads. Then, all electrical tools operated with brushes, by the mechanical connection between the brushes and rotating commutator.

If you were offered a drill that would save you time on site, naturally you would consider it. That is what happened a few years later. Manufacturers started to supply to the market electrical tools with purpose made ports in the sides of tools where spring loaded brushes could be replaced in minutes, without dismantling and refitting the casing. The time saving was brilliant, so we changed our tools. But you still had those frequent irritating delays when brushes wore out, and it always seemed to be when you were under the most pressure and trying to meet deadlines.

Later, the manufacturers offered tools that operated without brushes. How was that possible? Everything electrical worked with brushes, and since the introduction of electric hand tools, we all used them. Manufacturers explained they had done away with brushes by using an electronically controlled drive circuit. Would these new tools work? Were they reliable? Cautiously we tested these new tools, found they worked well and were reliable. So, we changed our tools again!

In time hand tools with brushes were phased out of the market.

Drill with Brushes

To understand the changes that will come, it is informative to know how contractors operated in the1970 – 80’s on large contracts. Computers were in their infancy and very slow, but used at Main Office to produce accounts and monthly Kalamazoo reporting systems,  mobile phones did not exist (we used radios on site and landline phones for outside communication), battery operated calculators were coming on the market for the first time, printers for site drawings (huge numbers of drawings were produced for each building) were hand-fed through a wet print roller system where the drawings were hung to dry,  and fax machines were the only telegraphic equipment available for sending and receiving letters, small drawing and sketch details between offices. On a large construction site all the above was essential – and costly. To Cont./... Next Blog Episode 3.

In this modern era with the wide range of brushless battery powered tools. We have a range of INGCO battery powered tools for you to choose from at Tools UK. (www.superingco.co.uk)