The engineering company plans a $2 million upgrade that will enlarge its footprint by 50 percent and increase its work force by about two-thirds.
Rotating Machinery Services Inc. worker Tom Straub monitors a 48-ton turbine unit as it is lowered. The turbine is one of two that are being rebuilt for a power plant owned by TransCanada.That era may be gone, but the company’s collective expertise that traces back decades helps it thrive today.
RMS — founded in 1998 by former Ingersoll-Rand engineers and managers — is now laying the groundwork for growth at its Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VI headquarters.
The engineering and services company plans to enlarge its footprint 50 percent. When done, the $2 million expansion will increase its work force by about two-thirds.
“We feel pretty good considering that when we started the company in ’98, we didn’t have a wrench,” RMS President Jerry Hallman said. “We had a laptop computer, but we didn’t have a wrench.”The RMS expansion is expected to begin this spring and conclude in the fall. The footprint of its Baglyos Circle building will increase from about 30,000 to 45,000 square feet, an enlargement that contains more shop space and offices.
The company employs 45 now; expansion is expected to increase that total to between 70 and 80. The new hires will include shop mechanics, engineers and other technical and support staff.
Milestone project adds momentum
Based at LVIP VI for the past five years, RMS is emerging from the recession with momentum. The privately held company said revenue in 2011 hit a record $20 million, about an 80 percent increase from the prior year.
RMS is now completing what it describes as a milestone project, an approximately $1 million order from TransCanada to repair a massive turbine that will generate power for a plant the Canadian company owns in Brooklyn, serving businesses and residents in that region.
Built in 1967, two of the turbine’s 48-ton machines were extensively damaged when it was brought in about a year ago, RMS said. The company reconstructed and combined the two into one operating unit, which will ship out in about a week.
“We’re rebuilding it so it can run another 30 years,” vice president and chief engineer Robert Klova said.RMS specializes in aftermarket engineering, meaning it does not build from scratch but re-engineers existing equipment. That benefits clients who don’t have the land to expand or otherwise prefer to update rather than buy expensive new machinery, RMS said.
The company works on compressors and a variety of turbines for the manufacturing and power industries. Its products are used in oil refineries, gas pipelines, power utilities, steel mills and chemical plants.
In addition to TransCanada — a company in the headlines for plans to build an oil pipeline connecting Canada and the U.S. — RMS clients include energy producer Valero and utility PSE&G.
Full circle
RMS President Jerry HallmanRather than relocate, the three men and other I-R employees began working for Conmec Inc., a Bethlehem area company formed to specialize in repair and rebuilding of turbo equipment.
“We all had an opportunity to leave the Lehigh Valley,” said Wikert, a vice president. “We didn’t want to.”When Conmec Inc. was sold in 1997, the story could have ended there. But Hallman, Klova and Wikert were instrumental in founding RMS the following year, with its first office in Nazareth.
RMS moved to a bigger home in Alpha Industrial Center in 2000 and again to LVIP VI in 2007. The company has additional sales offices in Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana.
The heyday of heavy industry is yesterday’s news but that hasn’t deterred RMS from forging forward, applying the company’s skills to satisfy needs of modern manufacturers and energy producers.
“There are a lot of people still living in the Lehigh Valley that used to work for Ingersoll-Rand,” Hallman said. “There are a lot of people who can relate to this.”For Klova, it’s all come full circle.
“Back in the Ingersoll-Rand days, we were the young guys,” said Klova, 54. “Now I’m one of those senior guys with gray hair I saw when I started. It’s been an interesting career.”
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THUMBNAIL BIOCompany: Rotating Machinery Services Inc.
Founded: 1998
Headquarters: Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VI in Bethlehem Township, Pa.
Niche: Re-engineers machinery for power companies and manufacturers
Quote: "We feel pretty good considering that when we started the company back in '98, we didn't have a wrench. We had a laptop computer, but we didn't have a wrench."