A History of Innovation
Founded in 1884 as the Reliance Gauge Column Company, Clark-Reliance ® has a long and rich history that abounds with innovation. It all began with what would be the company’s first breakthrough product a low water alarm for boiler operators. Using floats attached to a steam whistle, this revolutionary device would sound an alarm when water conditions became unsafe. Although the first, this is just one of the many pioneering products the forward-thinking engineers at Clark-Reliance have developed throughout the years.
Consistently on the forefront of technological progress, Reliance Gauge was also the first company to offer remote water gauges. The company received the ultimate validation of this product’s excellence during World War II when Reliance Gauge was called on to supply the U. S. Navy with all of its remote water gauges. Subsequently, to acknowledge Reliance Gauge’s outstanding efforts in this capacity, the U.S. Navy recognized the company with the prestigious Navy “E” Award.
As Reliance Gauge moved into the future, a number of other significant milestones and achievements also became a part of its impressive history. In 1962, Harry E. Figgie Jr., a Cleveland industrialist, acquired Clark Manufacturing Company. Founded in 1908, the company was well known as a leading supplier of steam traps, strainers, regulators and steam separators. Though their product offerings were quite different, Reliance Gauge and Clark Manufacturing shared a similar reputation for excellence and incredible growth potential. Ultimately, on February 19, 1963, Clark Manufacturing and Reliance Gauge Column were merged into one company: The Clark-Reliance Company. Despite the significant changes the company has undergone since it was founded over 100 years ago, Clark-Reliance remains a leader in innovation today.
Clark-Reliance Today
Clark-Reliance® has a long and rich history that abounds with innovation. Consistently on the forefront of technological progress, Clark-Reliance is a multidivisional corporation that designs and produces award-winning products.
Clark-Reliance® provides customer solutions in over 120 countries in the power generation, refining, gas processing and chemical industries. Key acquisitions over the last few decades have solidified Clark-Reliance as an industry leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of level indication & control and filtration & separation products and services.
Clark-Reliance Instrumentation and Controls Group: Jerguson® liquid level gages and valves, level transmitters and switches, Reliance® boiler level controls, Jacoby-Tarbox® sight flow indicators and Clark Steam Specialties. Ernst Flow Industries® supplies a vast array of gauges, level indication products and components for industrial and commercial equipment. Additionally, Clark Reliance Purity Products Group manufactures Anderson® Separators, HYCOA transfer valves and duplex lube oil filtration systems, filters, National Filtration Systems engineered fuel gas filtration/separation systems. Equipment from Oil Filtration Systems® is used to clean and dry lube oil, transformer oil and fuel oils, as well as remove varnish from lube oil used for rotating equipment. Enervac® produces transformer oil purification and SF6 purification and oil regeneration equipment.
Partnership with Radial Equity Partners
Clark-Reliance is excited to announce its new partnership with Radial Equity Partners (“Radial”), a company that is interested in continued growth and personnel development. Radial is anxious to explore and cultivate the revenue and profit opportunities in our existing and potential markets. Our strategy of delivering quality products on time and solving customer problems with innovative solutions will continue. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Formed in 1963 through the merger of Clark Manufacturing (est. 1908) and Reliance Gage & Column (est. 1884), Clark-Reliance manufactures liquid level instrumentation and controls, sight flow indicators, filtration equipment and related consumables. The company’s products are sold under eight longstanding brands with a reputation for safety, premium quality and high reliability in demanding environments. Clark-Reliance serves more than 2,400 customers across a range of industrial end markets.
“Clark-Reliance has a rich legacy of technical leadership and innovation as well as a reputation for manufacturing excellence,” said Rick Solon, CEO of Clark-Reliance. “Our partnership with Radial will give us access to greater resources and capabilities to continue our expansion, both organically and through acquisitions.”
“Clark-Reliance is a highly respected and established provider of critical measurement, controls and filtration solutions,” said Devraj Roy, Partner of Radial. “We are thrilled to partner with the company and look forward to building upon its strong foundation to support the next phase of growth.”
Scott Dysert, former CEO of Chromalox and Senior Advisor at Radial, will serve as Non-Executive Chairman of Clark-Reliance.
About Radial:
Radial is a private equity firm focused on investing in middle-market businesses serving consumer and industrial markets. Radial invests in businesses where the firm can apply relevant prior experience and a network of industry relationships to support its management teams. More information about Radial is available at www.radialequity.com.
ANDERSON® SEPARATOR History
ANDERSON® SEPARATOR was founded in 1855 by a 25-year-old boilermaker named Valerius D. Anderson. He designed a very efficient steam cleaning and purification process for steam boilers. This centrifugal separator quickly became the industry standard for the removal of solids and liquids from steam. The new units quickly found applications in many other industries ranging from food processing to steel making. As Anderson Separator grew, so did its line of separation equipment. Anderson Separator became part of the Clark-Reliance family in the late 1980s and has continued to grow its business in the compressed air, steam, gas and power generation industries.
HYCOA History
For decades, industry has been living with sub-optimal transfer valves as a means to control fluid flow through redundant filters and coolers. These cast plug valves had two primary draw backs, frequent leakage to the offline vessel and extremely difficult operation. Despite the presence of several competitive vendors, the traditional designs went unchanged for years. This set the stage for HYCOA's CEO, Jay Williams to revolutionize the transfer valve back in 1980 with our patented resilient seal shoe. For the first time, "Zero Leak" and "Transfer Valve" became terms that could be used together. This new and innovative approach to an old problem offered industry additional advantages. Features such as zero friction drag during changeover and a positive mechanical lockdown device have turned the JR-33 into a favorite of design and maintenance engineers as well as plant operators.
Of course, success breeds imitation and several other new transfer valves have sprung up in recent years. However, our patented design is still the only one with retractable, fully covered elastomer shoes. This feature is important to reduce operating torque. The retraction feature also avoids dragging an o-ring seal around the valve body bore and causing potential seal wear or damage. Past, present and future, HYCOA's commitment and focus is with the customer who requires top performance from their transfer valves. We understand the requirements of duplex filter systems, heat exchangers and other critical API auxiliary lube oil systems. WE also understand the requirements of our customers who simply want top performance in their transfer valve.