Category: Company News

More than two dozen IDEX leaders from China and India gathered last week at our manufacturing facility in Suzhou, near Shanghai, to participate in Emerging Markets Leadership Workshop. This was the third week of a nine-month training experience led by IDEX leaders.

“I was so impressed with the level of talent assembled in Suzhou last week,” said Mark Bishop, who leads the IDEX Academy as Director of Talent Development. “By providing new tools and openly sharing our unique perspectives, everyone was able to refine their thinking building great teams to expand IDEX’s growth and prosperity throughout India and China.”

The Emerging Markets Leadership workshop was led in partnership with IDEX Academy team, with the goal of continuing to develop this outstanding team. 

IDEX welcomed 40 high-caliber collegiate candidates to its headquarters in Lake Forest, IL, this week as part of our investment in building a diverse IDEX talent pipeline across engineering, supply chain, finance and human resources.   

Many of this year’s candidates are referrals from the inaugural cohort, which speaks highly of their experiences across IDEX, which is committed to building diverse, cross-functional talent.

The program is designed to attract and grow graduates in roles with significantly increased responsibility. May 2019 will represent the second collegiate cohort. Candidates selected will receive opportunities ranging from summer internships to rotational full-time opportunities at IDEX businesses around the country.

Candidates traveled from universities nationwide including Iowa State, Dartmouth, University of Texas, Western Michigan, Ohio State, University of Illinois, University of Minnesota and more to meet with IDEX executives who tested their decision-making, collaboration and team-building skills. During the event, candidates also participated in problem solving simulations and had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with IDEX leaders from across the country. 

Of eight top emerging fire service technologies highlighted by Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment magazine in October, half are made possible by IDEX Fire & Safety companies.  The article is recognition of the significant innovations our companies are making to bring new solutions to fire service customers.

Featured first, the Captium^TM connected vehicle platform brings controls from electronics across the fire truck together into a single system. Working with Microsoft, our developers also created an application so fire truck data is captured in the cloud, where it can be later analyzed using a specialized dashboard.

“We developed a new piece of hardware to be the backbone of the system, essentially the central brain for all the different vehicle networks, like the pumps, valves, pressure governor, engine, and multiplex network, which all plug into the brain,” IDEX Marketing Manager Jeffrey Zook told the magazine.

The article also features AXIS Smart Truck Technology, which is built on the Captium platform and engineered specifically for REV Fire and several of their fire apparatus brands.

Another technology enabled by Captium is HAAS Alert, which sends alerts to users of the Waze app, alerting them that emergency equipment is on the scene nearby or approaching on the road.

The article also features Phantom Controls’ Scene Apparatus Manager (SAM), a fully-automated fire pump system operated by a touch screen on an emergency vehicle or from a tablet. Phantom Controls is a unit of IDEX Fire & Safety.

“SAM is connected to the same electronic network that has always been on fire trucks, talks to this network, and makes the same changes a real person would if they were standing at the pump panel,” Phantom Control’s Business Line Leader Jason Cerrano told the magazine.

Check out the article here: https://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-23/issue-10/features/emerging-technologies-being-incorporated-in-the-fire-service.html

Akron Brass marked its 100^th Anniversary this month with an open house for families, friends, retirees, and community members.

The company offered facility tours, showcasing a vintage collection of firefighting equipment, including antique fire trucks, and provided educational smokehouse demonstrations for kids. In addition to demonstrations, local fire departments competed in a water barrel competition, where teams of firefighters focus their water spray on a barrel suspended from a wire, trying to push it across an opposing team’s goal line. Apple Creek Fire Department took home the top prize.

An estimated 800-1,000 people attended the four-hour celebration at Akron Brass headquarters in Wooster, Ohio, The event included a wood-fired pizza fire truck, homemade ice cream, balloon twisting, and more. 

The 100-year planning committee, led by Corporate Communications & Event Manager Kim Morrow, was very pleased with the support they received from employees, the community, state and local politicians and IDEX.

Chief Operations Officer Eric Ashleman shared his electric guitar skills recently as he challenged corporate employees to a rock ‘n’ roll version of “Name That Tune.”

Employees gathered in teams to guess the song as Eric played over 20 songs, mostly classic rock hits. The songs included Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”, ACDC’s “Thunderstruck” and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”.

Take a look at the recap video to see Eric’s skills!

 

When NASA launched a new satellite last month to study the effects of climate change, nearly 500 highly sensitive optics from IDEX’s Advanced Thin Films (ATF) were on board.

Now orbiting the earth, the ICESat-2 satellite is using seven lasers, combined with the ATF sensors, to measure how the height and thickness of ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice are changing over time. The ICESat-2 satellite promises to give scientists more precise measurements than ever before.

The ATF optics are part of a system called ATLAS, or Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, which can monitor changes within four millimeters. Boulder, CO-based ATF worked for six years on the NASA project.

“The ATF team is proud to be part of groundbreaking NASA missions that provide information about our changing planet,” Chief Technologist Dr. Darren Berns said. “We continue to look for opportunities where our internal process development aligns well with the needs of the scientific community – particularly where our contributions follow our corporate ethos of “Trusted Solutions, Improving lives.”

While focused on changes to the polar ice caps – the cryosphere – the satellite will also measure other regions of the earth. Findings are expected to lead to better forecasts of rising sea levels.

