Mechanical Sealing Technology

Professor Richard F.  Salant: -, Georgia Institute of Technology

Richard F. Salant, Professor Emeritus at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was formerly the Georgia Power Distinguished Professor in Mechanical Engineering, until 2014. 

He received his B.S. (1963), M.S. (1963) and Sc.D. (1967) degrees from M.I.T. Prior to joining Georgia Tech in 1987, he was Manager of Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer and Turbomachinery Research at the Borg-Warner Research Centre, and held faculty positions at M.I.T. (associate professor, assistant professor) and the University of California, Berkeley (assistant professor). 

He was Chair of the Tribology Research Group at Georgia Tech, where his primary research continues in the areas of lip seals and mechanical seals. 

Richard Salant is a Fellow of ASME and STLE. 

Gary Boles: -, Electric Power Research Institute

Mark P Slivinski: President and Founder , Carbide Derivative Technologies, Inc.

Mark Slivinski has 39 years of product development experience, in mechanical seals, guided missiles, electrical circuit protection and heavy duty transportation. He has served in roles of increasing responsibility including Engineering Department Manager for Hughes Aircraft, Vice President of Global Technology for John Crane International, Director of New Product Development for Littelfuse, Vice President of Engineering for AlliedSignal/Bendix Truck Braking Systems and Engineering Fellow for Raytheon.  

Recently, he has founded Carbide Derivative Technologies, Inc., to introduce Industry to a unique surfacing technology for Carbides, which reduces friction and virtually eliminates the leading cause of premature wearout, and dramatically increases running life, in frictional components such as mechanical seals and bearings.

John Morton MBA IEng MIIE: Senior Product Manager, John Crane Global

John is presently the Senior Product Manager for John Crane Global. He joined John Crane in 1982 and spent many years in engineering, product development and support before moving into a commercial role with responsibility for the Danish and Norwegian markets. He later moved into marketing and product management, having responsibility for the pump seal, packing and predictive diagnostics product lines. He has authored several papers on mechanical seals and sealing technology and obtained his MBA from the University of Reading. 

David Unsworth BSc Hons: Condition Monitoring Manager, John Crane Global

David Unsworth is the Condition Monitoring Manager for John Crane Global R&D.  

David joined John Crane in 2007 after many years in the defence industry working as a research scientist.  His skills and experience have focused on electro-mechanical systems design and development and software engineering.  He has led the development of several systems for John Crane in the field of condition monitoring and has a 1st class degree in Computer Science from Glasgow Caledonian University. 

Klaus-Dieter  Meck Dipl.-Ing: Core Technology Manager, Global R&D, John Crane Global

Klaus-Dieter Meck is the Core Technology Manager for John Crane Global R&D.

Klaus-Dieter joined John Crane in 1999 after working several years at Flexibox Ltd. During his over 20 years in the oil and gas industry, he has been involved in technology, product development and product application of mechanical seals, bearings and power transmission products. He is the author of several papers concerning sealing technology and rotating equipment and has a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stuttgart University, Germany.

Jim O'Hare: Applications Engineer , EagleBurgmann, Germany

Jim O’Hare is a Compressor Seals Application Engineer with EagleBurgmann, Germany. 

Jim has worked in the mechanical seal industry for over 25 years during which he has held positions in application engineering, projects engineering, service contracts and technical sales.

Jim joined EagleBurgmann in 2002, and is currently in the position of Application Engineer for the compressor seals department, based in Wolfratshausen, Germany, providing global support for worldwide subsidiaries, OEM’s and End Users, in various applications including high pressure, high vapour margin, flashing hydro-carbon applications in pipeline and other services.

Alvaro Medina: Applications Engineer, Flowserve United Kingdom

Alvaro Medina received his Bachelor in Science in Mechanical Engineering from Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (1998) and a MSc in Refining and Gas from the Superior Energy Institute in Madrid, Spain (2002).

