Technical Services Division Creation.
In the 1980’s there was increasing demand in the glass industry for more advanced forehearth and distributor designs for improved glass temperature conditioning and control, more efficient fuel consumption, as well as the package supply of complete forehearth and distributor systems, including their associated combustion, cooling, and temperature control systems. Engineering companies were already offering these complete package systems and PSR was losing out on potential forehearth refractory business.
The Technical Services Division was therefore established in 1989, which began a three-year intensive research and development programme, culminating in the patenting, installation of a prototype cooling section for initial testing, and launching of the System 500 Forehearth at Glasstec in 1992.
The System 500 forehearth and distributor design was developed to optimise the heating and cooling functions and to overcome the weaknesses of other designs on the market. To date, we have supplied some 685 forehearth and distributor systems into 42 countries. There have been many developments and improvements to the systems over the years but at their heart is the same original System 500 cooling design concept.
As a refractory manufacturer, with its own forehearth and distributor solution, we now provide the most complete supply package.
Technical Services Recruitment.
A nucleus of engineers with previous glass industry experience was recruited initially to help form the Technical Services Division. Since then, only about nine personnel over the past 35 years have been recruited having any relevant experience in the glass industry. Others have been trained and gained their experience working for PSR.
As our sales and customer base increased over the years, the need for more engineers to manage and fulfil these projects meant that we had to recruit and train the engineers we needed within PSR, as they were not readily available in the glass industry and experienced engineers recruited from other industries were not adaptable to our needs.
What has proved to be one of our most successful methods of recruiting suitable engineers has been the employment of students studying for an engineering degree for which an industrial placement year is part of their four-year degree course. We began employing placement students in 1999 and have employed 48 students over the past 25 years. We have then recruited fourteen engineers over the years in this way and their one-year placement experience allows them to hit the ground running when they start full time employment. Although some of these engineers have now left PSR, they all contributed to the on-going development of our Technical Services Division.
Our team is continuously involved in the training of placement students, with many having been through the process themselves. This has helped us to develop the on-going, in-house training necessary to equip our engineers with the specialist knowledge and experience required.
The Technical Service Management team is supported by Les Gaskell, who has been in the glass industry for 50 years and has been involved in all 1,583 Technical Services projects to date, which range from one Cord Dispersal System to a distributor and seven forehearths. In developing and supplying PSR’s Technical Services Division products and services over the years, his philosophy has always been to base the scope of supply, quality of equipment and level of service on how he would like to receive it as a customer.
As Les looks to the future and approaches retirement, we have a Technical Services management team in place with the expertise and experience to continue to develop and supply the products and services required by the energy intensive glass industry for many years to come, as it faces up to the challenges of carbon emission reduction and sustainability.
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This article, including an introduction to individual members of the Technical Services Management Team, features in the latest issue of PSR Review 2024 which we have produced for Glasstec 2024 where you find us on Stand A63 in Hall 13. Please come and see us.
