ITT Goulds Pumps’ senior management team recently named Estabrook “Outstanding Distributor of the Year” with their Blue Diamond Award! This is a huge honor and achievement. Estabrook continues to find so much success in a relatively limited market area because we run towards our customers’ problems, not away from them.
Estabrook’s strong customer-centric culture results from its 55+ year history. Our mantra is to Choose Excellence in everything that we do. Whether it is working up a quote, expediting a delivery, or supporting an installation, we always do it with the best interest of the customer in mind. It starts with Estabrook seeking to understand and solve our customers’ needs. Behind the scenes, our full team of application engineers is dedicated to continual learning and maintaining best-in-class subject matter expertise. Once we have a good understanding of the application, we can analyze complex process conditions and convert them to our Total System Solutions approach.
What is a Total System Solution?
Well, that’s a great question. In a broad sense, it is the combination of pumps, valves, seals, controls, and service & repair. Each application is uniquely implemented and, therefore, each Total System Solution may be different. Let’s take a look at each category a bit deeper.
Industrial Pumps
A pump’s job is to transfer mediums such as liquids, gases, or powdered materials from Point A to Point B throughout a process or in & out of vessels. Understanding the make-up of the medium along with the system parameters helps to select the correct pump technology for our customers.
This is where the complexity lies. There are all kinds of pump technologies out there such as Centrifugal, ANSI, Vertical Turbine, Gear or Progressive Cavity…just to name a few! Our application engineers can quickly and reliably identify the proper pump technology and offer a recommended solution for the application. We do this on all kinds of industrial applications ranging from refining, petrochemical, chemical, power, food & beverage, general industry and more.
Valves
A valve’s primary purpose is to control or stop the flow that is created by the pump or system. This can be done manually or automatically. It can be as simple as on & off, or it can be completed with precision control.
Estabrook has a complete offering of manual and automated quarter turn ball and butterfly valves, precision control valves, knife gates, strainers, check valves, and more. This broad range of products allows Estabrook to find the right fit for its customers function solutions.
Sealing Technology
Sealing technology includes sealing devices such as mechanical seals (single, split, dual) and packing. A full line of industrial lubricants that have exceptional adhesion, wear, and anti-corrosion characteristics that enable an increased life of bearings and rotating surfaces. Estabrook offers a comprehensive line of industrial coatings that protect customers’ equipment against corrosion, erosion, or abrasion.
Service & Repair
We have been rebuilding pumps and equipment since 1965. We service all makes and models of pumps and process equipment. This area includes blowers, fans, heat exchangers and mixers. Our industry expertise ensures that customers have limited downtime while their equipment is repaired. We also have two repair shops–one at our headquarters in Berea and another in Penn Yann, New York–to meet our customers’ requirements for service and repair.
Controls
Estabrook is a quality provider of automated, electrical, and mechanical solutions. From the initial drawing to the final product, our in-house capabilities allow us to efficiently design, engineer, and manufacture your system. Estabrook’s process control offerings work in a variety of implementations, such as batching systems and level controls. Furthermore, process controls play a key role in the custom systems developed for customers to operate their equipment.
Why is the Make-Up of a Total System Solution Important?
This is where Estabrook’s immense knowledge and past experience starts to shine. Of course, there are other companies that can go through the sizing and selection process, but Estabrook chooses to do it with a passion and sense of urgency unparalleled to industry standards. We tend to ask the extra question so that we can properly recommend and provide an actionable solution. As such, there are multiple layers to a Total System Solution:
On the Surface: Understanding the Equipment:
When we identify the equipment for new applications, we spend time to understand its size, rating, materials of construction, existing sealing, existing mode of operation, and application details. If it is a used piece of equipment, we have a library of root cause analysis, failure analysis, and repair records that guide us. We pull from our vast experience with various applications to offer recommendations of what has worked in the past and recommend do’s and don’ts. Finally, we provide the optimal equipment solutions for the customer’s specific application.
Going Deeper: Understanding the System:
This phase starts with the general process system that the customer has. What is the customer trying to accomplish? How does this process impact the overall safety or operational performance? What are the trade-offs to the system in terms of flow, pressure, speed, space limitations, budget, etc.?
Just like a doctor seeing a patient, we cannot prescribe a customized solution until we have properly diagnosed the problem(s). And while solving the problem matters, so do the economics. We work hard to provide the best solution inexpensively to the customer, whether that is the up-front capital cost or the long-term overall total cost of ownership. By probing deeper, we can understand the system in a better light. All systems are unique, demanding and have their own set of challenges. This is how we bring value to the customer.
Getting to the Core – Utilizing Technology to Enable a True Total System Solution
The world is ever-changing, and so is the process automation world. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing all kinds of changes from the way we eat at restaurants or how our children participate in school & athletics. The same holds true in factories across the United States. How can we make our refineries, power plants, and chemical plants safer? How can we increase our plant’s reliability, efficiency, and productivity? Are we able to utilize video conferencing, sensor technology, and remote monitoring to enable safer, more reliable and efficient plants? You bet you can!
Estabrook collaborates with ITT Goulds Pumps on the i-ALERT®2 platform. The i-ALERT®2 is a vibration and temperature sensor that enables data collection from any piece of rotating equipment. The i-ALERT®2 is a simple device that can be mounted off any bearing surface as a direct mount, with epoxy & a bracket, or an industrial magnet. The device holds 180 days’ worth of continual vibration and temperature data that can then be analyzed. ITT has a simple i-ALERT® app that can be downloaded on any smart device, or it can be upgraded to their cloud-based “Ai” platform. Once in the platform, Estabrook can remotely monitor a customer’s rotating equipment, or it can be done locally in their data historian or DCS.
So, a bunch of data gets created for us to analyze? That sounds like more work! Plus, after we analyze the data, what comes next–I still have the problem! Our vision is to complete this puzzle by providing the necessary corrective action.
The sensor technologies allowing us to capture the raw data. Our subject matter expertise and partnerships allow us to analyze the data faster and more efficiently. Our strong track record of taking action to fix the problems has been in place since 1965! All of this falls in-line with the goal to help our customers have a safer, more reliable, and more profitable plant. That is what a Total System Solution is all about.
Committed to Excellence
We have been fortunate to be recognized with the Blue Diamond Award for Distributor of the Year. We are thankful to our customers for placing their trust in us and continuing to work with us by placing orders. We work hard to run toward customers’ problems and are committed to getting better at solving these problems each day. Feel free to reach out to us if you would like to learn more about our Total System Solutions and how we may be of service to you and your organization.
Estabrook has been a quality provider of Industrial Fluid Handling Solutions for over 55 years. To learn more about our broad range of Industrial applications and pump solutions that we can provide to your organization, please click on the Contact Us Now link: