Bearing Protection Specialists from Around The World Gather in Rock Island to Attend Inpro/Seal Training Seminars and Workshops

Bearing protection specialists from around the world gathered in Fort Meyers, Florida, Jan 2-6, 2008, to attend Inpro/Seal Company's annual sales meeting. Part of the firm's ongoing commitment to provide world class customer support, sessions were held for the firm's regional managers.

Rock Island, IL (PRWEB) March 12, 2008 -- Bearing protection specialists from around the world gathered in Fort Meyers, Florida, Jan 2-6, 2008, to attend Inpro/Seal Company's annual sales meeting. Part of the firm's ongoing commitment to provide world class customer support, sessions were held for the firm's regional managers.

People Business

The sessions began with an address by David C. Orlowski, President/CEO of Inpro/Seal Company and inventor of the bearing isolator. In his opening comments, Orlowski stated that the regional managers are important as they make day-to-day contact in the field. He also stated that the fact that the firm's cumulative efforts including the regional managers, management, staff and distributors are key to the world class support, product development and enhancement that fuels their growth. Randy Chase, an expert in motivation, conducted a seminar on how customer service plays a critical role in these efforts. Richard Cress, an authority in the powder industry, made a presentation on this very important Inpro/Seal market.

The Bearing Isolator

In his quest to find a positive, permanent means to protect bearings while enhancing and extending the service life of rotating equipment, Orlowski developed the worlds first bearing isolator. It was patented in 1977 (#4,022,479), the same time he founded Inpro/Seal. Today, the company manufactures about 40,000 bearing isolators per month and is poised to increase that figure to 100,000.

A non-contacting labyrinth seal, for the first time, the bearing isolator gave the end users at process plants the choice of permanent bearing protection and eliminated the need for continual maintenance. Comprised of a unitized rotor and stator that do not contact each other, it does not consume energy and never wears out. It's closest competitor, the contact seal offers a failure rate of 100%.

Importance Of Training

According to Orlowski, "Our products are sold extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, the Pacific Rim and Europe through our regional managers who work with established distributor and OEM organizations."

Orlowski continued, "Even though it is early in the year, I can tell you that our training efforts really pay off as calendar 2007 appears to be the best year in our 32 year history and the prospects for 2008 are even brighter. And this comes at a time when companies report declining sales figures and corporate reductions. Also contributing to our success are: new products, product enhancements, new markets, new applications and dramatic energy savings have led to increased customer acceptance and preference for our product lines. In order for us to succeed, this type of information must be passed on in a timely manner to our regional managers."

He concluded, "Though, we have invested heavily in our facilities and our products and are building the highest levels of awareness for both our products and non-contacting technology, it remains critical to keep our people up-to-date. Long ago I learned that the best customer is an educated customer and the reason for our ongoing training programs. We not only invest in our products, we also invest in our people."

Inpro/Seal Regional Managers

An Inpro/Seal regional manager is a highly trained professional that knows tribology, rotating equipment, bearing protection and sealing technologies inside and out. Direct employees, they manage they supervise an assigned area where they manage their own distributor network. Their duties include: distributor relations, sales, end user contact, training and the implementation of corporate policy. With their special training, technical knowledge, process and application know how, they are able to handle an end user needs with the fastest time-frame in the industry.

Ongoing Training

According to Jim Lapaczonek, Sales Manager and moderator for the sessions, " Training at Inpro/Seal never stops. Aside from our annual meeting, our Regional Managers also attend intensive training sessions at our corporate campus. For distributors, there are four formal workshops during the year at our facility and numerous regional workshops during the year. In addition, distributors travel with the regional managers where they receive one-on-one training. This type of training is also conducted in our overseas operations".

Session Highlights

Among topics covered were:

• Air Mizer™-PS - an expanding line of shaft seals that provide a positive seal in applications were dry particulates, powders and bulk solids are handled, processed, packaged and stored. (Nominated for 2007 Product Of The Year by a leading trade magazine.)

• OM 32 - in oil mist applications, this is the only known method to permanently solve housekeeping issues and contain and keep stray mist from entering the environment.

• PMR - specially engineered for the size, speed, alignment and operating conditions of wet and dry ends of machine rolls to make it literally impossible to contaminate the bearings on paper machine rolls.

• CSR - for conveyor/idler use in mining and bulk solid applications. Non-sparking design provides safe, permanent bearing protection. Recognized by the MSHA and assigned tag #AP2007-93304. (Nominated for 2007 Product Of The Year by a leading trade magazine.)

• VBXX-MT™ Series Bearing Isolators - offers machine tool users protection from coolant, chips, humidity and heat, that can cause spindle malfunction and expensive, unscheduled downtime. The highest performance is assured with a reverse interface that avoids direct impingement of coolant and chips.

• Gas Turbine Generators - a shaft seal that keeps lubricant from migrating to the generator windings.

• Sealing Methods - the various methods of sealing a shaft and why contact seals carry a 100% failure rate.

• Life Cycles - why bearing isolators never wear out. A new rolling element bearing life calculator is available at inpro-seal.com

• Bowl Mills - installation of bearing isolators on the three bearing journals for coal applications.

• Contact vs Non-Contacting - benefits

• Power Consumption - documented how lip seals, consume 147 watts of power, while bearing isolators consume no power.

• The Future - the future and the fact that they are poised to manufacture 100,000 per month.

• Free Bearing Isolators - a program where end users can obtain up to 1,000 at no charge.

• Simplified Order Process - a new methodology just adopted that standardizes pricing and simplifies ordering.

• Other Subjects Covered: pump and motor applications, lip seal obsolescence, same day shipping, refiner seals, clinker grinders, gearboxes and cement applications.

About Inpro/Seal

Inpro/Seal Company is the originator and the world's number one manufacturer of bearing isolators, used to protect motor and pump bearings, machine tool spindles, turbines, fans, gear boxes, paper machine rolls and many other types of rotating equipment. Additional applications include the sealing, handling, processing, packing and storage of dry particulates, powders and bulk solids.

Of the 3,000,000+ bearing isolators delivered, almost all of them continue to be in operation in process plants worldwide, where end users continue to report significantly reduced operating costs with increased productivity and reliability. Protected bearings have proven to run 150,000 hours (17 years) or more, eliminating the need for costly maintenance and repair. Documented cases show that a plant can more than double the mean-time-between failure (MTBF) and reduce maintenance costs by at least half, with users reporting an extremely high ROI.

Signoff

Address: Inpro/Seal Company, P.O. Box 3940, Rock Island, Illinois 61204. Phone: (800) 447-0524 or (309) 787-4971. Fax: (309) 787-6114. Website: www.inpro-seal.com or www.bearingisolators.com

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