Category: Company News

Liquid Controls’ new LCR.iQ^™ electronic register and data controller has won the prestigious 2019 iF Design Award from iF International Forum Design, formally receiving the award on March 15 at the iF Design Award Night in Munich, Germany.

The judges acknowledged the LCR.iQ^™ for its user-friendly design and demonstrated intelligent features in the Discipline of Product, Industry & Tools category. A jury of 67 global industrial design and UX experts with over 6,400 entrants from 50 countries judged entries in the annual industrial design competition.

“The LCR.iQ being recognized by the iF International Forum validates the extensive effort invested into making this product exceptionally intuitive for fuelers in the field,” said Dan Clevenger, Market Manager at Liquid Controls. “It is our goal that the end-users of this new platform are the ones to benefit from the productivity and efficiency for years to come.”

The LCR.iQ^® is a micro-processor-based controller certified by weights and measures authorities for legal custody transfer of valuable fuels and gases in industries like aviation, refined fuels, and liquefied petroleum gases. The LCR.iQ was built from the ground up by the Liquid Controls’ R&D team, closely collaborating with customers and industry professionals focused on ease of use, process configurability, and data security.

“Through a deep understanding of our end-users, their work environments, and the operational challenges they face, we will continue to improve our customers’ lives and businesses,” said Sheena Cline, General Manager – Liquid Controls.

The LCR.iQ was officially launched on January 2, 2019 for the aviation, refined fuels, and LPG markets. It is available now through authorized LC distributors and OEM truck integrators in those markets.

Based in Lake Bluff, Illinois, Liquid Controls (LC), a unit of IDEX Corporation, is the global market leader in precision measuring systems providing highly engineered and differentiated products used in custody transfer of highly valuable refined fuels and liquids. From its start in 1956, Liquid Controls has been dedicated to providing high quality flow meters and accessories for accurate liquid measurement in custody transfer applications. Beginning with the original military aircraft high flow fueling requirements in 1956, LC now leads in metering a wide variety of applications and markets including refined fuels, LPG, and other valuable fluids markets.

 

(Pictured on Left: Dan Clevenger, Market Manager at Liquid Controls)

 

A project to reduce flooding in the UK, is being accelerated by German-based IDEX company iPEK, which manufactures wastewater inspection systems. iPek helped find defects in pipeline systems for the Wyke Beck Valley Project , which is part of a six-part program to improve Leed’s flood alleviation practices.

The project is designed to help develop a flood storage reservoir to eliminate flood risk downstream and includes a series of environmental enhancements including ponds in a more natural eco-setting for the area.

Located near Manchester, Leeds has had many difficulties with the heavy rains and overflows in the last six years. Throughout the last six years, Leeds has suffered from several flooding events, the most notable being caused by the impact of Storm Eva on Boxing Day, 2015. The flooding affected 3,355 properties, costing the city over $42 million.

With the help of iPEK’s Rovion pipeline inspection truck, the team was able to examine the system through two manholes in quiet areas. This ensured technicians caused no disruption to customers or the general public. Without the new addition of equipment, The Wyke Beck Valley project team would have been unable to complete the task with as few set up sites.

To read the full case study, click here.

The March/April edition of German fire service magazine BRANDHEISS features a glowing two-page spread on the LUKAS eDRAULIC rescue tool, called “The Beast.”

The magazine raves about the performance of LUKAS’ tool, which now boasts improved battery life and power compared to the original version, all without the weight and hoses required in traditional hydraulic rescue tools.

Check out the original article in German. 

Hundreds of valves from Alfa Valvole in Milan are part of an innovative new bio-plastics plant under construction in Bologna, Italy.

The Bio-on plant is in its first phase of construction now. It’s being designed with new technology to use CO2 freely available in the atmosphere as a carbon source to produce 100 percent natural and biodegradable bioplastic.

Bio-on plans to use “carbon dioxide as a zero cost ‘raw material,'” in addition to those already used to produce its polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) biopolymer bioplastic: sugar beet and sugar cane molasses, fruit and potato waste, carbohydrates, glycerol and waste frying oil. PHAs are used in packaging for food, cosmetics and other consumer products.

Alfa Valvole received an initial order for the first phase of the plant and expects subsequent orders for future phases.

The highly specialized valves – with distinct engineering and construction, and special actuators – will be installed in the phase involving the peroxygens bulk storage system. The Alfa Valvole solutions was right for the technical specs and ability to deliver.

To read more and see a video about the Bio-on project, click here.

Emergency crews used lifting bags manufactured by Vetter to recover a Boeing 737 that overshot the runway last weekend.

The Lion Air jet landed during heavy rains and slid off the end of the runway at Pontianak airport in the western province of West Kalimantan on Saturday, February 16. All 180 passengers and seven crew members evacuated safely.

