It’s that time of year when we stop to give thanks, celebrate milestones, cheer on innovations and reflect on our promise of going beyond the boundaries of possible for the wellbeing of us all. We have a lot to be thankful for at Omniseal Solutions. Over these past 60 years, our global team members have had the honor of collaborating with top companies to design and manufacture high-performance sealing and polymer solutions. With over 1,000 employees and 14 sites, we are happily growing!
Today, we are bringing teams together for a gathering across the world to give thanks! Welcome to our virtual table where we are celebrating diversity and inclusion in the form of delicious ethnic food, conversation in different languages, exchange of technical knowledge and best practices learned over the years. We reserved a special seat for you, so let’s start the festivities and share our appreciation for all the hard work and achievements this year. We could not be where we are without the help of so many.
Thank You #1:
Our first shout out of appreciation goes to our American Seal & Engineering (ASE) and Hycomp team members for their dedication to advancing sealing and polymer solutions, and helping us to further expand and diversify. In February of this year, we further strengthened our high-performance solutions portfolio by acquiring American Seal and Engineering (ASE), a complementary global player in high-temperature, high-pressure metal seals for extreme environments in transportation, energy and aerospace.
From metal lip seals to E-Seals, C-Seals, spring-energized C-Seals and other custom-designed seals, the company is known for providing reliable products for critical applications that can withstand some of the toughest conditions, such as those in the depths of the world’s oceans and extreme environments in nuclear energy. ASE also offers impeccable quality control, short lead times, and competitive pricing.
One place where reliability is particularly important is in power generation where seals must overcome a host of challenging conditions to avoid wear, degradation and leakage that could lead to safety risks, heightened operating costs and efficiency issues. The metal seals ensure reliability in pressure vessel cover sealing and connection joint sealing; turbine multi stage seals, blade lock seals and environmental & biological control seals; valves, pumps, couplings, and more in power generation. ASE also designs and manufactures metal sealing solutions for high-tech diesel markets where they resolve leakage issues. Did you know that over one million of their metal lip seals have been used in heavy duty trucks?
Since Hycomp’s acquisition in March of last year, we have been keeping busy! As a leading manufacturer of advanced carbon fiber composite components, the business has been supporting global aerospace and industrial markets for over 20 years with their Wearcomp®, H310® and H320® product lines. Founded in 1986, Hycomp develops components made with proprietary carbon fibers and thermoplastic materials used in applications such as actuation and electric systems on aircraft, to wear rings and air rotary valves for canning and rolling mills.
Thank You #2:
Our next guests come from Garden Grove, California, whom we would like to thank for their dedication to advancing critical seals and polymer parts for space & aerospace customers. This site continues to uphold our reputation as a leader in these industries. How far does this reputation go? Over 60+ years in space. We have provided seals to projects destined for space with our Omniseal® RACO® spring-energized seals used on the Space Shuttle, the Atlas V rocket that launched the Mars Rover Curiosity, in the slip joint system of the Delta IV heavy rocket and in the fuel delivery of the Falcon 9 and more space missions today. One current focus for this team is addressing needs of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), scheduled for launch in 2020, with missions planned to carry people to the moon, Mars, and deep space.
Our team is also busy leveraging Omniseal® spring-energized seals to support up and coming small to medium rockets manufacturers who are providing the service to place small and micro satellites (from 100kg down to 1kg) into low earth orbit. How small are these micro satellites? Imagine something the size of a baseball! How important are these satellites? The impact is massive in terms of global communication. A larger number of micro earth imaging satellites can replace larger satellites thus allowing each area of the world to be imaged every 3.5 hours rather than the current frequency of an image every 24 hours.
They also give rural villages in India and Africa (that do not have access to landlines) the ability to use cell phones to reach family and friends. These smaller, sleeker satellites also help with GPS, weather tracking, earthquake monitoring, and asteroid mining, to name a few. Talk about opening up global communications!