“With this mission we continue humankind’s exploration of the remote polar regions of our planet and advance our understanding of how ongoing changes of Earth’s ice cover at the poles and elsewhere will affect lives around the world, now and in the future,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

To see more about the ICESat-2 satellite, check out this NASA video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQg5ov6zths

 

The XSmart Paint Color Dispenser now has new features that allow the operator to control the machine with a mobile app.

Fast & Fluid Management initially developed the XSmart for Asian markets where customers expressed a need for a cost effective tinting machine to meet the needs of rapidly growing population of consumers with a desire for colored paints.

Since then, customers have asked Fast & Fluid to develop a mobile solution for the XSmart to replace desktop computer controls.

Conventional paint color dispensers are designed to be controlled and operated using desktop computers and laptops equipped with Fast & Fluid’s PrismaPro operating software. Rapid developments in mobile hardware platforms and software have allowed mobile devices to perform an increasing number of complex computing tasks.

Fast & Fluid developed a mobile application called “Prisma-RT” where RT stands for Remote Technology. Together with Fast & Fluid’s supporting hardware: “Wireless Konnect Kit,” the new software enables end-users to operate our dispensers using their personal mobile devices, including phones and tablets.

IOT (Internet of Things) technology will also enable real time support on such things as color database updates without expensive visits by service engineers to update databases on site at the paint shop. At the same time our mobile dispensing software will save the cost of procuring expensive conventional PC’s or laptops, allowing users to use their existing smartphone or tablet.

Fast & Fluid has released the first version of Prisma-RT to Asian Paints, which operates on Android platform devices. The first version of Prisma-RT has all the necessary functionality to operate the dispenser, such as the formula book, dispensing, filling canisters, saving customer details, adjusting dispense, manual dispense, and pricing.

Fast & Fluid global and local cross-functional teams made it possible to release the first version of Prisma-RT in Q3 2018. The company has also already installed several Prisma-RT demos at customer sites across Asia. Fast & Fluid intends to continue adding more customers to this growing list across the entire region.

At this stage Prisma-RT is only offered for the X-Smart but work is already in progress to make it available for the X-PROTINT & iNSPiRE as well as the iOS platform, with added functionality through Phase 2 of the project.

 

Thirty-five employees at Vetter, southwest of Cologne, Germany, donated more than 230 hours to help convert an old farmhouse into a dorm for people with disabilities in Zülpich-Bessenich.  

The initial plan was to focus on demolishing the pigsty, but after six days of work, the entire Vetter volunteer team had completed the demolition project much faster than originally planned. In addition to transforming the pigsty, Vetter employees helped with other tasks, including preparing garden plots and excavating for greenhouses. 

Jörg Schumacher, initiator of the dorm and working project, is pleased about the diligence of the Vetter volunteer team. “We received much more support than we expected, much more than we could imagine,” Schumacher said.  

Part of IDEX Fire & Safety, Vetter is a global leader in developing technically superior pneumatic products that include lifting bags, tents and hazmat products. 

 

 

 

In response to employee requests, the IDEX Foundation again made donations to worldwide disaster relief efforts. The Foundation donated a total of $15,000 to disaster relief organizations providing relief to victims of the recent earthquake in Indonesia, and hurricanes Florence and Michael in the United States.

 The foundation approved a $5,000 donation to Mercy Corps, which has been working in Indonesia for nearly 20 years and has responded to almost every significant emergency in the region, including the Japanese (2011) and Indian (2004) tsunamis. The Indonesian earthquake struck on Sept. 28, killing more than 2,000 people. Mercy Corps is providing water, food and hygiene gifts to survivors.

 To assist hurricane victims in the United States, the IDEX Foundation has partnered with several organizations providing local relief.

For assistance following Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas, the foundation gave $4,000 to Team Rubicon, which has deployed more than 750 volunteers to the region since the storm struck in September. Team Rubicon pairs the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders, medical professionals, and technology solutions.  At the suggestion of employees from Semrock, the foundation is also giving $1,000 to the Charles Finney School in Rochester, N.Y., which is coordinating donations of supplies to those affected by the hurricane.

 To assist those on the Florida panhandle who were impacted by Hurricane Michael earlier this month, the foundation has also donated $5,000 to Direct Relief, a humanitarian organization that partners with local health centers and clinics, providing emergency medical packs with supplies to treat as many as 100 people for up to five days. Direct Relief’s donation policy requires that 100 percent of contributions designated for specific emergencies are used only for activities related to that emergency. 

To learn more about the IDEX Foundation, visit our Corporate Social Responsibility page.

 

Usually a behind-the-scenes partner to first responders, HURST Jaws of Life® took center stage this month with advertising industry recognition of the design and user experience of JawsOfLife.com. The new website earned three awards at W3, an annual international awards competition.

HURST Jaws of Life won two gold awards and one silver award for the website in three categories: Best Mobile UX; Manufacturing Company; and Visual Appeal/Aesthetics. The new website was launched in late 2017 to provide dealers and rescue tool end users with robust resources, time-saving features and an immersive HURST Jaws of Life experience.

“Our goal is to make sure our customers have the tools they need to save lives,” Bruce Johnston, director of marketing and product management said. “JawsOfLife.com is a different kind of tool, but equally important. Being recognized by W3 for the site’s design and mobile user experience says JawsOfLife.com is giving first responders easy-to-access and easy-to-use information whether they’re in the station or at the scene. We’re proud of this new website and appreciate the advertising industry’s recognition of it.”

The W3 awards recognize outstanding digital marketing materials. Judged by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, it is an invitation-only competition among a top tier of media, interactive, advertising and marketing firms.