Douglas Rode took the urgent phone call from octogenarian Herman Ernst, a retired German engineer and friend, who lives in Old Saybrook.
“Doug, I have a couple of patents and I don’t want them to go into my coffin,” — Rode recalls his friend saying. Rode, an energy engineer who designs power plants, travelled to Ernst’s home. Ernst offered to sell him the patents, including one for a bearing seal, for $1 apiece.
“I said Herman, are you going to die?” Rode said. “And he said no, ‘but at my age you never know. It’s one day to the next.”’
There is probably a small percentage of people in the world interested in something as esoteric as a bearing seal, an object that protects rotating mechanical devices from dirt and soot, and keeps them running smoothly. Rode, also an entrepreneur, is among that percentage.
The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Villanova graduate has four decades of experience designing power plants, assessing risk and providing consultation services for the energy industry. He is a principal and managing director in Centritec Seals LLC, a company formed two years ago to manufacture the seals Ernst designed.
The need, from Rode’s vantage point, was clear.
About a decade ago in Kansas, a bridge caught fire because the train that was traveling on it began overheating and became enflamed due to the friction created when its wheels began rubbing incessantly against its bearings.
Ernst designed is for a non-contact seal, with a space between the shaft and bearing. But what made this design novel was the infusion of centrifugal pressure that allows one side of the seal to push grease and oil back onto the bearing, keeping it lubricated; the other side uses centrifugal pressure to push dirt and contaminants out. Centritec touts this new seal as one that enhances the likelihood of the proverbial well-oiled machine, keeping the rotating mechanism operating longer and more efficiently.
From Rode’s experienced eyes, this new seal design was quite a breakthrough; something that could revolutionize the bearing industry and sectors such as transportation, refrigeration, manufacturing and aviation — any entity that relies on a rotating piece of equipment in a dirty environment. It could save the industry, he estimated, millions in maintenance costs.
Centritec Seals LLC is a partnership comprised of Hydrogen Safety LLC — run by Rode — and Carlyle Johnson Machine Company in Bolton, headed by President Michael E. Gamache. Carlyle, which has about 50 employees, has been in the manufacturing business for 110 years. It’s niche product line is clutches and brakes.
“This is a good news/bad news story,” said Rode, 61. “We have a better mousetrap. And you’d think the world would beat a path to your door. But it hasn’t happened that way for a variety of reasons.”
One reason for the sluggish response, Rode said, is that one company — Timken — controls more than 90 percent of the bearing market worldwide. Timken, according to Rode, has not been interested in Centritec’s new design. And the industry itself has been ambivalent, he said, because of the cost involved and independent testing needed to upgrade to the technology. The investment would be costly. The average cost of the seal is about $200 apiece when sold in bulk; it can cost $1,000 per seal when not sold in bulk.
Getting the market to embrace the Centritec seal, which the company insists preserves energy by burning less fuel, with fewer carbon emissions, has been the fledgling company’s biggest challenge. It was encouraged, however, when it was awarded ‘Most Promising New Green Company in Connecticut’ in 2011 by the Connecticut Technology Council.
“The railroad industry is a target market for us, but, man, it’s a super challenge,” Rode explained as he sat in his East Hartford office. As more high-speed rail developments occur across the country, Centritec is hoping that its special seal will be deemed essential to the new designs.
The seal is about six inches in diameter, three inches thick and eight inches high. It was originally designed for railroad car wheel bearings. While Rode says that the efficiency and savings costs are undeniable, he concedes that conversations about “bearing seals” can even cause the eyes of industry insiders to glaze over.
In an article written by Gamache and published in an industry periodical, Gamache talked about the merits of the non-contact centrifugal force seal, and explained why non-contact seals are useful:
“The contact lip seal has a stationary sealing element, or lip, in contact with the rotational element. This constant contact creates wear on both the lip and the rotating element, frequently requires the addition of “wear rings” and adds significant parasitic drag to the system.”
Hence, the marketing pitch has to be made not only to industry wonks, but also manufacturers and maintenance personnel and even potential investors with limited knowledge or interest in seals.
Centritec has reached out to Timken, the state Department of Transportation, Metro North, industry leaders, and others to broaden its reach. It will also be looking to talk with fast rail designers and major rail companies, such as CSX.
Expanding its market to refrigeration companies is another option. But the seal designed for refrigeration is different than the one designed for rail cars; so it would mean paying for a new patent specifically for refrigeration. And that can cost about $25,000.
Rode says Centritec remains optimistic that its seal technology will get traction, but knows it will take perseverance.
“You’ve got to really temper your expectations and have (beyond) patience,” he said. “You do get frustrated, though.”
Centritec Seals LLC is going through the growing pains of a new business with a promising product. It feels it indeed can produce a better mousetrap.
It’s just waiting for a few nibbles to prove it.
Stan Simpson is host of “The Stan Simpson Show” (www.ctnow.com/stan and Saturdays, 6:30 a.m., on FoxCT) and senior executive adviser at the Hartford Journalism & Media Academy. His ‘Faces of business’ column appears monthly. Know someone who’d make a good subject for ‘Faces of business’? Contact Simpson at Faces@stansimpson@comcast.net.
