Name / Department: Lou DiBuo / Pneumatic Transport Operations Department

Focus Industry Experience
Lou joined Fuller Company in 1970 in the Mechanical Design Group.  He is a graduate of Penn State University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.  Prior to Fuller, Lou was a mechanical designer for and electric equipment manufacturer and also designed air duct silencing systems.  In his years with Fuller and F.L.Smidth, Lou has designed many of the components and proprietary products that are presently used in the company's pneumatic conveying systems.  Lou is now Chief Engineer – Material Handling Systems.

Fuller Bulk Handling / FLS Product Expertise
Lou DiBuo is "at home" with most of the products of F.L. Smith.  But, he has really left his mark on the Airslide and Fuller-Kinyon Pump products lines.  For these product line, Lou is responsible for system design, equipment sizing and specification, product application, developing specifications for purchased items, detailed design, commissioning, trouble-shooting and system optimization after initial operation.  When a customer or even a field service engineer encounters a difficult problem with an F-K Pump, Lou becomes the final authority.  His knowledge and expertise is highly in demand, and thus he spends a portion of each day providing advice to customers and sales reps in the field.

Major Technical Contributions
When Fuller's flagship product, the F-K "H" Pump, was coming to the end of it's useful product life, Lou was asked to join the product design team for the new Fuller-Kinyon type "M" pump.  The year was 1974 and already Lou had demonstrated his abilities within Fuller Company.  The new pump incorporated a double-bearing design, which allows higher-pressure operation.  The "M" pump was designed in more sizes, so the new product line is capable of much greater conveying capacity.  A patent was issued to Lou for his work on this development project.  Presently, the old "H" pump is still available, but most of the pumps sold today are the "M" type.

The new pump design was accepted immediately, but what about the installed base of thousands of "H" pumps still operational – could something be done to add a discharge-end bearing to these units?  In 1986, Lou developed the "Z-Flap" conversion kit that allows field retrofitting a second bearing to the older pumps.  Now, even in the 21st Century, customers are able to extend the life of the older pumps to 40, 50, 60 years, or more.

Together with the applications department, Lou was responsible for developing the Two-Piece Screw for the "H" pump and Three-Piece Screw for the "M" pump.  Now our customers can purchase a low-cost conversion kit for existing pumps and convert over to the most modern equipment arrangement.  Switching to the modern screw significantly reduces the cost of parts and labor every time a pump screw must be replaced.

Other important products include the Butterfly Flowgate for Airslide systems, developed in 1975, which is still a reliable and effective product.  Lou headed the Hi-Top Airslide project, which provides a huge increase in conveying capacity for almost no additional cost.

Customer Support Philosophy
When asked about his ideas of servicing customers, Lou related a story about the first "M" pump placed into operation at the Essroc #3 raw mill, near Nazareth, PA.  During initial startup, on a Friday night, the pump failed to operate properly.  Soon, they noticed that everyone had left the site, except Lou and a colleague.  Undaunted, since it was critically important for the plant to operate, Lou and his helper fabricated a discharge plate in the field and installed it into the pump.  The modification was successful and by Saturday morning the pump was running, so the raw mill could be put back into production.  The customer was ecstatic.

More recently, a customer in Malaysia needed a modified screw for his coal pump.  Lou got the call on Friday night while at home.  He contacted the F.L. Smidth Manheim manufacturing plant and after some quick period of design changes, a new screw was shipped by airfreight, so the customer was back into operation with improved capacity, and in only two days.