Visit Orion at the Turbomachinery Symposium

Orion Corporation will be exhibiting its products and capabilities at booth 829 at the 34th annual Turbomachinery Symposium in Houston, Texas December 12 - 15 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Orion experts will be on hand to answer your questions and discuss your applications. The Symposium, sponsored by the Turbomachinery Laboratory at Texas A&M University, features exhibits by major companies in the industry, including Orion. The technical program covers steam and gas turbines, axial, centrifugal, screw, and reciprocating compressors, and auxiliary equipment and services such as bearings, seals, couplings and software. For more information on the show, click here.

Orion Web Site Reaches Out to European Customers

Visitors to the Orion Corporation Web site (www.orion-corp.com) can now view the site’s text in German, French and Italian. Simply click on the appropriate flag icon on the home page and the translated version will appear. In addition, the Literature section of the site now includes a PDF copy of the German-language edition of the Euro Style Pivoting Shoe Thrust Bearing catalog. The catalog was previously in English only.

Up and Running in Record Time

Valero Energy Corporation found itself in a tight spot: When a compressor, critical to the operation of Valero Energy’s New Jersey oil refinery, was shut down for a rush repair, technicians discovered they did not have the necessary journal bearing pads on hand to complete the job. Valero Energy contacted Orion, which did not have the exact replacement parts in stock. A “rush order” for new bearings would still take several days, not an option when a major refinery is out-of-service. Valero Energy and Orion came up with an alternative solution. The refinery had two other pad sets in inventory for a different sized shaft. Could Orion re-machine these to fit the application? Orion engineers immediately researched the request and determined it was feasible. Shipping the bearing pads to Orion via next-day-air would still cost hours of valuable time. Instead, Valero Energy chartered a flight to Milwaukee, Wisconsin so the bearings could be re-machined that same evening. Valero Energy Senior Planner Ed Garbowski arrived in Milwaukee at 8 p.m. Orion Sales Manager Cal Cummings picked him up at the airport and drove straight to Orion’s Grafton plant located 40-minutes north of the city. Jim Klimek, an Orion machinist who recently celebrated his 40th anniversary with the company, completed the re-machining job in just a couple of hours. Ed and the bearings were whisked back to the airport, and were on a return flight to New Jersey at 11 p.m. By the next morning the compressor - and the refinery – were back in operation. Back in New Jersey Ed wrote to Orion, “I appreciated the hospitality your people showed me during my short visit. Your facility is first class along with its people.”