He worked at the refinery of Repsol in Tarragona (Spain) from 2002 to 2005 as rotating machinery and reliability engineer, from 2006 to 2008 as lubrication engineer at Sicelub Iberico, and from 2009 to 2010 as project engineer at the nuclear power plant of Vandellos II, Spain.  He joined Flowserve Corporation in 2010 as Applications Engineer in seals reliability contracts in different refineries in Spain, and since 2013 based in the ExxonMobil refinery at Fawley, United Kingdom.

Aurelio  Olivet: Quick Response Centre Manager, Flowserve United Kingdom

Aurelio Olivet received his Bachelor Degree in Chemical Engineering (1998) and his MSc. Degree in Mechanical Engineering (2002) from Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, Venezuela.  

He worked for Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. between the years 2000 and 2003, participating in different projects intended to improve pumping systems used for heavy oil production.  In 2004 he obtained a scholarship in the Material Science Institute of Barcelona in Spain to complete his PhD degree in Materials Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2008).  

In the year 2008 Aurelio Olivet joined to Flowserve Corporation, where he has occupied different roles as a Mechanical Seals Applications Engineer and more recently as the Manager of the Quick Response Center of Ellesmere Port, United Kingdom.  

Peter  Haselbacher: Senior Applications Engineer , EagleBurgmann, Germany

Peter Haselbacher is the Senior Applications Engineer at EagleBurgmann for the Global Application Engineering and Sales Support for the Water Industries.  

Peter joined EagleBurgmann in 1981 after completing a mechanical engineering degree at Munich University .

During his 33 year career he has held many different international positions within EagleBurgmann and has been the co-inventor of various patented seal designs.

Henri Azibert: Technical Director, Fluid Sealing Association

Henri V. Azibert started his career as counsel for the State Rating Bureau for the Division of Insurance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  He then joined the A.W. Chesterton Company, with his most recent position being Chief Technology Officer, where he had responsibility for all the mechanical seal and mechanical packing engineering staff and product lines.  

He is now retained as the Technical Director for the Fluid Sealing Association. He received his Baccalauréat from Lycée Louis Le Grand, a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts, a Jurisprudence Doctor degree from Boston College, and a Masters degree in Mechanical engineering from Northeastern University. 

Mr. Azibert was granted over thirty patents on mechanical seal designs and improvements.  Mr. Azibert maintains his standing in the Massachusetts Bar.  He is a member of the API 682 and 3A Mechanical Seal Standard Task forces, has been a member of the Texas A&M Pump Symposium Advisory Board; he has chaired several committees for the Fluid Sealing Association and served as Vice-President

Samuel Eccles BEng MBA: Global Product Manager Multistage Machines, SPX Pumps

Samuel Eccles worked on a start up before moving into pump engineering 9 years ago at SPX Pumps Penistone.

Samuel has held roles in Applications, Engineering and Quality before moving into product management and is presently Global Product Manager for all horizontal multistage pumps.

Stephen Harris BEng: Senior Mechanical Engineer, SPX Pumps

Stephen Harris worked for GE in their aerospace division before moving into Pump engineering 5 years ago with SPX. Stephen has held various roles within aftermarket and engineering before becoming senior mechanical engineer.

Kamesh Narayanaswamy: Senior Engineer Special Applications, John Crane

Kamesh Narayanaswamy is a senior engineer at John Crane. Based in Manchester, United
Kingdom Mr. Narayanaswamy is responsible for application and product support for wet seals products. He started his career at John Crane’s India business working in product design standards. He underwent John Crane’s two-year Graduate Training Program (GET) in the UK, which is been designed to offer formal training and work experience in application engineering. Prior to his current role, Mr. Narayanaswamy was an application engineering manager based in India.

Mr. Narayanaswamy earned a B.S. degree in engineering technology from Birla Institute of
Technology and Science (BITS) at Pilani, Rajasthan, India.

