CHICAGO, March 9, 2017 – Today, a century after the Crane Packing Company launched in Chicago, Illinois, John Crane is a global leader in solutions for process industries—and still makes enough of the company’s original products every year to reach nearly to the moon.
“Our longevity is a testament to our people and our service-minded culture,” says John Donatiello, VP of Global End-User Sales and Service. “We help our customers stay ahead of change.”
While today the company is the market leader in mechanical seals for pumps and compressors, it built its early success on packing and gasketing products patented by engineer and co-founder John Crane. His flexible, lubricated metallic packing sealed voids in cylinders, valves and other equipment to prevent leaking. By the mid-1930s, an estimated 25 million automotive motor water pumps used Crane Packing materials.
In 1968, John Crane was awarded a patent for spiral groove technology, leading a shift from contacting to non-contacting shaft seals over the next three decades. The innovative non-contacting technology delivers lower operating costs, higher reliability, and improved safety and is today gaining recognition as a low-emission technology solution to help address climate change concerns.
Over the years the company has developed dozens of revolutionary products and processes, including the first automotive mechanical seal; the end-face, elastomer bellows shaft seal; seals for high-pressure and corrosive applications; and non-contacting technology for pumps handling environmentally hazardous liquids.
“We’re celebrating 100 years of innovation,” says Joe Haas, VP of Engineering. “But we’re also working on the next breakthroughs for industry, in areas like additive manufacturing, materials development using nanoparticles, and Sense™ - a predictive diagnostics platform for the Industrial Internet of Things.”
John Crane supplies engineered products and services to process industries including oil and gas, chemical, power, pharmaceutical and general industry. The company designs, manufactures and services products including mechanical seals, couplings, bearings and filtration systems.
Says Donatiello, “Customers see us as problem-solvers. We help them keep their equipment up and running, meet environmental and safety requirements, and operate more reliably and cost efficiently, to meet today and tomorrow’s challenges.”
And the company continues to make packing and gasketing materials – including nearly 240,000 miles of braided packing a year.
About John Crane
John Crane (www.johncrane.com) is a global leader in rotating equipment solutions, supplying engineered technologies and services to process industries. The company designs and manufactures a variety of products including mechanical seals and systems, couplings, bearings, filtration systems and predictive digital monitoring technologies. John Crane customer service is accessed through a global network of more than 200 sales and service facilities in over 50 countries. Fiscal year 2016 revenue was greater than 1 Billion USD (£830m). John Crane is part of Smiths Group (www.smiths.com), a global leader in applying advanced technologies for markets in threat and contraband detection, energy, medical devices, communications, and engineered components.