When inches and millimetres matter

18th March 2024

Despite being of an age when we learned metric alongside imperial, I find it difficult to do the mental gymnastics to convert a foot into centimetres. The grey cells are totally overwhelmed when I’m told that an item is 3 and 3/16^th of an inch wide and yet these are the very measurements that I was confronted with during a recent trip to our supplier AMS in American Falls.

AMS’s strapline reads: “Equipping the world to sample the earth” and Ikky and I were visiting them with our shopping list for a bulk order for UK stock.

The UK national speed limit is 60 miles per hour, my car takes 60 litres or 13 gallons, but in America I’d have to ask for 16 gallons; groundwater monitoring wells are in inches and Brexit has nothing to do with this as even the French understand me when I say a well is “un pouce” which translates into one thumb or one inch or 25mm.

If it’s hard for us it is equally difficult for our friends in Idaho. Our UK stock needs to be metric and 7cm means as little to them as 2 ¾ inches means to us.

And yet: Over two days we managed to learn each other’s language and AMS’s proactivity seemed to have no bounds. Nothing was too much and we completed our list of order requirements converting almost every item to our metric specifications. Soon we will receive the shipment and we can’t wait to send our customers the details.

Our immense thanks go to the AMS team; Mark, Hari, Braydon, Mike, Rob to name but a few : You’re amazing partners to work with!

But the last word surely must go to Mark Chipps, CEO of AMS:

On behalf of AMS, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to supply Van Walt with the highest quality sampling equipment in the world. I would also like to personally guarantee you the best customer service and support from start to finish. Our commitment to Van Walt will be nothing less than a “Work of Art”.

Vincent van Walt

Haslemere, March 2024