Ipsen’s Product Development Leader Brent Vincent has been with the company for 12 years, bringing his mechanical engineering background to a team that’s focused on building the next generation of Ipsen technology.
In his first year with Ipsen, Vincent was stationed in the outbuilding now known as Bay 5. At the time, it housed Ipsen’s Research and Development Department, and the work they were doing was so hush-hush that many people didn’t even know he was employed there. “Very few people were allowed to be out there at the time,” Vincent recalled.
Today, Vincent is collaborating with Ipsen partners who are genuinely out of this world. Leading aerospace companies continue to turn to Ipsen for their expertise in building massive custom furnaces, counting on the company’s strong reputation for consistency and reliability.
Ipsen has become the industry’s go-to brand for nonstandard equipment, with the product development and engineering teams playing a key role in developing these remarkable machines for a wide range of industries.
“We are a big part of the recent advancements in space travel, aviation, medical joints and implants. The nature of our work is far enough behind the scenes that the general public might never know how much our furnace technology is critical to making new products successful,” Vincent explained.
Special projects like these also lead to improved solutions for customers seeking standard equipment. By staying up-to-date with external suppliers and collaborating closely with Ipsen’s Field Service and Sales Teams, Vincent and his team are able to identify challenges in the field and bring those insights back to the development process.
“Our suppliers continue to develop products that may be able to help us do our job faster or more efficiently,” Vincent explained. “But the most important main push for new product development comes from the sales team and the field service technicians.”
“If the sales team keeps asking us to create a product that performs process A, B, or C, we’re able to use a lot of our existing technology to resolve those custom requests. But if we keep hearing about customers wanting process B, or our service team keeps asking us why process C creates issues for maintenance crews, those are important opportunities for us to innovate.”
Going Slow to Move Fast
“We have to be careful about making changes to our standards,” Vincent acknowledged. “We’ve had ideas that come from special products that may improve other existing products, but we also know that what works for one customer might not work for everyone else.”
The industry tends to be slow to adopt new vacuum furnace technology for a reason. Customers can operate Ipsen furnaces for years, even decades. When a furnace design has performed flawlessly for ten or twenty years, it’s only natural for customers to want another one with the same reliable components and processes.
“If we change the equipment and our customers get an updated version of their reliable machine, sometimes they’ll be happy with the upgrades, but sometimes they’re not. Maybe they’re worried that their spare parts may not work for both machines, or that their maintenance staff may have to look in different places to service common wear parts,” Vincent noted.
“If our competitors are keeping up with the times, and we don’t stay ahead of them, it won’t be enough to just rely on our top ranking in the industry. While we continue to serve our returning customers, finding new customers and solving new problems with new ideas and new technologies is crucial. We want our competitors to try to keep up with us.”
The Role of Feedback
Customer feedback is an essential element of product development. It’s not just enough to chase an idea in theory; the importance of getting feedback from owners, operators, and maintenance staff drives much of the product development process. For Vincent, this means traveling to customers, seeing the furnace at work, and talking to the people who have spent days, months, and years operating the machines.
“Over the years, I’ve talked to a lot of our customers. Their maintenance teams, and our service engineers, give me a perspective on what ideal solutions are for commonly occurring issues in the field. Seeing the furnaces in operation and talking with our customers helps us understand a lot.”
The feedback contributes to better decision making when it comes to developing and redeveloping equipment. When replacing older pieces with newer technologies, the Ipsen team is looking for increased reliability and ease of use.
The future of design is also incorporating technologies from outside the vacuum furnace world. Advanced predictive maintenance and the integration of artificial intelligence for better error detection and early response are just a few ways Ipsen is exploring the future of technology in the industry. From a mechanical design perspective, the TITAN line of furnaces focused on optimizing space efficiency while providing a reliable and effective thermal processing solution in a compact, easy-to-ship and install package. Vincent is excited about the growing opportunities to create custom solutions for unique challenges.
“We genuinely excel at thinking outside of the box when it comes to our ability to design and produce custom equipment,” Vincent said confidently. “When we come up with solutions that other manufacturers would pass on, we can often find solutions that can also make a difference as we continue to evolve our standard equipment.”