John Crane, the world’s largest designer, manufacturer and supplier of engineered sealing solutions and associated technology, today announced the opening of a new gas seal service and repair facility at the John Crane Centre located in Peenya Industrial area, Bangalore. The centre is now able to offer Asian customers’ significant reductions in turnaround times on gas seal repair and maintenance projects. John Crane has further invested £ 1.5 million into this facility, which is an addition to the £1.5 million investment into the manufacturing, service and support centre, inaugurated last year.

The new gas seal test rig can accommodate seal types in single, double or tandem arrangements and in sizes up to 220 mm. It can operate at test pressures up to 200 kg/ Cm2, and speeds at up to 14,000 RPM.

Commenting on this development, Mr. Ray Dorey, Managing Director John Crane – Asia Pacific, said, “The opening of a new gas seal service and repair facility in India has underlined the commitment of John Crane to remain the leading engineered sealing solutions manufacturer to this important and rapidly expanding market. The move represents a significant strengthening of John Crane’s new facility in Bangalore, which the company opened last year, and it will greatly enhance John Crane’s ability to support the growing number of turbomachinery users in the region.”

In addition to the ability to complete full dynamic testing under typical operating conditions, the Centre also now has full seal failure analysis and refurbishment capabilities. Staffed by trained and experienced John Crane engineers the Centre can also supply genuine spare parts, and in order to greatly reduce repair times it can hold these as bonded stocks on behalf of individual customers. Also it is the key manufacturing hub for John Crane mechanical seals for the domestic Indian market and provides fully assembled power transmission couplings for both the Indian and Asia Pacific regions, plus coupling components for assembly at other John Crane facilities.

Dave Hill, Turbomachinery & International projects Director, said, “John Crane is already recognised as the worldwide leader in turbomachinery sealing solutions. This latest development has added yet another link to its growing international network of such dedicated turbomachinery facilities, with others already operating in Japan, Russia, the UK, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Chicago, China, Norway and Brazil. John Crane recently launched a £2.4 Million investment programme to enhance its turbomachinery capabilities. This will significantly upgrade the turbomachinery division’s UK test facilities, improve product reliability, boost its service abilities and enable the company to achieve more of the technological developments on which it has built its reputation.”

The Indian market for sealing solutions and associated technologies is worth some GB£22.4 million, of which John Crane currently has a 10% share. Of the overall £22.4 million market, gas seals account for some 3.5% and John Crane sees its new gas seal facility as an important step in increasing its existing 76.5% share of that.

Ashok Vasudevan, Director and General Manager, John Crane, India, said, “John Crane provides customer support and service on a genuinely global scale, this new facility will play a major role in making the company’s gas seal service and support capabilities available on a local level. The new facilities have helped boost the total number of John Crane people employed at the site by almost 50% since 2006, to a current total of well over 200 employees”

The outstanding success of John Crane’s turbomachinery activities was officially recognised last year when the company won a 2006 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the UK. The Award marked the success of the John Crane Turbomachinery Division in expanding its business far beyond general levels of market growth and in making outstanding progress in developing and marketing advanced turbomachinery technologies.

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John Crane

John Crane is the world's largest designer, manufacturer and supplier of engineered sealing solutions and associated technology. Since being created over 80 years ago, the company has earned its current position as the acknowledged global leader in its field, and today it provides the most complete selection of engineered mechanical seals, sealing support systems and mechanical packings, complemented by power transmission couplings. For more details visit www.johncrane.co.uk