A native of Pittsburgh, Vince Neal has worked in England, Australia, the Philippines, California and Florida -- all basically with the same company, IDEX Corp. For 20 years, Neal was with Knight Equipment, maker of a line of chemical control systems for the cleaning and hygiene industry that IDEX acquired in 1997. Largely, that involved peristaltic pumps for the institutional/hospitality market. Last year, he transferred to IDEX’s Pulsafeeder unit as vice president of sales and marketing for its Standard Product Operations division, in Punta Gorda, FL.
Based in Rochester, NY, Pulsafeeder - a specialist in fluid metering, process and control technologies - manufactures chemical injection, precision dosing and diaphragm metering pumps. The shift moved Neal into water treatment from chlorine feed for rural well water to chemical injection for industrial cooling towers and boilers. This requires precision control instrumentation to assure proper feed of the correct amount of chemicals at the right time. That can vary from a simple dispenser or a system with all the “bells and whistles,” he points out.
His division focuses on off-the-shelf solutions. For the past year, he’s had it in back-to-basics mode to reassess its market and better position for growth. One result is combining Pulsafeeder’s customer and technical service departments to form a Customer Care Division. Well-versed in the latest QA/QC principles, he notes that a fresh set of eyes is always good to see new opportunities, underscoring that a series of new services and products are scheduled for unveiling in 2007 through 2009.
“They say the simplest ideas and best inventions are actually sitting right in front of you. It just takes someone looking at things a little differently or it just pops out at you,” he said, speaking at the Association of Water Technologies exhibition in Charlotte in mid-September. “Who knows? The next generation technology could be from the maintenance guy working in a plant dealing with that process for 10 years and finally saying: ‘You know, I wish it did this.’ Next thing you know, we’re putting out this fantastic innovation based on his comments.”
Neal was looking forward to the upcoming WEFTEC and POWER-GEN International events as opportunities to showcase Pulsafeeder’s strengths.
Click here to read: "Q&A: An Interview with Pulsafeeder's Vince Neal" in full.
