Name / Department:   Joe Velas / Pneumatic Transport – Components Sales

Background & Product Experience
Joe joined Fuller Company, the predecessor to FLS Pneumatic Transport after receiving a BSME from Penn State University in 1980.  He learned all about pneumatic conveying in various positions such as product engineer, standard products sales and small systems sales.  Joe is presently manager of the components group. 

Joe is experienced with the standard products and equipment.  He knows more about rotary valves and diverter valves and how to apply them to a specific need than most people know about their own wallet.  He can easily search through his memory to select the right actuator, positioner or limit switch combination to fulfill a myriad of customer requirements.

Pneumatic Conveying Expertise
Joe describes himself as a problem solver.  His greatest value to FLS and his customers is knowing how to apply the equipment to a certain application.  Joe enjoys  walking through a customer’s plant for the first time and hearing about material flow problems, abrasion or corrosion problems, dusting issues and product leakage and spilling. The more complex the system and more difficult the problem, the more he responds to the challenge.

During his tenure of managing the small systems group at FLS, Joe worked on many aspects of each project.  He learned how to make things work and what equipment is best suited for each application.  His years of experience in many industries and unimaginable number of plants allow him to amaze his customers with his abilities.  Joe’s experience is an asset to all of his colleagues at FLS.

Major Technical Contributions
Joe Velas has initiated new projects and offered technical contributions to FLS industrial expertise from both the engineering side of the business and the sales side.  Contributions in new products, product improvements and pneumatic conveying technology are many and varied. 

The Quick Access SK diverter valve is a product improvement Joe and others suggested several years ago.  Joe pushed for a “redesign effort” on the SK valve so users of the valves can rebuild the valve in-place, without removing the valve from service.  The Technology Department completed the work on our 14” valve model just in time to meet the shipping date for an order Joe received early in 2004.  Joe is emphatic in his praise for the Technology Department since they were able to complete the re-design of the 14” valve in time to make a critical customer delivery window. 

Joe’s eyes gleam with pride when he talks the Ceramic Rotary Valve.  The concept was born in response to the relatively short life of metric feeders and other manufacturer’s valves on abrasive limestone applications.  Joe tried several different methods for applying a ceramic coating to the metric rotary valve and then tested each model in real-world customer plants to verify the integrity and longevity of each design.  Joe says it was a “major learning curve” to get ceramic coating of the correct thickness bonded to the base metal in the right places.  The bonding method is critical to allow the ceramic material to withstand these abrasive applications, and still maintain a competitive price on the Ceramic Rotary Valve.  In 1995, the first production unit went into service handling limestone in a co-generation facility.  The guaranteed life was easily surpassed and the customer was thrilled.  In the past 10 years, the ceramic feeder has been a big seller in the FLS components department.

Joe also likes to talk about his Equipment Recondition Program.  When an FLS standard component becomes worn or needs major service, the customer can send the equipment back to the Manheim Plant for inspection and repair.  In many cases, the equipment can be rebuilt for less than half the cost of a new equipment purchase.  The best part is the FLS “Same as New” Guarantee.  Joe says that this program has earned FLS many repeat purchases throughout the years.  The program applies to metric feeders, SK diverter valves, rotary metering valves, butterfly flowgate valves, rotary cut off gates and even Fulload spouts.

Customer Support Philosophy
Joe wants customers to tell him their “worst material handling nightmare”.  Then after telling the story, Joe asks to see it and wants to find a way to solve it.  He enjoys entering a plant and finding worn-out equipment or a huge pile of material spilling onto the plant floor.  Then he knows it is time to roll up his sleeves and go to work.

Joe related a story about one of his customers at a gold processing plant.  The company was spending over $100,000 per year on maintenance for a mechanical transfer system and was about to be cited by the EPA for product spillage and dusting.  The problem was obvious – there was a “huge mountain” of gold ore growing inside the plant.  The pile was so large that some of the spilled material had to be removed before the group could get to the ladder to reach the maintenance platforms.  To Joe, the solution was simple:  the company needed an Airslide system.  However, the customer refused to believe that the heavy gold ore could be handled on a fluidized transfer system.  “It takes vibration to handle this material”, he said. 

Joe persisted and finally got his customer to visit the FLS Material Testing Facility.  The customer’s actual material was loaded into a tank with a fluidized bottom and the customer invited to observe the product movement.  “His eyes almost popped out of his head”, Joe said of the customer’s reaction.  “We had to run the test three or four times before he would believe it wasn’t some kind of trick.  You have to get the customers to witness the tests before they believe how well the equipment works.”

Shortly afterward, the company purchased an Airslide transfer system from FLS.  When the new system was operating, the customer reported that it is his best system in the plant and paid for itself in less than six months. 

Joe says it is his goal for every customer to get a “fair shake from FLS and a win-win deal”.  With FLS you get a lot of experience in a lot of different areas.  If I do not know how to do something, someone else at FLS does.  Our products last and can be proven in the plant – that’s what we sell”.

Joe summarized the interview by stating, “You need to understand where the customer is – what level of understanding he has.  Then work to educate him from where he is, and using all the tools available.  The Material Testing Facility is great!”