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Specialist Knowledge
Found in the north-east of England, Kiowa’s Teesside branch is a specialist chemical hose division that supplies assemblies throughout the UK, including PTFE, metallic, silicone, and composite hoses that are all fully verified and checked for chemical compatibility and port integration. They also support clients with a range of other services across industrial hose, hydraulics, and hose reel systems, housing the site-services fleet for the whole of the UK.
The team at Kiowa’s Teesside branch consists of experienced professionals who have worked across closely aligned industries. They are natural problem solvers with a customer-centric mindset, passionate about maintaining long-term professional relationships with clients and wider stakeholders. Embodying Kiowa’s core values and behaviours, the team is driven by a mission to provide honest and transparent advice, always keeping clients’ economic objectives at the forefront while focusing on presenting the safest and most practical hose solutions.
With extensive industry experience, the team has built up significant knowledge in commercial chemical conveyance, with specialist industry-leading expertise in composite hose assemblies, covering pharmaceutical, food, brewing/distilling, personal care, and cleaning product production.
Extensive Support
As a team that is comfortable taking the lead on client projects, the professionals at Kiowa’s Teesside branch exercise a rigorous assessment approach to their work, using the STAMPED industry standard to formulate hose assembly configurations that require the granular, detail-oriented methodology commanded by modern chemical transfer requirements.
The team advises that the sense of accountability on engineers when it comes to identifying the right product for safely conveying chemicals can seem overwhelming. Often, they are called in at the beginning of a renewed decision-making process to help navigate problems with existing hose failures. For instance, they have encountered the never-ending complexities associated with static charges.
They explain, “Static charge is often overlooked within many industries. With every application assessed on its own merits, static should always be a key consideration to ensure the correct product is specified accordingly.”
The team also recounted an instance of secondary support, where their expertise was called upon during a catastrophic hose failure involving several thousand litres of liquid, after being incorrectly configured by another firm. They solved the issue by “…using a four-inch metallic hose, with added protection on the outside to protect the braid from any external damage. We attended the chemical site ourselves and supervised the engineers to ensure that everything was installed correctly.”
Safety & Compliance
With chemical and petroleum-based media conveying extremely volatile substances, composite hoses must be configured to correctly transfer a specific medium.
It’s paramount that the assembly configuration complies with the latest legislation. By following strict legal stipulations and meeting or exceeding quality criteria, you can help protect both operators and your business operations.
The team explains, “…not all engineers are familiar with flexible hose laws, assemblies, and working parameters.”
Subsequently, part of the team’s remit within the hose consultancy services includes helping clients ensure their operations remain fully compliant and that every possible eventuality for a hose failure has been mitigated against.
Within the extensive walkthrough conducted with clients, the team assesses the wider hose environment and the media being conveyed, including whether the hose needs to be anti-static or constructed from more specialist materials due to the proposed medium being conveyed. In any instance, they advise that “…you’ve got to ensure that all the approvals are met.”
Many customers often recite instances where hoses conveying one chemical have made contact with another through deliberate operator oversight. The team advises that these highly dangerous occurrences can be easily avoided by configuring assemblies at the point of production to encompass an anti-port locking system using safety keys. These hose locking systems help prevent chemicals from mixing and are accepted by practitioners in the field as the minimum industry standard for mitigating against explosions or toxic vapor generation.
As an official TODO Couplings supplier, Kiowa can also ensure your hose system is designed to break away cleanly under load and has a range of key safe hose options to prevent incorrect port connection through operator error.
Material and compatibility are key: From sulphuric acids to nitrates, the team outlines that detail in establishing the best solution is crucial, with no room for error. For instance, the steel helixes found on the inner and outer of composite hoses have a tendency to corrode if they are paired with the incorrect chemical medium:
“Chemical compatibility is paramount, because if that inner helix fails, if its inner spiral splits, the hose will lose some of its key properties and if it’s not replaced quickly, well, you’ve potentially got a chemical leak on your hands,” they explained.
Site Service Support
Kiowa Teesside has always been renowned throughout England, Wales, and Scotland for its specialist on-site support services. The team proudly explains:
“Kiowa have the best test vans in the UK, no question about it!”
They continue, “Looking at the investment that has gone into those test vans, nobody within the British Isles can match the testing kit that we’ve got, nobody; they’re absolutely the best in the UK.”
Reflecting for a moment, they elaborate, “All our test crews are fully licensed and approved. They have years of experience in industrial hose on-site servicing, and it’s a great resource for our clients in terms of the expertise and support they can rely upon; hose management is an absolute necessity for all businesses in 2023.”
Kiowa’s on-site servicing teams continue to offer a range of services, including hose maintenance, replacement, on-site testing & certification, disposal, and tanker hose asset management. Many of the on-site services can be easily embedded into a holistic and tailored supply and support package, alleviating the worry and requirement for clients to expend their own time monitoring the health of their fluid power assets. Teesside, like all Kiowa branches, carries significant stock and is always ready to proactively impart their expertise and provide supplies and servicing support to Kiowa’s customers.