With the market for small satellites on the rise (expected to reach $15,686.3 million by 2026, from $3,632.4 million in 2018, according to Allied Market Research) given benefits they can provide to society, Omniseal Solutions is committed to working with manufacturers of them, space companies seeking to advance them and rocket builders that launch them beyond the earth’s orbit.
Thank You #3:
Next, we would like to thank our Kontich team members for transforming the site to better support aerospace & life sciences customers as well as oil & gas customers. In a recent blog, we shared exciting news that we are further expanding capabilities of our Kontich, Belgium site to specifically address advanced polymer needs in aerospace and life sciences, in addition to supporting oil and gas customers who rely on our custom, unique designs (such as large diameter seals) for LNG transfer, floating production, onshore/offshore drilling and other critical applications. Although the site has been working in aerospace and life sciences for years, it will now concentrate to specifically meet growing customer needs through several initiatives.
In addition to expanding the site’s R&D, testing and customer onboarding areas (along with numerous other advancements throughout the years, with the R&D laboratory expanded in 2017), the Kontich initiative also establishes sales and engineering around customer markets with a focus on customer needs in design and on addressing customers’ specific needs (for quality, cost, etc.) in delivery. Our Kontich office is also moving toward greater digitization for increased efficiencies and to maximize employee productivity. Another important initiative is setting up policies to empower employees to be more agile and reduce reaction time to problems as well as elevate larger issues where necessary.
This strategic direction not only prioritizes our customer needs but also increases our global focus, customization and speed. By leveraging extensive global experience in life sciences, aerospace, and oil and gas from the entire Omniseal Solutions' organization, the Kontich site can further bring this expertise to their local region.
Thank You #4:
We cannot forget to recognize the commitment to innovation from our team members, with opportunities in Asia in oil and gas and other industries. With China expected to contribute to over 40% of global gas demand growth in 2024, given the government’s initiative to shift from coal, numerous opportunities exist for oil and gas in this area. Strong growth in oil and gas in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan is also expected due to increased industrialization.
In Asia, we thank our:
India Team
For working to support local needs with our new India manufacturing site for oil & gas and industrial in Bangalore. Can you guess which critical parts were first produced here? Our Rulon® 123 piston cup seals for gas metering pumps.
The Bangalore location helps to better address India’s growing leadership position in these industries and manufacturing with “Make in India,” by allowing us to provide even faster project execution, response time and delivery; less expensive parts and faster service, while capitalizing on our proven designs, application knowledge, manufacturing excellence, and engineering.
Our business also continues to support space and aerospace in India, and will exhibit at National Conference for Cryogenics in Space in Thiruvananthapuram next month.
China Team
In Shanghai, who are known for supporting manufacturing seal needs (and recently showcasing some of these solutions at ComVac Asia in Shanghai last month) and continuing to expand to address area customer needs in aerospace, automotive and oil & gas. One growing application for our business in oil and gas in the region is offering protection and reliability in sealing liquefied gasses (LNG) in valve loading arms.
Japan Team
In Suwa, and sales team in Tokyo, are continuing to advance sealing solutions in life sciences, most notably in vitro diagnostics, in addition to placing a greater focus on the needs of the oil & gas industry in 2020.
Now, let’s make a very important announcement ….
Thank You #5:
Finally, we would like to thank you, our customers and partners. From working with NASA and major companies in the push in space, to helping to power life-saving portable insulin pumps and microsurgical tools, to enabling industrial applications to produce materials we need, to designing critical parts in micro satellites to keep us all connected, the needs of our customers and what they do for people worldwide is what motivates us to push the boundaries of what is possible.
Though our seals and polymer solutions are often hidden, they are present in our daily lives – in how we travel and move, in how we communicate and in how we discover. Not just to our customers, but to people who rely on energy for warmth and power, life-saving oxygen from portable oxygen pumps, air travel to visit family and satellites for communication throughout the world.
We thank you for your support and look forward to working with you to continue to address the most challenging conditions for seals and polymer parts to better human life.
What are you thankful for? Contact us so we can work together to go beyond today and tomorrow.