Gibbon FitzGibbon: Engineering Manager for high duty and speciality products, John Crane

Gibbon FitzGibbon is the engineering manager for high duty and speciality products for John Crane. Located in Manchester, U.K., Mr. FitzGibbon leads a team responsible for the design of wet seals for high pressure and slurry applications, as well as split seals. Mr. FitzGibbon holds a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering from the University of Glasgow. He is a chartered engineer and member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Michael Schiller: Principal Engineer , Flowserve Compressor Seal Technology

Michael Schiller is the Principal Engineer for Compressor Seal Technology at Flowserve and has a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Michael has 28 years experience in Compressor Sealing Technology working in various positions within Flowserve, including Design Engineer, Manager Testing and Development, Manager Repair department, Manager Customer Service.

Detlev  Steinmann: Head of Compressor Seal Engineering Worldwide, Flowserve

Detlev Steinmann is Head of Compressor Seal Engineering at Flowserve. Detlev graduated from the University of Dortmund, Germany in 1985 with a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering. He started his career 28 years ago in the engineering department of the Flowserve Corporation in Germany. From the beginning on he was focussed on Dry Gas seal technology, including the development of High Pressure Seals for the industry. 

After leading the development group and the testlab in Dortmund, Germany, in his current position, he and his specialized engineering team are responsible for the compressor seal technology world wide, covering  R&D, design, testing, standards, training and trouble shooting support . 

Dr Chris Radcliffe CEng. MIMechE: Chief Mechanical Engineer, Sulzer Pumps UK

Dr Chris Radcliffe is the Chief Mechanical Engineer at Sulzer Pumps UK, overseeing pump performance testing and is responsible for issues which may arise and resolution of operational problems.

Dr Radcliffe started his career as a technical apprentice at British Aerospace, Brough and studied for a BSc in Aeronautical Engineering. He then moved to Leeds University to study Machine Tribology, gaining a doctorate in Piston Ring Lubrication, followed by 11 years as head of R&D with the Universal Metallic Packing Company (later part of Hoerbiger Compression Technology).
In 2007 Dr Radcliffe joined Sulzer Pumps in Leeds. He has a number of patents for compressor seals and improvements in multiphase pumps.

Vugar Mammadov: Rotating Equipment Engineer, BP Exploration Caspian Sea Ltd

Vugar A Mammadov is a Rotating Equipment Engineer with BP Exploration Caspian Sea Ltd. Since 1998 he has worked in different roles including research and development, plant reliability and major projects.

Mr Mammadov has an MS degree (Mechanical Engineering Technology) from Azerbaijan Technical University and a PhD degree (Material Science in Mechanical Engineering) from Azerbaijan State Oil Academy.  He has published more than 30 research papers in various international journals.  He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the I.MechE

Ken  Tacon: Former Rotating Equipment Advisor, BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd

Ken Tacon was formerly a Rotating Equipment Advisor with BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd based at Sunbury UK. Over the last 30 years he has held a variety of technical positions with both rotating machinery manufacturers and major process companies in the chemical  or oil and gas industries. 

Mr Tacon is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the I.Mech.E. He holds a B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from Loughborough University and an M.Phil degree (Thermal Power) from Cranfield University.

Colin Twiss: Rotating Equipment Engineer, BP Exploration Caspian Sea Ltd

Colin Twiss is a Rotating Equipment Engineer working with BP Exploration Caspian Sea Ltd currently based in Leatherhead UK.  Over a 30+ year career Colin has held rotating equipment maintenance and technical support roles for Amoco and BP at offshore and onshore facilities in the North Sea and Caspian region.

Mr Twiss is an Incorporated Engineer with the IET

Farhad Aslan-zada: Mechanical Engineering Team Leader, BP Exploration Caspian Sea Ltd

Farhad Aslan-zada is a Mechanical Engineering Team Leader with BP Exploration Caspian Sea Ltd in Baku, Azerbaijan. He has held engineering positions within BP in onshore operations, offshore operations and major projects. 

Mr. Aslan-zada holds a MSc. degree (Mechanical Engineering Technology) from the Azerbaijan Technical University. He has published over 20 research papers in various international journals. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the I.Mech.E.