CGThermal

Richard Chandler, President
After commissioned service in the US Army and an MBA degree, Chandler began his career in industry in 1974 with the Graphite Products Division of Carborundum Company. Shortly afterward, this was renamed the Metaullics Systems Division, with Chandler as General Manager. One of the major products produced by this Division was graphite heat exchangers of all major types including shell and tube, cross-bored block and cubic heat exchangers. Also, this Division was responsible for designing and introducing to the chemical process industry the revolutionary SiC-tubed heat exchanger now sold by CG Thermal under the Umax® name. In 1993, the Division was spun off from Carborundum Company, and acquired by a group of investors including Chandler. The heat exchanger business achieved unprecedented growth and success under this group, including establishment of a plant in China to serve that fast-growing market. The business was acquired by Carbone Lorraine in 1998.

In 2010, Chandler led a group of key past employees of the Metaullics Systems Division to re-constitute this business, and bring to the CPE the same commitment to design excellence, quality and customer care that led to the division’s previous success. Product offerings of the new company, CG Thermal LLC, include a complete line of graphite and ceramic heat exchangers.

Greg Becherer, VP Sales and Marketing
Greg began his career as an Application Engineer with BW Rogers Co., a distributor of many lines of equipment for the CPE. He then moved The Carborundum Company in 1987, where he learned the application and design of graphite heat exchangers from the bottom up. After the Division was sold to Carbone, Greg took on the job of Sr. VP, Sales and Marketing of the AstroCosmos Division, becoming an expert in the applications of reactive metal heat exchangers and process equipment, in addition to graphite and ceramics.

Greg has been involved in almost every aspect of the graphite and ceramic corrosion resistant heat exchanger market, including design and application engineering, development of advanced design heat exchangers, and the full range of sales, marketing, and international business development activities. With his extensive CPE experience, and a B.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Greg is a recognized expert in corrosive heat transfer applications.

Greg is a principal and charter member of CG Thermal LLC, and brings his considerable technical expertise and knowledge of the needs of the CPE to our customers.

Steve Hairston, Director of Engineering
Steve has had a varied technical background and career, with B.S. degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering. In 1988, he accepted a position at the BP America Research Center doing work which included developing forming and firing techniques for the SiC ceramic used in Umax® ceramic heat exchangers.

He joined the Metaullics Systems Co. in 1997, where he was involved in all aspects of process engineering and manufacturing of graphite and ceramic chemical process equipment, including process/quality control, safety management, equipment design and operating cost reduction projects. He was responsible for the new plant design and start-up in China including specification and design of equipment, installation and start up, training of plant personnel, and quality/process control. Steve is a principal and charter member of CG Thermal LLC, and brings his excellent background and experience to our company and to the customers in the CPE which we serve.

B. David Hudson, Principal Design Engineer
After receiving his B.S.M.E. and M.B.A. degrees, David began his career with the Pfaudler Company, where he had complete engineering responsibility for thermal and mechanical design of their glass and alloy heat exchangers, for a period of 20 years. Then, after the Metaullics Heat Exchanger Division (then owned by BP America) was merged with Pfaudler, David took on additional responsibility for the design and sizing of graphite heat exchangers.

In 1987, David joined the Metaullics Systems Company as Engineering Manager for the Heat Exchanger Group. In that position, he was instrumental in the design of the award winning Hexoloy® ceramic heat exchanger, which continues at CG Thermal under the Umax® trade name. In total, David has almost 40 years of experience in mechanical design and thermal sizing of corrosion resistant heat exchangers for the CPE. He is a principal and charter member of CG Thermal LLC.

Frank Beznoska, Production Manager
Frank began his career in production with Carborundum in 1974, quickly advancing to the position of Master Assembler, and eventually Lead Man for the department, then Production Foreman. In that capacity he was responsible for supervising and coaching junior employees, assuring that components matched the drawings, assembling graphite and ceramic heat exchangers to the highest standards, and insuring the quality of product before it shipped to our customers in the CPE.

Frank was also responsible for inspecting, disassembling and repairing used heat exchangers from a wide range of customer applications. He brings many years of experience and great attention to detail to the task of repairing used equipment so that it can often provide many years of additional reliable service to our customers.