Category: Company News

A leading designer and manufacturer of precision air-moving products, Gast Manufacturing in Benton Harbor, Michigan (USA), introduced new Sound Shield technology for vacuum pumps and air compressors last month.

Using their research from another project last year, Gast team members recognized the need for quiet compressors in medical, dental and lab settings. Applications include using compressed air for dental instruments, using compressed air to automate testing in pneumatic lab equipment, and many more.  They developed a new technology that eliminates assembly time cost and complexity of other less-effective sound dampening products.

Designed to be easily installed as an add-on during manufacturing or as an easy retrofit aftermarket upgrade, Sound Shield technology is a convenient, integrated, one-source solution to keep things quiet.

When equipped on a Gast 86R or 87R compressor or pump, Sound Shield maintains 95 percent of the air flow of a standard model. Maximum pressure, vacuum function and running temperature are not affected, maintaining product performance and life.

Gast Manufacturing’s Sound Shield technology dramatically reduces peak sound levels by delivering up to a 25% decrease in A-weighted decibels (dB(A)) and a 40% Sone decrease in perceived loudness to the human ear, offering improved sound quality.

“We developed Sound Shield as an easy, compact solution to streamline sound channeling processes and ultimately increase equipment user comfort, creating a more productive working environment,” said Bryan Kuntz, Sales Application Engineer, Gast Manufacturing.

To hear how the Sound Shield reduces noise, click here

Corken, Inc., a unit of IDEX Corporation (NYSE: IEX) announced today the release of the world’s first propane unloading compressor system designed to fully evacuate propane from railcars during offloading, saving up to $3.5M over the lifetime of a system. While conventional unloading systems abandon the final 230-400 gallons of propane in each railcar due to their inability to overcome the vapor pressure (30-40 PSIG) during the final stage of transfer, Corken’s new Propane Miser™ is the first PLC-controlled two-stage compressor system that effectively overcomes this barrier, safely and quickly achieving evacuation as low as 0 PSIG.

“Our team observed customers paying for millions of gallons of propane that they never actually get,” explains Art Laszlo, Corken President. “We felt it was our responsibility to engineer a system to solve that problem and the Propane Miser will do just that,” said Laszlo.

With up to 25% faster throughput and deeper evacuation than conventional compressors, terminal operators can optimize the Propane Miser to evacuate faster, deeper, or both depending on operational circumstances. As an example, a terminal operator who unloads 1,000 railcars per year, pays $.60 per gallon, and normally stops their unloading at 40 PSIG stands to save $250,000 per year.

“Our patent pending control system combined with the proven Corken D791 two-stage compressor resulted in what will be the most impactful solution in terms of operational savings that our industry has seen in decades,” said Blake Wallace, Senior Engineer.

The Propane Miser was officially launched on September 1, 2020. Visit Corken.com to use our Railcar Offloading Business Opti-MISER to calculate the potential savings Propane Miser could save your company.

Contact Corken at cocsalesdept@idexcorp.com for more information or to be introduced to an authorized distributor in your area.

ABOUT CORKEN

Founded in 1924, Corken’s exceptional reputation is built upon nearly 100 years of maintaining the highest quality products and customer service. This combined with a strong commitment to technological innovation has positioned Corken as a global leader in compression and pumping solutions. As a leading manufacturer of industrial compressors, pumps, bypass valves, and accessories, Corken specializes in custom compressor and pump skids designed for liquefied gas transfer, liquid transfer, air boosting, and vapor recovery applications for the process gas, energy, and transport industries.

High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) separates and identifies mixtures of substances in a solution and measures individual components of a mixture.  Most common applications include drug analysis for pharmaceutical labs, quality control for food industry & clinical diagnosis of disorders and diseases to name a few.

In HPLC applications, small changes in the fluidic path can cause dissolved gasses to occur in a solution. When this occurs, bubbles can form, which can affect performance and produce unstable, inaccurate baselines.

To further improve instrument precision and reliability in HPLC applications, IDEX Health & Science (IH&S) recently announced the release of a Constant Performance Degassing Pump (CPDP) system, that enables a new method of in-line degassing to remove dissolved gases from fluids before they outgas and create problem-causing bubbles.

Equipped with a dual stage pump and an integrated microprocessor, the CPDP system offers an enhanced user experience with a patent-pending algorithm that allows advanced control to select the optimal degassing efficiency

With optimized vacuum based on method flow rate you can maintain a constant degassing efficiency. By operating at a flow rate defined vacuum levels, significant control of pervaporation and minimal mobile phase concentration changes can be achieved.

