Garlock

Collaboration leads to innovation and high performance

When you’ve been around the block a couple of times, you know a few things. With over 100 years of experience, this is exactly the case for Garlock Sealing Technologies.

Established at the turn of the century, Garlock is a market leader in the business of using non-metallic materials to make sealing products and rubber compounding. Garlock’s history goes back to 1887, when Olin J. Garlock developed a better seal for the rods of steam locomotive engines. And from that point, an industry was born.

Developing valve stem seals, pump packings, custom-molded rubber compounds, textiles and metal gasket products, Garlock is on the leading edge of industrial sealing and has paved the path for practical substitutes for asbestos packing and gaskets, as well as seal solutions for decreasing emissions from refinery and chemical process equipment.  “We’ve maintained the tradition of looking to the market to drive our product research and development,” says Jim Drago, Manager of Business Development at Garlock Sealing Technologies for 26 years.  “The single way we set ourselves apart is our range of industrial sealing products. While there are companies that make compression packing or gasket sheet or expansion joints, we make them all—and more.”  

Vast product line sets them apart

Partnered with over 100 of the finest-trained and best-equipped distributors in North America, Garlock provides a vast range of parts, as well as good service and an excellent technical support network. It is the company’s philosophy to manu­facture high-quality components—durable prod­ucts that offer years of service life and a substan­tial return on investment.

Strategic product development

“What truly differentiates Garlock is that we truly believe we manufacture and market the widest, fullest breadth of fluid sealing products of anyone in the world. We basically compete in every cat­egory or line of fluid sealing products,” tells Janet Jessen, Director of Marketing for the past 20 years. In other words, she says, instead of hav­ing to go to 30 different makers, Garlock offers its great history, brand and sheer motivation to simplify customer’s purchasing.

Collaboration sparks innovation

“The collaboration between Garlock and Chevron in developing the 212ULE packing is an example of the relationships that should exist between every supplier and end user,” says David Reeves, Senior Specialist for Bolting and Sealing Technol­ogy at Chevron Richmond Refinery Tech Center.

 
He believes this unique partnership leads to long-term performance and good relations with suppliers in terms of communicating what needs to be improved. “Better product performance provides better reliability for end users.  Some companies are really good at truly listening to ‘the voice of the customer’ and adapting quickly to meeting their changing needs,” says Reeves, adding that is exactly what Garlock and Chevron aim to accomplish. “Companies that can’t adapt as technology changes will not do well long-term,” explains Reeves. Since a supplier brings a great deal of manufacturing knowledge, end-users understand their business requirements better than anyone else. “When the two collaborate to solve a problem, the synergy can not only be exciting for the participant, but can have a significant impact to both companies’ bottom line,” he adds.

Data from testing solves problems

What’s more is the emphasis on standardized testing and its direct impact on product perfor­mance.  “Without the data, end-users must guess on the effectiveness of the sales presentation. As good as I am, I would still get it wrong half the time if I didn’t have the data. With the right data—that directly compares the important per­formance requirements from the field—making changes in sealing materials is a walk-in-the-park,” tells Reeves.

Weathering a tough economic climate

Although the past year has been hard economi­cally, Garlock is pushing through, showing growth and a strong belief in its brand’s strength. “I think we’ve probably done more this year with less, and from that standpoint, it’s been a good year,” says Drago. The fact is that general busi­ness conditions in 2009 were challenging. But that didn’t stop Garlock from growing globally.

While Garlock is first and foremost an upstate New York manufacturer, they are also global players in the market. In order to survive global competition, Garlock developed a global growth strategy. “Although we have deep roots in upstate New York, one of the interesting things about the company is that management saw the importance of growing globally and initiated global affiliates in Mexico, for instance. When our company began to spread out internationally, it created a strong international customer base,” says Jessen.  “This has served us well. We wouldn’t have been able to serve our customers here if we hadn’t spread our wings globally.

We’ve weathered many financial ups and downs over the years, but global diversity always seems to allow us to move with trends and times,” she says.

The President of Garlock, Dale Herold, couldn’t agree more. “Many domestic and global industries slowed significantly this year, which led to quickly depleting inventory levels. The reduced inventory levels changed how manufacturers support the users; quicker responses required and reduced quantities ordered. Manufacturers were forced to either change how they do business or allow market share loss,” explains Herold. But he believes 2010 will be an interesting year. “The general consensus is that economic recovery will be slow but stable, and the outlook for our business should mirror these trends,” he adds.

Communication is key

Effective communication amongst the sup­ply chain will be critical, particularly in the next 18-24 months. “The solution is ultimately a sustained economic recovery and a controlled inventory buildup. A controlled inventory buildup will require close communication between the customer, the distribution channel and the man­ufacturer,” Herold explains.

Future growth plan

With over 500 employees at the Palmyra head­quarters, there are generations of workers still with Garlock because they have a strong connec­tion to the roots of the organization. Furthermore, the company has made significant investments to modernise the way it does business. One way in which they have done this is with a $35-million new campus. “We recognized that if we were go­ing to be competitive globally, the facility, com­prised of 40-plus buildings, wasn’t going to allow us to do that,” says Chris Rockwell, Director of Environmental health and Safety.

As the times have changed since Garlock first started, the facilities have changed along with it. As a result, the company’s organisation has strengthened their work culture. “In the environmental market, we help our customers better meet and succeed in reaching their goals,” tells Rockwell.  “We see environmental sealing challenges as one of our big future platforms for growth. By simply using better sealing products, the industry can make quantum gains in terms of lowering their emissions,” he adds.

As a strong global leader, Garlock has a comprehensive product line as well as a strong platform for future growth.
 
www.garlock.com

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