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The winner of the inaugural ‘Solved! By Flexitallic’ awards is applications engineer Eric Fuselier – whose solution for a client’s complex problem resulted in the development of a whole new product line called FlexACE™.

Eric, based in Louisiana, United States, was announced as the first ever recipient of the Global Gold award at a glittering ceremony hosted by Flexitallic in Leeds, UK.

A leading manufacturer and supplier of static sealing solutions, it launched the annual awards to recognise and showcase the remarkable talent and commitment displayed by its global team.

Eric was recognised for resolving an urgent issue in the petrochemical sector, where persistent leakage problems were causing an air-cooled exchanger to operate at 80% efficiency.

His innovative solution involved redesigning the sealing solution using Change™ gasket technology using Corriculite®, to mitigate the potential for galvanic corrosion.

This ingenious modification not only ensured a complete seal, allowing the exchanger to operate at full capacity, but also eliminated the need for time-consuming plug welding, significantly reducing maintenance times.

As a direct result of his approach, Flexitallic has introduced a new product line called FlexACE™, in order to meet an increasing demand from others in the petrochemical sector faced with the same problem.

The award winners were chosen by Flexitallic’s employees, with Eric Fuselier attracting the largest proportion of the vote. Other recipients in the category were Christian Petterson who picked up the Global Silver and a Regional award and Vincent Hauwel who received a Global Bronze award together with two Regional awards.

Christian, who is based in Sweden, was nominated after corrosion of varying degrees was found in certain pipe flange connections on an offshore production platform, with the potential for extensive downtime needed for repairs. His solution was to use

Flexitallic’s Equiflex® gasket, which achieved such a high performance that the client took the decision to deploy this solution across all such connections on the asset.

Vincent, who is based in France and who also won two Regional awards, was faced with a distillation column used in the speciality chemical sector that had not been open for several decades. The client wanted to clean and restore it, despite the site having little information about the assembly or lid gasket.

To overcome the problem, the Flexitallic Change ™CR Style CGI was designed, and the tightening torque of the bolts was recalculated. As a result, the restart was a success, with the distillation column operating at maximum capacity.

In the regional category, awards were presented to: Regional Gold: Eric Fuselier, Christian Petterson, Vincent Hauwel; Regional Silver: Jeff Pretli, Markus Müggenborg, Nik Thandi; Regional Bronze: Dan Titus, Vincent Hauwel, Brian Gilmer, Nick Allison.

Eric Fuselier, said, “I’m honoured to receive the first Global Gold award. It is a testament to the dedication and expertise of our team in delivering innovative solutions to pressing and difficult circumstances. It’s a privilege to contribute to our clients’ success by developing solutions that make a real difference.”

Sam Bradley, Global Director of Sales, added: “Our team’s ability to respond and solve client issues reflects Flexitallic’s dedication to customer satisfaction. The ‘Solved! by Flexitallic’ awards are designed to showcase the remarkable talent within this organisation and provide them with the recognition they deserve, both within Flexitallic and throughout the wider industry.”