GROVELAND, Massachusetts (May 5, 2016) — A.W. Chesterton Company, an industrial equipment fluid sealing specialist, has expanded its facilities north of Boston with a new state of the art valve emissions testing facility, an industrial training center, and an industrial equipment service location to support its New England-based customers.

To support its customers in meeting the latest global emissions standards, Chesterton has opened the new state‐of‐the art testing facility with the ability to test valves up to 12” diameter in a range of media, including Methane. Testing capabilities now include API 624, ISO 15848‐1, as well as TaLuft. This new facility enables Chesterton to develop tailored solutions for customers’ critical valve applications. This is a significant step in Chesterton's mission to help those customers focused on the oil and gas and chemical industry sectors improve the reliability, efficiency, and compliance of their critical valves.

The doors are open to a new industrial equipment training facility that provides in‐depth training for plant engineers and plant maintenance staff from a wide range of industries – including oil and gas, hydropower and commercial water. A platform of intensive training programs is designed to help Chesterton customers build and retain much needed critical workforce skills at a time when many companies are facing a looming shortage of skilled workers due to retiring experts, an inability to attract new talent and the loss of in‐plant training programs.

According to the "The Future of Manufacturing,” a report prepared by Deloitte and the World Economic Forum, an estimated 10 million manufacturing jobs worldwide cannot be filled due to a growing skills gap — with potentially drastic impact on companies’ performance and profitability. “We’re delivering training expertise in areas where process plants need it most – best practices in sealing equipment reliability and safety, reducing valve methane emissions, protecting equipment in challenging environments, and learning how to better reduce energy and water use in equipment operation,” said Brian O’Donnell, Chesterton president and CEO.

“We train not only how to seal equipment effectively, but also what works best for specific and challenging applications.”

Chesterton’s new training facility has practical hands‐on equipment laboratories for pumps, valves, and hydraulic‐pneumatic equipment as well as coatings application and lubrication best practices. Recent classes provided training to groups from South American, Japan and China.