Thanks to Vetter’s lifting bags, crews were able to extract the plane from the mud.

Airports around the world have purchased Vetter lifting bags for airplane recovery efforts. Slipped under an aircraft and then inflated, the bags slowly raise the plane.

Vetter also manufactures lifting bags used for building collapses and safety cushions for people forced to jump to escape burning buildings.

Hale Products, an IDEX company based in Ocala, Florida, recently began supporting research into ways to reduce firefighters’ exposure to harmful carcinogens.

According to FirefighterCancerSupport.org, firefighters have a 250 percent increased chance of developing cancer because of toxins in smoke.

Along with an increase in risk, firefighters also have a 14 percent higher mortality rate than the average person because of the inherent dangers of the job.

To aid the firefighter community, Hale donated $2,000 to support Gary Baum and The Fox Valley Career Center to support their research.

The Fox Valley Career Center, located in Maple Park, Illinois, is a vocational school focused on Fire Science, EMT, Criminal Justice training and more. Gary Baum, lead instructor of The Fox Valley Fire Science department, has been conducting national research to reduce carcinogenic exposure to firefighters using Compressed Air Foam Systems (CAFS).

Baum received an Award of Excellence from The International Association of Fire Chiefs in 2017 for his research. Hale’s donation will allow Baum and his Fox Valley students to test CAFS technology to further reduce risk for firefighters.

CAFS is a system used to extinguish fires more quickly, while also reducing property damage. In addition to reducing the amount of water needed to suppress a fire, CAFS mitigates firefighters’ risk to harmful toxins and carcinogens.

As consumers buy billions of dollars of Valentine’s Day candy, did you know that an estimated 70 percent of chocolate produced in the United States is pumped through a Viking Pump? And Viking, an IDEX company, improved those chocolate pumps last year based on customer feedback.

Viking introduced new positive displacement pumps for candy factories, redesigning them with double O-ring seals to eliminate leaking, which had been necessary to lubricate shaft packing in the past, but which wasted valuable chocolate and made a mess.

In its first year, the new pump design has been embraced by many major American chocolate manufacturers.

To eliminate leakage, earn hygienic certification and to reduce pump LM variation within and between plants, the Viking team designed its new chocolate pump. It includes a leak preventative seal, EC1935 compliance (an EU certification on food contact materials safety), and a single product – 224A-CHC1, which works on all chocolates thanks to flush and suckback grooves that flush chocolate behind the rotor, drilled idlers that keep the idler bushing lubricated, and steel or ductile iron rotors that can handle the range of viscosities.

Located in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Viking Pump has been a trusted partner to chocolate and confectionery processors around the world for more than a century. Known for their ability to move problematic liquids, Viking’s internal gear pumps transport, recirculate and process chocolate all over a factory – from trucks to tanks to enrobers.

The internal gear pump operates with a pump rotor and an idler. The pump rotor (outer gear) is mounted to the pump’s shaft and rotates at slow speeds, turning the idler (inner) gear on the idler pin. The gears open large spaces between their teeth as they turn, creating low pressure zones that enable atmospheric pressure to flow chocolate in. As the gears close together, the spaces collapse, and chocolate flows out the discharge port.

Check out Viking Pump’s video explaining how it all works.

Connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey, and Manhattan, the George Washington Bridge (GWB) is one of the world’s busiest bridges. Serving more than 50 million travelers in 2015, issues of wear-and-tear and weathering on the bridge have been of rising concern for the Port Authorities of New York and New Jersey.

BAND-IT, an IDEX company based in Denver, manufactures trusted band clamping and fastening solutions especially suited for high corrosion environments like the “Restore The George” Rehabilitation Project.

BAND-IT stainless steel bands and Ear-Lokt buckles are currently used on the bridge’s steel-braided suspension cables to maintain compression. The main cables of a suspension bridge are comprised of many smaller cables, which are bound together at regular intervals with a strip of stainless steel banding and a buckle to hold the tension like a belt. After cables are secured with BAND-IT bands, the cables are then wrapped in neoprene fabric to protect the cables from weathering and deterioration.

During recent inspection of the bridge, construction officials determined there are more than 24,000 BAND-IT bands and buckles, equating to roughly 20 miles of stainless steel banding currently installed on the bridge. Each band will be replaced as part of the rehabilitation project.

BAND-IT solutions have also been used on other suspension spans, including the Mackinaw, Newport and Tacoma Narrows bridges

With “Together, 30 Years of Excellence” as the theme, IDEX China colleagues recently held annual Chinese New Year Party with great fanfare in Suzhou.

Elaborate decorations set the scene of China in the 1930s. The festivities on January 24th included employees performing beautiful dance, singing and drama in honor of the occasion.

Employees performed charitable work on site.