Employee Spotlight Craig Cobb Craig Cobb didn’t think he was here to interview. He thought he was here merely to check out what his friend Ralph Brooks, a fellow small-town Pennsylvanian, did for a living. Brooks walked his buddy through the Napoleon Engineering Services shop, took him to lunch and even told him a bit of a fib: “He said, Yeah, I think our tightest tolerance is maybe ‘a thou’ (one-thousandth of an inch), but that’s very rare,” Cobb recalled with a smile. “(In reality), we’re running 2/10ths (of a thousandth) all day long out here. Everything he touches is…

Napoleon Engineering Services Receives Nadcap® Accreditation for Non-Destructive Testing Napoleon Engineering Services (NES), located in Olean, N.Y., has received Nadcap® accreditation for Non-Destructive Testing, company president Chris Napoleon announced on Monday. Nadcap® (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program) Nadcap® is a globally recognized, industry-managed accreditation program ensuring quality, safety and operational excellence across the aerospace, defense and space sectors. NES, following an extensive three-day audit in late October, was granted certification by the Nadcap Management Council earlier this week for specific services related to Non-Destructive Testing, including Etch Inspection Processes and Magnetic Particle Inspection (MPI). A small triumph for…

Employee Spotlight Alex Pingitore Anyone who’s familiar with Alex Pingitore almost certainly knows: His primary role within the custom bearing manufacturing channel at Napoleon Engineering Services is in hard turn. In fact, nearly 15 years after starting at NES (his work anniversary falls on Nov. 29), Pingitore has essentially mastered this procedure. Made it an artform. Hard turning is a manufacturing process used to machine parts already heat-treated and hardened. It involves using a single point cutting tool on a lathe to remove material from a rotating, hardened work piece to achieve final dimensions and surface finish. For Pingitore, much…

Skip Giberson Ten years ago, it would have been difficult for Skip Giberson to envision himself in this position. In his early days, after starting at Napoleon Engineering Services in May of 2014, Giberson was a wide-eyed young engineer who possessed an undeniable intellect and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Alfred State, but little in the way of bearing design knowledge. At that time, he was one of just two dedicated NES bearing engineers, alongside Al Elliott, and the one who was asking all the questions – not answering them. My, how things have “massively changed,” as he…

Achieving optimal bearing life accuracy The importance of bearing inspection on ensuring accurate life calculations When considering basic bearing life, there are certain assumptions that one might make. One could surmise, for instance, that the bearing is adequately lubricated and has been properly mounted and aligned. You might also presume that the bearing contains no debris, possesses “conventional” loading, rotational speed, operating temperature and design of internal (rolling contact) geometry, and has encountered proper manufacturing processes. These might be among the assumptions when performing a load rating or life calculation using the ISO 281 standard, And, to a degree, that’s…

Andrew Hvizdzak Andrew Hvizdzak started at Napoleon Engineering Services on August 26, 2019. It was NES president Chris Napoleon’s birthday. “We had a big party on my first day,” Hvizdzak recalled with a laugh. “I thought to myself, ‘this place is pretty cool.’” Hvizdzak walked in that day as something of a wide-eyed rookie with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State. Six years later, he’s solidified himself as one of the leaders – and an invaluable asset – on NES’ bearing engineering team. The Randolph native has assumed several responsibilities, including bearing design for manufacturing, application engineering and…

Ralph Brooks Four years ago, a bearing test rig that Napoleon Engineering Services had built for an East Texas-based customer experienced a failure. Ralph Brooks, an NES employee, happened to be in Houston for a trade show. And though he was no longer directly involved with the testing department, he’d gained enough experience to stop in and solve the problem. The same thing happened with a machine in Southern Pennsylvania a year later. Due to his expansive institutional knowledge, Brooks, again, had the answer. A WEEK SHY of his 21st work anniversary, the Port Allegany, Pa. native has long been…

Employee Spotlight Tara DeLong At her job interview in the spring of 2021, Tara DeLong was told that this position was like a blank canvas. She could paint any picture she wanted. To DeLong, this sounded appealing. Yes, she’d have an array of responsibilities, overseeing – or assisting with – everything from human resources to accounting to information technology. But each day, each hour, would present a different challenge, the kind that she could tackle on her own accord. Just over four years later, that’s exactly what the job has entailed. And DeLong, who landed that position – Napoleon Engineering…

Employee Spotlight Steve Kimble Steve Kimble figured the experience would be short-lived. Upon being hired by Napoleon Engineering Services in December of 2008, back when it was a company of just 15-20 employees operating out of a small shop on Adams Street, Kimble told his next-door neighbor buddy that he didn’t think he’d be there very long. The neighbor, the one who implored him to apply, urged Kimble to reconsider. “I’d try to tough it out,” Kimble recalled his buddy telling him. “I’ve heard good things about that Chris Napoleon guy (and NES). It was so small then and my…

Employee Spotlight Chad Tronetti As an established painter, Chad Tronetti uses detailed and deliberate brush strokes. It’s this level of precision that allows his oil on canvas paintings, the ones that he creates for family and friends in his home studio, to come to life. When describing his job responsibilities as Napoleon Engineering Services’ quality assurance manager, however, it’s impossible for Tronetti not to paint with a broad brush. Given that product quality is at the root of everything we do, and part of the process from start to finish, Tronetti spends much of his time simply responding to others,…