January 15, 2009

Hytrol Conveyor Company recently announced their distributor standings for 2008. Once again, Norpak Handling Limited is the top international distributor. This is the third win for Norpak since joining with Hytrol in 2001. Norpak previously won the award in 2005 and 2006.

Gavin Linn, Norpak’s Vice President of Sales, attributes the company’s success to a number of factors. “Norpak is the only systems integrator with offices in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. We also have distributors in Halifax, Quebec City and Calgary”. Gavin believes the Hytrol line is a perfect fit with Norpak’s strengths. “We have an extremely experienced staff but that has to be tied to an equally high quality product. The Hytrol line is simply the best value, most advanced conveying equipment available on the market.”

Mr. Linn is particularly impressed with Hytrol’s E24 series of conveyors. “E24 is the leader in 24 volt powered conveyors” he said. “It has all of the advantages of powered rollers but with a 10 fold increase in operating life.” E24 was first released by Hytrol in late 2007. Instead of a small motor and gearbox buried inside a roller, the design offers a 24 volt DC pancake motor mounted on the conveyor frame. This eliminates the cooling problems of the powered roller design and helps increase the expected operating life to over 100,000 hours. Using a pancake motor also allowed Hytrol to eliminate a gearbox- a significant savings in maintenance costs.

Gavin believes customer expectations for conveying equipment are changing. “Our customers are looking for the lowest possible life cycle costing. Products like E24 offer this.” Hytrol have developed a complimentary line of auxiliary devices utilizing the E24 technology. “Imagine having a conveyor system with pop up or wheel diverters and nose sections all powered with a common drive motor- the benefits to our customers are tremendous. Add in the Gen 3 ‘smart photo cell’ technology again running on 24 Vdc and the savings really start to build.”

Hytrol are impressed with the marketing gains their top international distributor has made. They note that while the Canadian market for conveying equipment was relatively flat in the second half of 2008, Norpak still managed to increase sales of Hytrol equipment by over 20%. “One of the things we found” Mr. Linn explained “is that our customers have to be able to act immediately to market demands. So does Norpak. The Hytrol 24 hour ship program allows us to react to our customers’ needs with a wide range of conveying products. We can have a truck load of equipment on its way next day with this program for everything from gravity to zoned accumulation conveyor.”

Both Hytrol and Norpak see a bright future for their collaboration. “Hytrol has the right equipment range and selection. Norpak provides our application knowledge and years of experience” Gavin noted. Norpak’s customers seem to agree. “Thank you for your dedication and professionalism during this project” a client recently wrote. “I really appreciate the time and effort Norpak’s team contributed to make it such a success. Your team’s dedication, believing in our cause and attention to all details is what made the success we are enjoying today.”