Dayton Seals & Packing had a humble start. In 1993, the company began operating with one employee working from a card table equipped with a tablet of paper and a couple of number two pencils. This simple start launched with a focus on supporting the cylinder repair aftermarket. In time, the business grew, and the company moved into a shared office space. Later the team moved into the facility where it operates today with a full-time staff and a large inventory.
“We cut our teeth in aftermarket service and repair, which turned out to be one of our greatest attributes. This experience allowed us to learn more about what the seals do, where and how they fit, and most importunately how they functioned in service,” said Shawn Picard, manager of operations for Dayton Seals & Packing. “This provided us with a solid fundamental foundation for what we do now at the OEM level for our OEM accounts.”
The company is currently pivoting from a long history of an aftermarket focus and turning more towards the needs of the OEM marketplace. In this environment, rapid response to customer inquiries and engineering requests is mission-critical. And this is where Dayton Seals & Packing’s 26-year relationship with Hallite and the Hallite product line offers their customers tremendous value.
The right product for the application
Hydraulic cylinders and seals used in mining, metal product manufacturing, industrial plants, and heavy-duty equipment work extremely hard. When it’s time to replace the seals on these types of cylinders, customers of Dayton Seals & Packing often rely on their expertise to resolve issues that extend outside standard service and repair.
For example, the Hallite Type-621 rod seal is manufactured with a polyacetal anti-extrusion ring that has a very tight tolerance to the rod, which is a major benefit in repair applications with heavy side load gland wear. Recognizing how to fit the correct seal to the application can eliminate the need for frequent, time-consuming cylinder rebuilds. It can also extend the life of the cylinder after the repair and the life of the seal in service. In some instances, repair intervals can change from a matter of months to a matter of years.
“This type of recommendation actually can become life-changing for the service technician who has to actually pull the cylinder off the machine, pull it apart, drain all the fluid, repair, repack and reassemble it,” said Picard. “The less often rebuilds are required, the better.”
In addition to timely engineering support, as a Premier Distributor, Dayton Seals & Packing makes good use of the testing data and resources available from Hallite’s partnership with the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). The two companies recently collaborated on a cylinder test project at MSOE for an OEM seeking a solution for failures with an incumbent seal.
According to Picard, many of his long-time customers have at some point over the years moved some or all of their seal business away from Dayton Seals & Packing to other types of seal suppliers solely on the price of the seals themselves. However, in time and with having the experience of seal-related cylinder failures and little to no technical support from their new seal supplier, they ultimately return. Through this process, customer relationships have become even stronger. They have experienced the unmatched quality and reliability of Hallite’s sealing products.
“There are other advantages to purchasing the Hallite product besides the simple fact that the Hallite seals will stop the fluid. With the data coming from MSOE we are engaging in more intelligent conversations with our customers about seal function and performance,” Picard said. “This data is helping our customers understand exactly why they should use a certain seal in an application. It also demonstrates that Hallite seals are higher performing mechanisms than some of the other seal options available on the market.”
Response to frequently asked questions
Questions about sealing products that are designed to manage friction are some of the most common for Dayton Seals & Packing. Picard says many of his customers want low break-away friction for both hydraulic and pneumatic cylinder applications. The distributor also receives various questions and requests related specifically to surface finish.
“This leads us back to the MSOE testing that we’re currently doing in collaboration with Hallite and an OEM to determine which surface finishes available on the market present a hindrance or a benefit to seal performance and performance of seals over time in service on those finishes,” said Picard. “Hallite also provides some very useful and practical literature on surface finishes for different kinds of seals that we reference regularly.”
Picard explained that customers bring some of their toughest challenges to his team because they know that Dayton Seals & Packing is an applications-driven company.
“We also have a reputation for successfully sealing much higher pressures and tougher applications than those listed in the catalog with the aid of Hallite’s product line and Hallite’s engineering support.”
A model for success
“When I first came into this business, an industry veteran and respected mentor said to me that if I just focus on the quality of my product and the needs of my customers, everything else will take care of itself. That is exactly what I have done since the beginning, and that is our business model today,” Picard said.
As a Premier Distributor, this model serves Dayton Seals & Packing and Hallite well. Both companies offer customers the benefit of continued commitment to the highest quality products and services available to the seal industry.
Learn more about the Premier Distributor Program at Hallite.
