John Crane Inc.
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Oil & Gas, Power Generation, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Pulp & Paper, Mining |
| Founded | 1917 |
| Founders | John Crane and Frank Payne |
| Headquarters |
Franklin Center Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
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Area served
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Global |
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Key people
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Tedd Smith (Interim President) Eric Evans (CFO) Joe Haas (CTO) John Donatiello (VP of Global End- User Sales and Service) Ruben Alvarez (VP of Global First Fit Business) |
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Number of employees
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More than 6,000 employees in over 200 locations in 50 countries |
| Parent | Smiths Group |
| Website | John Crane |
John Crane is an American company, now a subsidiary of Smiths Group and provider of engineered products and services including mechanical seals, couplings, hydro-dynamic bearings, seal support systems, filtration systems and artificial lift. The company services customers in the energy services sector including production, transmission and storage, refining, power generation, petrochemical, pulp and paper, and mining industries.
John Crane is the largest division of Smiths Group plc, a global technology business listed on the London Stock Exchange.
John Crane has end-user customers in process industries, including large oil companies, national oil companies (NOCs), and refiners. The company also serves original equipment manufacturers (OEM) customers engaged in the design and manufacture of pumps and turbines. John Crane also provides artificial lift products and services for the upstream oil and gas industry.
John Crane was founded in 1917 as Crane Packing Company. Before founding his company, engineer John Crane patented a flexible, lubricated metallic packing (#956,042) in 1910. In 1915, Crane patented the manufacturing method for flexible metallic packing (#1,151,344). He discovered that wrapping his flax packing in metallic foil increased its longevity and kept the cylinders’ surface smooth and uniform. Frank Payne, a sales representative for the Warren Packing Company, recognized the potential of Crane’s innovation.
Crane Packing Company initially manufactured packing and gasketing, which is still offered today. Prior to World War II, Crane Packing sold its England-based operations to Tube Investments, known today as TI Group PLC. Condenser Tube Packing was introduced in 1922 and in 1928, Metallic water pump packing were used on Chevrolet and Ford cars. An estimated 25 million motors were using Crane Packing materials by the mid-1930s. By 1938, all Chrysler cars used Crane Packing mechanical seals on their water pumps .
In 1939, the company invented the first automotive mechanical seal. In the early 1940s, John Crane developed and introduced patented end face shaft seals and an elastomer bellows seal. The U.S. Navy relied on packing solutions from Crane Packing for a host of applications, including expansion joints, stern tube service, cargo pumps, rotary steam and air compressors, water-tight closures, metallic condenser packing and pipe fittings. In recognition for its service, Crane Packing received a U.S. Navy “E” Award. From the years 1941 to 1949, Crane Packing applied for and received 24 patents, the majority of which were for mechanical seals designed to handle high-pressure and corrosive applications.
In 1948, Crane Packing developed its own seal face lapping machines and processes, which evolved into Crane Packing’s Lapmaster division. Another advancement of sealing and packing technology during this period was the commercial availability of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), marketed by its creator DuPont as Teflon. Crane Packing introduced its “CHEMLON” line of Teflon-based packing material for use on pumps, valves, hydraulic fittings and cylinders, coaxial cables, and gaskets in 1948.
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Wikipedia