The Challenge

Selecting the right gasket and fluid sealant for a specific piece of equipment can be a challenge for an industrial engineer or repair technician. The wrong product can result in equipment damage, leaks or unsafe conditions. Service technicians often have to choose from thousands of different gaskets and rely on their experience, judgement and Internet-based catalogs to make their choices. Many of TFC’s mining, oil and gas customers operate in remote locations without Internet access, further reducing the information available to make a decision free of error.

“There’s a lot of room for potential error, especially when you consider all of the different gaskets available, using various materials, and from all different manufacturers,” said Mike Shorts, Vice-President and General Manager of TFC. “We wanted to take that uncertainty out of the picture for them.”

TFC saw an opportunity to help its customers and local distributors better navigate the options for choosing gaskets, and at the same time build its brand and competitive advantage.

The Solution

 iGasket™ is an app designed with a simple and intuitive interface. A technician replacing a gasket inputs six pieces of key information– use, temperature, pressure, flange class, flange type and fluid—and are given a list of TFC gaskets appropriate to their application. iGasket provides the technician with all Durlon® gaskets appropriate for their current need, as well as matching visual images and product descriptions.

“The visual is actually very important to our customers,” said Shorts. “In our industry, while there’s no standard coloring system for the gaskets, the majority of manufacturers stick to certain colors.”

Short says that it has become customary, since the removal of asbestos products, for manufacturers to use particular colors to help differentiate gaskets for different uses and applications.

“The BlackBerry smartphone is conducive to what we do, because reliability is such a big issue in the industries we serve.”
~ Mike Shorts, Vice-President and General Manager, Triangle Fluid Controls Ltd.

The app also provides users with the ability to connect directly to the head office via a toll-free number in case additional information about a product or contact details for a local distributor are required.

TFC made the iGasket™ app available as a free download on BlackBerry App World™ storefront in order to reach a large section of their user base; there is also a link to download the app from the TFC website. iGasket™ is designed to function out of signal range, in remote locations and underground, where many of the company’s customers are located.

Shorts said developing iGasket™ for BlackBerry smartphones made sense because of the device’s leadership in business and industrial markets. He also pointed to the reliability of the BlackBerry infrastructure.

“I truly believe BlackBerry is a better business solution than any of its competitors,” said Shorts. “The BlackBerry smartphone is conducive to what we do, because reliability is such a big issue in the industries we serve.”

Triangle Fluid Controls’ Benefits

According to Shorts, the application has been well-received
by TFC’s customers and distribution partners, and has helped improve TFC’s brand and generate buzz in the industry.

Developing iGasket™ for the BlackBerry smartphone is helping the company to better compete with larger competitors. “Because of our size, it can be more difficult to do things ahead of our competitors,” said Shorts. “But, we were able to use our nimbleness and technology to really beat them to the punch.”

The team at TFC also believes iGasket™ on the BlackBerry smartphone will help improve safety because it helps to ensure the correct parts and products are selected. “People worry about selecting the right gasket material because the stakes are so high when you’re dealing with chemical compounds,” said Shorts. “Our application means that you can more confidently select the right product for any given chemical or environment, regardless of your level of connectivity to the outside world.”

Since launching the application, TFC has received interest from an affiliated company in the US to rebrand the application for its region, and has started to receive greater interest in its products overseas.

“What really surprised me was how many inquiries and downloads we started getting in different parts of the world,” said Shorts. “We immediately had product enquiries come in from South Africa, for example, where we’ve never done business in the past.”

Since offering iGasket™ to its customers, Shorts has equipped his sales team with BlackBerry smartphones to enable them to better communicate with each other and familiarize themselves with the customer’s experience.

TFC plans to roll out a second phase of the iGasket™ application that will take advantage of the BlackBerry smartphone’s built in GPS. Service technicians will soon be able to use the app to find and directly contact their closest Durlon® distributor to make a purchase.
 

www.blackberry.com/go/success