MARCO ISLAND, Fla.—Jason Industrial Inc. said it is having success thus far with the hydraulic hose program it introduced in mid-2017, especially because it has beefed up its technical support team.
The Megadyne S.p.A. subsidiary first announced the hydraulic program would be expanded to include the U.S. and Canada during NAHAD's 2017 convention, then had the products ready for full release last fall, according to Roy Pyle, Jason's vice president of business development. He discussed the progress at NAHAD's annual meeting, held recently in Marco Island.
The offerings include a full line of hydraulic hose and related products, including couplings and crimpers needed to fabricate the hoses. Jason previously had sold the hydraulic line in Latin, South and Central America, but not the U.S. and Canada until last year.
Pyle said the effort got a major boost after last year's meeting when the firm added Randy Foster as director of engineering for hose and coupling products. Foster previously was head of Dayco's aftermarket engineering group and holds 45 patents, many related to hose and hydraulics, including Dayco's BW line of fittings, Pyle said.
He and Foster had worked together in engineering at Dayco, then did a lot of hydraulic training together after Pyle had moved into Dayco's sales organization.
"What we've been able to add is an engineering support team to develop crimp specs, hydraulic assembly design, layout, validation and testing to support customers and our sales organization," Pyle said.
He added that Foster's hiring followed the earlier addition of Miguel Velazquez as hose manager for Latin America, who earlier in his career had owned a manufacturing facility to produce hydraulic hose and fittings, and industrial hose.
"When those things get pushed together, I have a very good technical support team that can support our offerings with our sales and customer base," Pyle said.
Thus far, Jason's developed a MyCrimp app to use a smart phone to download crimp specifications from the web. They also released at this year's NAHAD meeting a QR code that will take you to the website for printed crimp specs.
In the past, every time crimper specs changed the supplier would have to try to contact anyone they thought had a crimper to update the settings. Pyle said the new technology avoids this, as users now must register and give contact information to receive alerts anytime they need to download new specs.
The hose supplier, which has its hose and fittings made under private label by third party manufacturers, also has been working on developing tough cover compounds so it can offer everything from standard to those with higher abrasion.
Jason also now has a full sample kit with hoses, fittings and a crimped product so customers can see what the finished product would look like, Pyle said, adding that the fittings are full-length with wire that grips through the cover.
The lines have been helped along by market conditions. "Because of delivery shortages, we've been able to address the situation for some of the players because our lead times are not as long," he said. "In terms of product quality, it's very consistent and well-received."
Jason particularly has had success with certain distributor markets, thus far in the Midwest, South and West. Pyle said the firm now is looking to break into the East and Northeast with the hydraulic offerings.
John Flanders, Jason marketing manager for hose and couplings, said Jason also has been working on rubber hose with greatly increased flexibility that can be used as tank truck hose, then also can carry over to the water suction market.