Contributed by Robert Ruskaup, Sr. Marketing Communications Specialist   This past week, Altec AIR was pleased to be attending and exhibiting at the Compressed Air Best Practices EXPO 2021.  This year, the CABP EXPO was held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel, from November 2nd - 4th. We were really excited to get back to the EXPO in 2021, which was our first return to the CABP EXPO since we attended back in 2019, pre-Covid-19.  Although we only missed the one year (2020), it sure seemed like a long time. Aside from our excitement to be able to 'get out there' again, we were even more delighted to be able to participate in an event that let us get in front of our Customers and Partners again, face-to-face.  While phone calls and video chats served us well throughout 2020, getting to speak with so many people in person was such an anticipated and welcome experience.  It was great to see so many new and familiar faces alike. ...

Contributed by Robert Ruskaup, Sr. Marketing Communications Specialist   Here at Altec AIR, we have a truly wonderful Social Committee.  They have really done a great job making sure that the 2021 calendar has been loaded up with fun, engaging activities for all of our Associates.  Whether it's lunchtime hikes, cook-offs, fancy parties, and everything in between, they are really bringing attention to some of our Core Values, like Enjoyment of Work, Family, & Teamwork. This time around, they came up with a very creative idea for a Tailgate Lunch.  For this event, they encouraged small groups of Associates to work together to set up a 'tailgate' table with a delicious and festive array of goodies for the entire team to share.  Themes for each table were up to the whim and wit of their creators, and boy did these groups bring the goods! One team of die-hard Colorado Avalanche fans had an impressive display of Collectables including some wonderful autogr...

Contributed by Phil Clough, Engineering Manager. Altec AIR is pleased to announce that three members of our Engineering Team - Chanise Kurz, Kevin Hoerr, and John Taylor - have completed the CAGI Fundamentals of Compressed Air e-learning program. After completing the training program, all three sat for and passed the CAGI Certified Compressed Air System Specialist exam. Chanise Kurz Kevin Hoerr John Taylor The CAGI Certified Compressed Air System Specialist program verifies the capabilities of professionals in the Compressed Air Industry. The program ensures that Customers can have confidence in those who design, service, sell, and install compressed air equipment. At Altec AIR, we believe that in order to keep up with the ever-changing technologies, markets, and methods, we need to be constantly improving our skills. We practice this continuous improvment...

Contributed by Robert Ruskaup, Sr. Marketing Communications Specialist   This past week, Altec AIR was honored to be attending and exhibiting at the Association of Independent Compressor Distributors Expo for 2021.  The AICD Expo was held at the Westgate Resort in Las Vegas, NV, from May 16th - 18th. This was our first opportunity to exhibit at a trade show since Covid-19 hit back in 2020, so we were super excited to be able to participate in AICD 2021.  Not only had it been quite a while since we got to participate in any trade show (actually since November of 2019), but this would also only be the second time that we were able to break out and display the new Altec AIR trade show booth we had designed and created back in 2019.  Aside from our excitement to be able to just 'get out there' again for the first time in a while, we were even more delighted to be able to participate in an event that let us get in front of our Customers and Partners again, face-to...

Contributed by Phil Clough, Engineering Manager. I am pleased to announce that Tom Brennan has accepted the role of Project Manager for Altec AIR. Tom did multiple engineering coops with Altec in Birmingham between 2013 and 2015 and joined Team Altec full-time in 2016 after earning his Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Alabama. He began his career as an Applications Engineer in Roanoke. In the summer of 2018 he moved to Colorado to join Altec AIR’s engineering team. Over the last several years Tom has served as a Technical Lead on multiple projects, delivered positive results on product support and quality issues, and led efforts to continuously improve our organization’s engineering standards and processes. Tom will fully transition to this new role over the next month and immediately begin working with his new mentor, Julie Toeller. While he will formally continue reporting through me for the foreseeable future, Tom will join the ranks of Altec’s Project...