The resulting calibration data produces a mathematical model of degassing channel performance that allows the HPLC system to operate the vacuum degasser at the highest possible pressure (minimal vacuum level) to degas with minimal mobile phase concentration changes and reduced solvent loss to the laboratory atmosphere.

To learn more, click here

With the 2020 hurricane season underway in the eastern and southern United States, BAND-IT® clamps are needed to safely secure signs and utilities to poles and towers. And with the pandemic making supply chain issues more challenging, the BAND-IT® team is working to ensure suppliers have ample stock to avoid challenges after storms hit.

A leader in quality engineered band clamping and fastening solutions, Denver-based BAND-IT® manufactures stainless steel bands, buckles and clamps designed to clamp wires, manage cables, keep electricity lines secure, hold signage in place, and much more. Municipalities and utility providers use our clamps to affix electricity lines, 5G transmission equipment, traffic signs, among other critical applications.

Founded in 1937, BAND-IT has a storied reputation for designing and producing fastening solutions that stand up to the harshest conditions in applications where failure isn’t an option – including on spacecraft, bridges, and vehicle assemblies.

Popular products that are being stocked regularly during the hurricane season include:

• Ultra-Lok band and buckle

• Standard band and buckle

• ​SIGNFIX® Universal Channel Clamp

Whether our customers need help keeping items affixed to a pole, or need help keeping signage intact, BAND-IT’s distribution network continues to support customers before and after the storm clears.

To learn more about BAND-IT’s product offering, click here

Sewer inspections are becoming significantly more efficient in Pittsburgh (USA) thanks to innovation in crawler technology from iPEK. Sulzberg, Germany-based iPEK, which manufactures wastewater inspection systems, recently partnered—through iPEK’s long-time master distributor in North and South America, Envirosight—with the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority (PWSA) to help make processes easier, more efficient, and drive productivity with the ROVION SAT II crawler.

In the past, PWSA team members have had difficulty examining inclines in pipeline systems. The Authority, established in 1984, is responsible for the entire city of Pittsburgh’s sewer system, roughly 12,000 miles of mostly combined sanitary and storm sewer lines. And there is no shortage of slopes around the historic city.

Using feedback from some of their most important customers, iPEK equipped the ROVION SAT II inspection system with 8-wheel drive and a new and improved belt drive for improved speed and power.

“We are constantly trying to climb hills with our equipment, which we used to find really difficult,” says Jason Auge, CCTV specialist and 13-year-veteran of PWSA. “Since purchasing the SAT II systems, we are doing it effortlessly.”

PWSA team members also face several other challenges in the city’s system, including increased debris due to the combined systems, sinkholes and frequent pipe junctions.

In the past, if the sewer pipe diameter of the sewage pipe changed, it would require the inspector to take the crawler out and adjust the setup, making the process time consuming and tedious.

“The number of lines that run junction to junction in our system is a unique challenge for us,” Auge said.

To improve the system’s flexibility, iPEK team members included a push rod and tv-cable, which allows the crawler to conduct lateral launches in a sewer system (Pictured Below)

 

“With the lateral launch on the SAT II, we are able to drive up one sewer main and launch the camera into other mains running perpendicular. And, using the carbon fiber antenna for the camera head, I’m able to lift over a lot of joints and steer through junctions that I wasn’t able to before,” Auge said.

In addition to developing a much more agile crawler, iPEK also added an automatic cable reel, which extends to about 300 meters of cable for camera use and 45 meters for lateral launches.

To see the Crawler in action, Click here

With the help of iPEK’s SAT II system in each of its three inspection vehicles, PWSA has already seen an improvement in productivity.

“There’s definitely been an increase in efficiency with the SAT II,” says Auge. “We are getting more done. It’s crawling faster and we’re getting to our problem spots quicker. It’s clear the technology has improved significantly.”

Recognized as a leader in optics and fluidics, IDEX Health & Science last week introduced sample loops to their BioVersal™ line of products for challenging bioinert UHPLC (Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography) applications.

Sample loops are an essential part of the UHPLC process, which work in conjunction with injection valves to inject samples for analysis – often helping the Food and Drug Administration test quality in food products and pharmaceuticals.

