Ralph Gabriel Honored as Hydraulic Institute Member of the Year
PARSIPPANY, NJ, March 19: Ralph Gabriel, Chief Engineer at John Crane Inc., based in Morton Grove, Illinois, has been honored as the Hydraulic Institute (HI) Member of the Year. The award was presented to Gabriel at HI's 90th Annual Meeting, recently held in San Antonio, Texas.
Gabriel has led the Seals Committee since its inception in 1998 and played a principal role in the development of the latest Hydraulic Institute publication, Mechanical Seals for Pumps: Application Guidelines. The committee's original intent was to create a series of smaller guides, white papers, and other technical material. The project was expanded to book length after HI working in cooperation with The Fluid Sealing Association (FSA), who provided their handbook as source material. Gabriel and the committee worked for more than four years before publishing Mechanical Seals for Pumps in January 2007.
"Ralph Gabriel has been a terrific leader of the Seals Committee throughout the years and we're proud to honor him as HI's Member of the Year," said Gregg Romanyshyn, Technical Director for the Hydraulic Institute. "Ralph was very concerned with the accuracy and consistency of the new guide and always inspired and motivated his committee and kept them on track. He was an integral part in the publication of Mechanical Seals for Pumps."
Gabriel's dedication to the committee and the book were always apparent.
He devoted countless hours to the project not only as its leader but also as the document manager for its 300 pages. He also served as an active member of several other HI committees, including Pump Applications Guidelines, Mean Time Between Repairs, the Fire Pump Joint Committee, the Slurry Pump Committee, and the Joint Centrifugal/Vertical Sections. Gabriel is also the author of numerous articles on seal design and application, including, "Fundamentals of Spiral Groove Non-contacting Seal Faces" and "Gas Lubrication of Slow Speed Seals."
HI's Mechanical Seals for Pumps: Application Guidelines is a 300-page comprehensive and authoritative reference book that provides pump and seal professionals, end users and consulting engineers with useful and current pump mechanical seal knowledge. The Institute's comprehensive guideline is packed with user-friendly descriptions and explanations, tables, and photographs that rotating equipment OEMs, EPC professionals, plant engineers, and maintenance and reliability specialists need to ensure system reliability and increase Mean Time Between Repairs (MTBR).
Copies of Mechanical Seals for Pumps: Application Guidelines are available for $195.00 by visiting the HI e-store on the Hydraulic Institute website at www.Pumps.org or by calling the purchasing line at
(973) 267-9700 x18.
The 90-year old Hydraulic Institute, the largest association of pump producers in North America, is a global authority on pumps and pumping systems. Information on the Hydraulic Institute, its services, standards, publications and meetings, can be found on the HI websites at www.Pumps.org and www.PumpLearning.org, and the new energy-savings and life cycle cost focused site, www.PumpSystemsMatter.org.
Requests may also be faxed to (973) 267-9055 or mailed to: Hydraulic Institute, 9 Sylvan Way, Parsippany,BR> NJ 07054.
Prospective members of the Hydraulic Institute can now download copies of the membership brochure and application information from www.Pumps.org.
