"Our feet are tired, our stomachs upset; our desks are ladened with work abandoned...our personal lives are in shambles, and, at the bottom line, our billfolds are empty." (Petroleum News Southeast Asia editorial on attending trade shows, February 1986) The official OTC logo. One of the industry events that Vulcan participated in over the years … Continue reading Offshore Technology Conference
Vulcan hammers were justifiably admired for their simplicity. However, many of the keys to success were in two fields: their design and construction, and; how the hammer was equipped with its accessories. Here we feature a few of both; one or more of them may appear on or with your Vulcan hammer. For more practical … Continue reading It’s in the Details
Field service at Vulcan grew out of its offshore involvement. Up until the mid 1960's Vulcan relied on its dealers to service its equipment, but the specialised nature of the product and the demands of the application--especially the expensive downtime of an idle barge offshore--demanded that Vulcan keep on call service representatives willing and able … Continue reading Service: “Have Hammers, Will Travel”
Selling pile driving equiment--especially offshore--requires its own set of skills. Pile driving equipment is a "need-driven" product, i.e., a customer will not consider its purchase without a definite requirement for it. With this, a salesperson must have two attributes for success: a) a thorough knowledge of the product, its application and configuration, and b) a … Continue reading Sales: Meeting the Customer’s Needs
Many of the documents we feature at vulcanhammer.info have a Gulf of Mexico chart at the top. That reflects the importance of the Gulf Coast region in general and the offshore oil industry in particular, for which we feature Vulcan: The Offshore Experience. We are saddened to note that perhaps the central figure in that … Continue reading Herman Hasenkampf: A Tribute
Real time, text communications are not the invention of email. In the 1960's and 1970's, long distance was expensive and fax very slow. Vulcan needed an alternate method to communicate in real time for the following reasons: The two offices needed written communications on production schedules and preparation of quotations. For example, the factory was … Continue reading A Few Words About the Telex
By the early 1970's, the lack of capacity for the machining and assembly of the offshore product line was evident. Unfortunately, the cyclic nature of the business did not make expansion of the facility an obvious choice. Nevertheless, in 1978 the management decided to expand the facility to enable the company to produce its entire … Continue reading Chattanooga Plant Expansion
The West Palm Beach fabricating facility was opened in 1967; it was about two blocks from the office. (Communications between the two could be interesting, as described here.) As was the case with the office, it was built by Wiggs and Maale Construction. (Click here for a vignette of the plant's opening and one of … Continue reading Vulcan’s Special Products Division: the West Palm Beach Fabricating Facility
Vulcan relocated its executive offices to West Palm Beach, Florida, in June 1964. To begin with they rented space at 4303 Broadway Avenue in West Palm Beach. Two years later, in late June 1966, Vulcan opened its own office at 2725 N. Australian Avenue, West Palm Beach. The architect who designed the office was Robert … Continue reading Vulcan Florida Executive Office
By the late 1950's it became evident that the Chicago facility was no longer adequate for Vulcan's expanding business, both in terms of volume and size of equipment. In addition, both the plant, its location and the company's labour situation built into the company's financial picture costs which were increasingly difficult to bear. At the … Continue reading Vulcan’s Chattanooga Factory
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