2018 was an exciting and accomplished year for the Bachmann Team. Following its August 2017 sale and relaunch of its original brand name, which has proven a tremendous success, Bachmann has been full steam ahead. 2018 saw an abundance of orders from new and existing customers alike. Beginning almost 40 years ago, Lothar Bachmann instilled a culture of Passion and Pride with a Can Do attitude, while remaining Open & Honest and always retaining a strong Sense of Family. With these cemented core values and a long-standing history in the industry, the Bachmann name has long been synonymous with customized high quality and superior personalized service. Although there were several new equipment orders requiring precise technical skill and expertise to meet challenging operational demands, all of the completed orders in 2018 were a reflection of exactly why the industry puts immense trust in Bachmann solutions. There were far too many successes to highlight them all, but below are three, fully completed and delivered projects, representing some of Bachmann’s greatest accomplishments of the year.
STACK CAP IMPLEMENTATION
A North American charcoal company, exploring ways to gain economic and environmental efficiencies, hired
Bachmann to design and supply a stack cap for heat retention during the plant’s shut-down and restart cycles. The expectation was that by closing the cap during furnace shut down, heat would not be entirely lost up the stack, thereby allowing for a quicker start-up, utilizing less fuel. With a fall delivery, the plant is in its early stages of analysis but the prognosis looks very promising. In fact, there are current efforts to explore possible modulation and flow-control enhancements to further increase efficiencies during operation.
GUILLOTINE ISOLATION DAMPERS
When a mid-western power production facility faced ongoing problems with louver dampers supplied by a Bachmann competitor, they turned to Bachmann for help. Back in 2016, Bachmann serviced the louvers, which were chronically jammed up in the ash accumulation, causing both damage to the louvers and preventing full isolation in the closed position. At the 
time, Bachmann urged the customer to consider a Guillotine design more suitable to their particular operational environment. Pleased with Bachmann’s approach during the service, the customer headed Bachmann’s recommendation and, in 2018, purchased 12 Isolation Guillotine dampers as a replacement solution, which guaranteed full and safe isolation as well as eliminating any ash related jamming issues. The dampers were delivered and are now fully operational.
METALLIC EXPANSION JOINTS
2018 was a big year for expansion joints at Bachmann Industries, particularly at refineries in the US and Canada. Several large orders with long delivery times are scheduled to ship in early 2019, but one of Bachmann’s earlier orders was for this refractory lined, large, 240” diameter x 29” Flue Gas cooler inlet expansion joint, designed for 3 psig @ 1950 F. Bachmann implemented design upgrades to address corrosion concerns common in cold climates with large seasonal temperature variations and facilitated shipping this 20 foot wide load to site in one piece reducing installation costs while maintaining the integrity of the part by the avoidance of field splices. This joint was completed and shipped to a refinery in Canada in July.