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Say Goodbye to 'Hurricane' and 'Soder' and Hello to the K-Tron Process Group |
December 06, 2005 |
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Posted by Don Dunnington at December 6, 2005 08:39 AM |
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I h
ave been working to update K-Tron’s web pages to reflect the organizational changes that have combined our feeder business and vacuum conveying business into a single unit now called the K-Tron Process Group. This change has had an impact on almost every web page, and that's a lot of updating for such a large website.
ave been working to update K-Tron’s web pages to reflect the organizational changes that have combined our feeder business and vacuum conveying business into a single unit now called the K-Tron Process Group. This change has had an impact on almost every web page, and that's a lot of updating for such a large website. The two units, formerly known as the K-Tron Feeder Group and the K-Tron Pneumatic Conveying Group, now offer a single source for complete bulk material handling needs. As I see it, there were two good reasons to combine these organizations.
Two Good Reasons for the Change
First, it makes good business sense for K-Tron, as the world’s leader in feeding equipment, to seek to leverage its global position in growing its closely related vacuum conveying business.
Second, the merger provides both our feeder and pneumatic conveying customers access to more integrated solutions for their material handling applications. From integration of feeders with vacuum conveyor refill devices, to complete material handling systems engineering, many of today’s process engineers tell us they prefer one integrated solution from one supplier. And with their more limited project resources, it simply isn’t practical for processors to try to deal with multiple vendors and work out the interface for themselves.
Changes to Some Familiar Names
I’ll share some thoughts on what this new business combination might mean to the process equipment industry, and to those who buy process equipment. But first a brief summary of what has transpired to this point:
At the core of K-Tron’s pneumatic conveying business is K-Tron PCS, which provides dilute and dense phase vacuum conveying solutions. Founded in Stockport, England in 1990, Pneumatic Conveying Systems (PCS) has built a reputation in the UK for its sanitary design and expertise in conveying hard to handle materials. Now that it has merged into the K-Ton process Group, PCS has an opportunity to be more widely known through K-Tron’s global distribution network.K-Tron entered the pneumatic conveying business in 1997, with the acquisition of Hurricane, a small Canadian company. For the last several years, the K-Tron Feeder Group has sold both Hurricane vacuum receivers ("M" series) as well as PCS vacuum receivers ("P" series) under the Hurricane name. K-Tron is now using "K-Tron PCS" for the entire pneumatic conveying product line. As a result the "Hurricane" brand name has been discontinued, but the product line will continue to be sold and supported as a PCS product.
At the same time, K-Tron has also decided to phase out use of the name "K-Tron Soder" as the brand name for feeders and simply use "K-Tron Feeders." The Soder name has a 100-plus year history. Founded in Niederlenz, Switzerland in 1900, the Soder company was acquired by K-Tron in 1975 and has played an important role in the growth and development of K-Tron’s feeder business. (See this timeline).
One more change involving another UK-based company: Colormax has also been added to the K-Tron Process Group. Founded in 1973 in Telford, England, K-Tron Colormax specializes in feeding, blending and conveying of bulk materials in the plastics industry. As part of the K-Tron Process Group, the Colormax brand continues to provide auxiliary equipment for molding and extrusion applications, but the equipment will now also be available for applications in other industries served by K-Tron.
What this Means to the IndustryLike all industries, the process equipment industry has been undergoing change as a result of globalization, mostly driven by long term economic and business trends but certainly abetted by the Internet. The pace of globalization and consolidation has perhaps been slower in the process equipment industry than in the process industries we serve, but the trends are the same.
For K-Tron, serving global markets has been part of our tradition for more than 30 years. It was in response to the needs of our existing multinational feeder customers that K-Tron sent one of its engineers from Pitman, New Jersey to Belgium in the early 1970’s to set up a European business. That led to the acquisition of the Soder feeder company, which was followed by the spread of K-Tron in Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific. For K-Tron, there is just one point to acquisitions, or new business combinations, or moving to distant places, or developing breakthrough new products like the Bulk Solids Pump. It is all for the same purpose: to do a better job serving our customers, and to earn the right to serve more customers in more meaningful ways.
Don Dunnington
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