Hamon Deltak Inc.

An internal investment in technology and engineering drives Hamon Deltak Inc. to provide high-quality solutions to its customers’ needs. The company, founded in 1972 as Deltak Inc., manufactures heat recovery steam generators and waste heat boilers for a variety of power and industrial applications.

“Over the years, we’ve been a very innovative company,” Vice President of Commercial Operations Roger Sjoberg says. “Quality and customer satisfaction are areas we really focus on; we meet our customers’ requirements and deliver on time. The innovation of our manufacturing and engineering teams allows us to provide value-added solutions to complex issues.”

Hamon Deltak’s customers include gas turbine OEMs as well as EPC companies and end-users such as utilities and oil refineries. The company’s boilers are used in the power, agricultural/food, cement and rock processing, glass, metal, petrochemical, and pulp and paper industries.

Customers can be found across the United States as well as worldwide. “We have vast international engineering experience; at last count, we’ve worked with more than 22 foreign codes and produced equipment for more than 30 countries,” Hamon Deltak says. “Perhaps the strongest endorsement of our abilities comes from our customers: About 80 percent of our business is from repeat customers or referrals from individuals who have moved from one customer company to another.”

One common trend throughout all of the company’s industries is the need for machines that require as few labor hours as possible to assemble in the field. Meeting this need has required Hamon Deltak to perform more modularization in its Plymouth, Minn., manufacturing facility to ship larger components, Sjoberg says.

In order to produce larger components, the company recently invented a turning machine that give it the capability to rotate modules of up to 200,000 pounds in size. “This reduces our manufacturing time and improves our quality by giving us access to larger modules,” he adds.

Hamon Deltak is also meeting the need for modularization by conducting constructability reviews with many of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors that use its boilers and generators. “We’re getting feedback regarding the reduction of field time and crane time necessary to erect the machines, and have incorporated that into our engineering and up-front design,” Sjoberg says.

Specialty Manufacturing

All of the heat recovery steam generators and waste heat boilers manufactured by Hamon Deltak are produced to customer specifications. “Every project is engineered and designed specifically for that customer based on their requirements,” Sjoberg says. “We don’t use a standardized design that is duplicated over and over again across a long period of time; every project is very specific in its requirements.”

The company fabricates and manufactures boiler and generator modules in Plymouth. Hamon Deltak follows 600 American Society of Mechanical Engineers welding procedures and uses machines that offer a total lifting capacity of more than 500,000 pounds.

Hamon Deltak works closely with suppliers to source the steel and other components used in its machines. All vendors are pre-qualified. “Our pre-qualification process ensures that when we buy from a supplier, we get what we’re ordering, at a level of quality we expect,” Sjoberg adds.

The company follows a just-in-time methodology when it comes to its inventory levels. Hamon Deltak recently updated its scheduling software systems to better manage its projects and more efficiently plan resources.

Investing in Excellence

Although innovation had been at Deltak’s core throughout its history, the company made a giant leap forward in 2011 when it was acquired by Hamon Corp. This global group of manufacturing companies specializes in environmental systems including process heat exchangers, industrial chimneys and air quality and cooling systems.

“Hamon has incorporated a number of processes into the company that are driving our quality and productivity,” Sjoberg says.

These processes include a technical risk analysis conducted during the very beginning of a project, where potential project risks are identified. Hamon Deltak also conducts technical reviews throughout each project. “We want to make sure we’re meeting our customer’s requirements in order to minimize changes during the project,” Sjoberg adds.

Internal investment is a high priority for Hamon Deltak’s ownership. “One of the things Hamon has brought is the willingness to invest in the company when it comes to both people and tools,” Sjoberg says. “We’re constantly updating and improving our engineering tools and looking into what tools will help us better do our jobs.”

The company prides itself on employing many professional engineers. Roughly 20 percent of its total workforce, including office and plant employees, has earned degrees in engineering. All product managers, application engineers and estimators are degreed.

“Hamon Deltak invests in engineering talent because it makes a difference for our customers,” the company says. “We make the effort to truly understand customers’ technical issues up front. And because  many, if not most of our projects have unusual technical challenges, we believe our clients deserve to be speaking to engineers right from the beginning.”