Gardner Systems Corporation
	The company originated in development work and implementation of several products and processes widely used in the industry dating back 50 years. Patents included the Gardner High Velocity dryer, the Gardner Floater Dryer (the current offset press dryer in universal use), the Gardner Pocket Ventilator, Dryer Drainage With…, and others. Drying process development included high speed drying of blade coatings, evaporative drying of printing inks, High Velocity tissue drying on Yankee dryers, Blow-Thru steam controls for dryer drainage, functional Process Simulation programs for dryer drainage, thermocompressors and other complex steam processes. Incorporated in 1967, Gardner Systems licensed patents and technology, and supplied engineering design and service for air dryers, machine ventilation, and dryer drainage systems to Valmet-Enerdry and its forebears for more than 20 years. The license agreements terminated in 1990 and the company embarked independently upon the manufacture of Steam & Condensate Systems. Having solved the structural problems of the process, the company rapidly became the primary supplier of paper machine steam systems. In the year 2000 for example, Gardner Systems built or rebuilt 12 steam systems, about 80% of all the work in North America and China that year, and the grand total currently exceeds 100 systems. New orders were largely based on the testimony of references, all of which achieved large production gains and remarkable energy savings. Our mark of excellence is that customers have virtually never needed further technical help or advice.
	The Gardner System
	Essentially, a Gardner steam system consists of a group of independent steam sections with identical controls using thermocompressors to recirculate blow-through steam from the dryers. Each section operates virtually independently; one may run at max pressure while its neighbor on either side may operate as low as 5.0 psi. Equipped with Blow-Thru controls and the necessary adjuncts that make it work, any section can operate automatically from near zero to max pressure without wasting steam on run or break without any special computer program or attention by the operators. No complex Dryer Management System (DMS) is needed. Blow-Thru controls are rarely reset, and the sections are totally automatic and free of care. A group of thermocompressor sections comprises the entire steam system in the case of some board machines. More commonly, however, a group of wet end dryers provides special pre-conditioning of the drying web that largely depends on the weight and furnish of the web. Wet end dryers have simple, independent pressure controls. The condensate from all sections is flashed off and collected in a recovery tank and the flash steam is utilized in the process. Gardner steam systems use less steam than any other system, usually less than 1.20 kg of steam per kilogram of water evaporated.
	The Job
	It is fair to say that if you want a job done, give it to a busy man. As applied to the production of paper machine steam controls, you could safely add: if you want reliable, highest performance, give it to engineers with proven real expertise. The staff required for an engineering enterprise has shrunk by ten to one in just a few decades. An engineering company that once employed 30 people for sales, development, engineering design, drafting, purchasing, designing, contracting, clerical, and secretarial work now produces the same volume of project work with three or four expert engineers. The business revolution, of course, lay in the huge power of the maturing computer and the concomitant changes in work practices. For example, thirty years ago the process for producing a Gardner steam system required a team of about six people including two or three engineers for all of the necessary functions. In contrast, a system processed years later by a single senior project manager was delivered in eight weeks complete with documentation, and the project manager also provided installation service and operating instructions for mill staff and operating and maintenance crews. All liaison, including drawings, was electronic and only one mill visit was required for inspection and training. If the initial project manager had had to leave the project for any reason, another manager could have stepped into his place without missing a beat. Gardner Systems has supplied close to 150 steam systems worldwide with 120 happy customers.
	Corporate Information
	Gardner Systems Corp. is incorporated in Wisconsin registered in the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions Domestic Corporation 1G05766 Federal Tax ID No. 391127140 Principle office: 4N Systems Drive, Suite B, Appleton, WI 54914 Mailing address: P.O. Box 7764, Appleton, WI 54912-7764 Phone: +01 (920) 735 0220 Fax: +01 (920) 882 1223