When sample loops are used, they are attached to a fluidic valve and fill up with a sample that will be analyzed by a lab instrument. Once the sample loop is filled, the fluidic valve switches position and releases the sample to the analytical instrument for analysis.

To watch a video of how sample loops work, click here

With much of the market shifting to UHPLC (Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography) bio applications, IDEX Health & Science designed BioVersal™ sample loops using patented PEEK lined stainless steel and MarvelX™ connections technology to achieve the highest-pressure rating for bioinert PEEK sample loops on the market.

Additionally, the loops can connect and disconnect more than 100 times, improving efficiencies and reducing costs.

To learn more about the BioVersal™ sample loop, click here

 

 

Optical filter technologies from IDEX Health & Science are on NASA’s new Perseverance rover that will try to definitively answer whether life ever existed on Mars.

Partnering with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), IDEX Health & Science (IH&S) developed filters for the SHERLOC instrument, which will enable the rover to identify, collect and store rock and soil samples from Mars.

NASA’s Mars 2020 team aims to launch the rover between July 20 and August 11, 2020, with the earliest launch date landing on July 30.  The mission needs to be launched by then, or its next launch window to travel to Mars will not come until 2022.

The SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument is an arm-mounted, Deep UV (DUV) fluorescent spectrometer, which enables the rover to spatially resolve, and detect the characterization of organics and minerals in the Martian surface. The instrument is used to assess past aqueous history, detect the presence and preservation of potential biosignatures, and to support selection of return samples.

Mars 2020 will collect and store rock and soil samples in sterilized tubes to be sent back to Earth for analysis. The rover will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet’s climate and geology, and pave the way for human exploration.

If the NASA JPL team launches the Rover before August 11, 2020, The Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars in February 2021.

To watch a short video and learn more about the 2020 rover, click here
To watch a recent “60 Minutes” segment on the Mars Rover, click here
To ‘take a virtual tour of Mars’ using images taken of the Red Planet by its Curiosity Rover, click here

 

 

First responders looking to learn modern techniques for saving people from trapped vehicles may now turn to an IDEX company’s publication. LUKAS in Erlangen, Germany, announced the release of its book “Vehicle Extrication – The Next Generation” last week.

Partnering with Fire & Safety Author and Expert Ian Dunbar to improve brand recognition, Lukas’ 290-page hardcover textbook offers a comprehensive, authoritative guide for everyone involved in road crash rescues.

Using nearly three decades in emergency response experience as an operational fire officer, consultant, author, and educator, Dunbar helps outline technical aspects of extrication, safety, vehicle construction, engineering and electrics as well as a wide range of technical processes and developments in “Vehicle Extrication – The Next Generation”

The book also details factors that contribute to a safe and successful rescue operation, including extrication planning, human factors and training on how to continuously improve.

Vehicle Extrication – The Next Generation is based on a revised version of the team approach to vehicle extrication – The Team Approach v2.0, which Dunbar originally conceived in 2016 and has continued to develop.

Because vehicle extrication is a truly interagency process, “Vehicle Extrication – The Next Generation” is written not only for fire and rescue personnel but also for pre-hospital clinicians and includes paramedics and doctors who routinely play an absolute critical role on each rescue scene.

“I have been lucky enough to work with paramedics and doctors from all over the world. I make a conscious effort to ask them about their own training and preplanning for attendance at road traffic collisions and it ranges from zero to very little. Most of the training they have received has been down to their own endeavour, initiative, time, and cost. There simply is very little statutory training for paramedics (called prehospital clinicians in Europe) in dealing with road traffic collisions. It would be easy to spend the next few hundred pages just considering the technical aspects of rescue, but this would be completely inappropriate and for that reason, I have written this book with pre-hospital clinicians in mind,” Dunbar said.

 

“Whether you are a paramedic or doctor who practices in the pre-hospital environment, there is no aspect of extrication that does not apply to you; you are a fundamental part of the process”

 

Vehicle Extrication – The Next Generation devotes a whole chapter to prehospital clinicians and covers aspects such as PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), scene safety, scene integration with technical rescue services, vital roles in conceiving and delivering the extrication plan and other considerations such as positioning and how you can assist with a post incident debrief. In addition, the book provides readers with QR codes for access to training videos and PDFs.

The book also shares new Vehicle Extrication Techniques, as materials of cars evolve, the places where cuts must be made change and rescue equipment improves. Particularly with the increased electrification of cars, these techniques continue to change.

To learn more about Ian Dunbar, click here

To look at the book, click here