Manufacturing/Economic Development By Payne Horning
Fulton Companies’ Engineer Wins ‘Innovator of the Year’ Award
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t’s considered a breakthrough that will forever change the steam boiler industry. The new vertical spiral rib tubeless (VSRT) steam boiler line, with its small footprint and high steam quality, is earning The Fulton Companies new business, growth and recognition. The Manufacturers Association of New York (MACNY) on May 24 honored
senior research and development systems engineer Keith Waltz for his work on the product as the organization’s Innovator of the Year. The Fulton Companies is a multinational group of companies headquartered in Pulaski. It manufactures heat transfer equipment for a range of customers — from dry cleaners to distilleries. The business got its start in 1949 after the founder Lewis Palm’s own revolutionary product. Palm, who had worked as a boiler repairman for several years, built the first vertical tubeless boiler, launching a business that today employs more than 875 people worldwide, according to the company. It employs 372 workers in Pulaski, according to the 2018 Business Guide, published by this magazine. Waltz says work on the VSRT started several years ago by a team tasked with achieving a similar type of breakthrough. “The steam boiler industry is kind of a funny industry in that things have largely been done the same way for years and years and years,” Waltz said. “There’s been small changes, but nothing’s been reinvented. So when we took what we call a clean sheet of paper approach to designing this, we kind of threw away all of those assumptions of what’s possible and what’s not possible.”
Engineer Keith Waltz 78
OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS
The goal was to create a new tubeless boiler that was more efficient and compacter, while still being cost effective to produce. The end result was a product that The Fulton Companies says offers the highest steam quality and smallest footprint in the industry. “Essentially what we’ve created is a product that is a market leader on every single one of these fronts, and we’ve done so in a very innovative way,” Waltz said. “These things are going to position us to be very successful in the market, and in fact we have seen that. The market reception has been fantastic and we’re just trying to get them out of the door as fast as we can at this point.” Carl Nett, who led the team on the project, calls the response to VSRT overwhelming. He says ever-growing demand is driving rapid, significant manufacturing capacity expansion at Fulton. And he credits Waltz for that success. “If I could only pick one engineer from all the engineers I have known in my career to be part of my team, my choice would readily be Keith,” Nett said. “It is in my experience — spanning 30 years of leadership in new product development — very rare to come across an engineer that excels in all phases of the innovation process to the extent that Keith does. Keith has owned the VSRT development process from day one, from concept generation through field release, and is well recognized within Fulton as the father of the VSRT.” The 32-year-old Waltz says he’s honored by the award, but is humble. He gives equal credit for the product to his fellow team members. But it was Waltz whom Nett nominated for the MACNY award, and Waltz’s name listed as the lead inventor on each of the 15 patents attached to the inventions that comprise the VSRT boiler. The MACNY Innovator of the Year Award recognizes individuals who consistently demonstrate forward-thinking ideas in the area of technology, innovaJUNE / JULY 2018