Beneath The Gulf Oil Disaster

For weeks the world's attention has been focused on the oil calamity in the Gulf of Mexico and recriminations from the media and politicians.

Without exonerating BP, one can be fascinated by the extensive, improvised efforts being taken by the company to stop the leak a daunting 5,000 feet under the sea. Here's the best account in layman's langauge of the remediation battle this reporter has read. It should also be of interest to PVF people for the key role their products are playing.

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Warren Alloy Sold To Allied
Allied Fitting, L.P., a subsidiary of the Allied Group and Allied International, announced on May 24 that it has acquired Warren Alloy Valve & Fitting Co. Both companies are headquartered in Houston and are distributors of fittings and flanges. Allied focuses on carbon steel products while Warren is known for stainless and specialty metal products, as well as its own line of valves and special alloy pipe and tubing. Based in Italy, Allied Group is a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of carbon steel PVF used in nuclear installations, thermal power plants, oil and gas production facilities, oil and gas pipelines, and the refining industry. Read more details.

Rotork Buys Ralph A. Hiller Co.
British-based Rotork announced the acquisition of Ralph A. Hiller Co. Inc., a designer and manufacturer of nuclear actuators and distributor of related products based in Pittsburgh, PA. Rotork paid $7.8 million in cash. Hiller's annual revenues were last reported at $14.6 million. Hiller will become part of Rotork's Fluid Systems division.

Kelly Pipe Expands To Las Vegas, Hires Ramsey
Following the acquisition of Iron County Pipe's assets, Kelly Pipe opened its newest branch in Las Vegas.  Headed by Jereme Lowe, the branch will operate as a master distributor for pipe products throughout Nevada.  Branch operations at Kelly Las Vegas are supported by salesman Tim O'Roarke, previously with Superior Supply, and Assistant Manager Howard Mattix, Kelly's prior QA manager at its main office in Santa Fe Springs, CA.  Also, Kelly announced that pipe specialist Mike Ramsey has joined Kelly Pipe's Chicago office and branch. Ramsey brings 30 years of experience in the pipe business to Kelly, the last 18 at Koppel Steel (TMK IPSCO) as tubular products manager.

F.W. Webb Creates Internet Job
F.W. Webb has created a new position, internet marketing manager, reporting to the sales staff. Chip Slattery has been named to head the venture, which will entail marketing Webb web sites and exploring opportunities with social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

PSI, Shamrock Named SJE-Rhombus Reps
SJE-Rhombus, a manufacturer of liquid level controls for the water/wastewater industry, has hired Preferred Sales, Inc. of Hermitage, PA to represent their control product line in Ohio, West Virginia, Western Pennsylvania, and the Kentucky counties of Boone, Kenton and Campbell.  The company also hired Winnipeg-based Shamrock Agencies, Ltd. to represent their control product line in Manitoba. 

NW Pipe Delisted From Nasdaq
Northwest Pipe Co. announced that because the company did not file its quarterly Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 and its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, trading of the company's common stock has been suspended from The Nasdaq Global Select Market, and a Form 25-NSE will be filed with the Securities Exchange Commission, which would remove the Company's securities from listing and registration on the Nasdaq. Northwest Pipe attributed its failure to file to a previously disclosed ongoing internal investigation of certain accounting matters.

Cooper B-Line Guarantees 24-Hour Shipment
Cooper B-Line introduced its "Mechanical Promise Program,"  in which participating distributors will automatically receive shipping on qualified products within 24 hours, with priority handling for any requested quotation.  Qualified products include bolted framing, pipe hangers and spring steel fasteners.

Mexico Imposes Duties On Chinese OCTG
AddMexico to the list of nations imposing anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese seamless steel piping. Tariffs of up to 36% were added on tubes used for oil and gas pipelines. The government action was taken based on a complaint filed by Tamsa, the Mexican arm of steel company Tenaris.

Germano Moves Up At Marmon/Keystone Canada
Lou Germano has been promoted to executive vice president at Marmon/Keystone Canada, it was announced by David Rombough, president & general manager, Canadian Operations. He will retain his duties as vice president of purchasing. Germano has been with the company since 1982.

Companies That Avoid Layoffs

This reporter has heard of many companies in our industry that have laid off employees for the first time in many years and sometimes for the first time in their history. This made it interesting to read of a handful of companies that have managed to avoid layoffs despite sinking fortunes, and some of the ways they did it.  

AEC Store Corner 

New to AECStore.com

Pump Characteristics and Applications,
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This hands-on reference offers a practical introduction to pumps and provides the tools necessary to select, size, operate, and maintain pumps properly. It highlights the interrelationship of pump engineering from system and piping design to installation and startup.  This updated second edition expands on many subjects introduced in the first edition and also provides new in-depth discussion of pump couplings, o-rings, motors, variable frequency drives, pump life-cycle cost, corrosion, and pump minimum flow.

Follow this link for a complete description. or to purchase this item.

Visit AECStore.com to view all of our technical resources, CDs and DVDs.

Tech Tip #47
by Gregg Marshall
To help you make the most of the Digital Age.

Wiki Your Company

Unless you've been living under an Internet rock, you've probably heard about Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org). It is a great source of information on just about anything, with 2,915,098 articles when last checked. And, despite being crowd sourced by volunteers, it has been shown to be as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica.

Most companies have information silos. One person knows a tidbit of information, someone else knows another. Rarely does any small to medium business engage in what is known as knowledge management. Actually, rarely does any company. The term "wiki" comes from the Hawaiian word for fast. Wiki's are easy to set up; many are free, open source software. For a comparison of wiki software there's a table on, no surprise here, Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software.

There are also services, ranging from free to subscription, that don't even require you to set up or host your own wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_farms.

You could begin with company policies. Usually there are one or two people responsible for keeping them up to date. It might be human resources (an editable version of your personnel manual), but more useful policies might pertain to shipping, backorders, etc.

The real power of a wiki comes when you can get a group of "regular" employees to contribute hard learned knowledge. For instance, sales people could share what kind of pitches work best with different kinds of customers. Or production people could record tips and tricks on how to make a widget faster or easier.

The ultimate power of a wiki is when you can get several companies to collaborate. When we were manufacturers' representatives, one of the frustrations we had were calls from vendor sales managers telling us someone else in the country was doing better than we were. My question was always "what are they doing differently?" Why can't the various reps document their successes (and failures since they are good learning tools too) on a common, private wiki?

One challenge with wikis is getting people to participate. Wikipedia, the mother of all wikis, knows that 1.8% of users have written more than 72% of all articles. Your goal should be to have a majority of your community contribute something. Some contributors will generate most of the content, but you really want everyone to add a little something. It might take some incentives.

Wikis are a powerful way to capture knowledge within your company. They are fast. So what is keeping you from setting up a wiki for your company?

Gregg Marshall, CPMR, CSP, is president of Rep Connection Inc. He can be reached by e-mail at gmarshall@repconnection.com, or visit his LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/greggmarshall.

What's The Industry Buzzing About?

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CPVC Pipe Hangers
Cooper B-Line  has added a chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) plastic pipe hanger to its range of pipe-hanger solutions.  The new CPVC pipe hanging system features enhanced thermal properties, making it an ideal option for fire protection applications like sprinkler systems.