Meet “SuperSealer” Karen Hayden
This month’s SuperSealer is an asset to the extrusion and splicing teams at Trelleborg’s Milford site in the US. While she might sing the low notes in her barbershop chorus, she speaks highly of her colleagues at Trelleborg.
Who are you?
My name is Karen Hayden. I am a Process Engineer at Trelleborg Pipe Seals at our site in Milford, New Hampshire.
What do you like about working for Trelleborg?
I joined Trelleborg just over a year ago. My role is extremely rewarding as I’m working with both the extrusion and splicing teams to improve our production processes and to qualify new materials and products. The people here are wonderful, too. Everyone works incredibly hard to make our products as successful as possible, so we can fulfill the needs of each individual customer.
What are the key challenges you face?
Product qualification is one of the biggest challenges we are facing right now, both on the extrusion and the splicing side. We rely upon the suppliers to make the changes based on our trial runs, and there’s often a lot of back and forth between the different teams as we figure out what works most effectively.
How do you think your business is going to evolve in the future? How are you preparing for this?
I joined Trelleborg at an exciting time, and it will be fascinating watching the business grow over the next few years. Worldwide, there is a huge amount of infrastructure that needs renovating; the opportunities to provide improvements through sealing solutions are vast.
While many of our seals and gaskets are used for sewer systems, we have also started to develop sealing solutions for potable water pipes. Recently, we launched the I-Lock-P and L-Lock-P, which received approval from the Public Health and Safety Organization NSF. This means we can offer our customers an even wider range of services. What’s more, we are working on upgrading some of our equipment, so that we are able to meet demands faster.
What do you do in your free time?
I sing in a women’s barbershop chorus called ‘New England Voices in Harmony’. I have been singing with them for 13 years and last November we won our first international contest! I’m an active member within the chorus, leading the bass section and running contests in our local area.
At home, I love baking – especially cookies and cakes. The rest of my free time is spent with my husband and our two young boys. We try to get outside as much as possible, whether it’s hiking, biking, or playing in the snow.