Contributed by Katherine Crane, Manufacturing Engineer, et al. Altec AIR recently held a Social Committee sponsored Contest for our Associates.  Because we haven't been able to have many company-wide social activities due to the Covid situation, the Social Committee (I can't remember who suggested the idea) initiated a "T-Shirt Design Contest".  The idea was to get the Associates working in the same area/department to work together on creating and submitting a design. The plan: Work with the Associates within your area/department (since they are already working and interacting with each other, it was less of a Covid concern), develop a work appropriate design together, submit the design to the Social Committee, the entire Company would vote on their favorite Design, and then the Social Committee would have that Design printed on T-Shirts for EVERYONE at Altec AIR. The Contest turned out to be a popular one among our Associates, with many Teams submitting...

Contributed by Robert Ruskaup, Sr. Marketing Communications Specialist.   With so many sizes, styles, features, and capacities of Industrial Compressed Air Dryers on the market today, it may seem difficult to figure out which one will ensure clean, dry Air for your compressed air applications. Well, the very first step is to determine which type of compressed air dryer will work for you. Basically, there are two main types of Industrial Compressed Air Dryers - Desiccant & Refrigerated. Desiccant Air Dryers dry compressed air by passing the air through a bed of desiccant media. As the saturated air passes through the desiccant media, the water particles adhere to the individual beads of desiccant, allowing the air to continue on in a de-saturated, dry state. After some time, the desiccant bed will, itself, become saturated and unable to hold any more moisture particles. In order to continue to dry any more incoming compressed air, the desiccant dryer will have to switch t...

Contributed by Dina Boss, HR Business Partner. 2020 will be remembered as the year that everything changed. Part of the change came from the spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, what I will remember is the how our Altec AIR Associates rallied together in December to make sure that one of our traditions around Christmas time was still made possible for the Children of our Altec AIR Families. I was touched by how they made sure not to forget to include the Children, despite their hectic schedules and all the new routines and restrictions placed on us by the virus. I received requests from some of our Associates who wanted to decorate an area in our plant, in order to host a special visit from Santa Claus for all of the Children and Grandchildren (& Fur-Babies) of our Associates. We had wonderful volunteers who made it all happen and the Children LOVED IT. Thank you all for your thoughtfulness and efforts. This is truly a Family here at Altec AIR!

Contributed by Jeff Allen, Technician II. We had an unexpected visitor at the Altec AIR manufacturing facility recently.  It seems this bird (previously thought to be an owl) had been trapped in the shop for a few days.  Some of the Production Associates had actually started calling him "Tom" because he seemed to enjoy dive bombing Associate Tom Mazorowicz throughout the day. One morning, Associate Allen Hunter came upon what he thought was 'a dead bird' on the floor of the Monitoring Production Area. To all of our surprise, this little guy was still alive, but just barely. During our efforts to provide aid to "Tom", Associate Danny Norris assisted me in getting a little water in him successfully.  I then asked Associate Nora Aragon to see if she could track down the Birds of Prey Foundation located here in Broomfield, CO. Upon contacting them, they made it a priority for us to meet with them at their facility. Apparently, this bird was the ...

Contributed by Phil Clough, Engineering Manager. My intent going into this blog post was to talk about where I started at Altec, how Altec helped me grow as a person, and what I think an “outsider” should know about Altec. As the thoughts flowed from brain to keyboard, it took on a slightly different direction, but I think I fulfilled the purpose. Putting this on paper has caused me to once again realize how special of an organization Altec continues to be. So, grab yourself a drink and find a comfy chair. When I first came to Altec almost 15 years ago I was just getting started in my career. I was your stereotypical antisocial B-average mechanical engineer fresh out of college. Through high school and college, I had worked jobs in landscaping, dishwashing, inbound and outbound phone sales, auto parts sales, professional auto repair, and an internship in quality engineering. I thought I had the world figured out. But the environment at Altec was something I had never seen or experi...