Baker Hughes’s featured Channel Partner: Eastern Controls Inc.
1969 was the last year Masoneilan control valves were sold in the Mid-Atlantic region without having the support of Eastern Controls, Inc. (ECI) as a trusted partner. Since then, Cliff McLaughlin, Sr. and his son Cliff built strong relationships with the local customer base by embedding their business as an extension of the Masoneilan family. Eastern Controls’ story began with Cliff Sr., his wife Elke, John Bravacos, and Dick Bright selling Masoneilan Camflex literally from the trunks of their cars with that customer-first message now carried on by Cliff, Jr., who has been the President of the business since 2004. Today, Eastern Controls has grown to almost 80 employees and represents the Masoneilan brand across 6 states (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia). Eastern Controls not only provides their customers with application engineering and sales support, but also leverages their millions of dollars in Masoneilan inventory to be one of Masoneilan’s largest ValvFast Control Valve manufacturing centers in the United States. All of this allows Eastern Controls to support their customers with the best fit solutions and quickest possible deliveries.
In 2008, Eastern Controls updated their two MARC (Masoneilan Authorized Repair Centers) and ValvFast facilities by investing in new control valve seat leak and hydrotest equipment, improved material and dimensional testing tools, three ValvScope control valve diagnostic suitcases, two new media blast centers and paint booths, 12 specialized valve assembly and repair stations, and several new cranes so that Eastern Controls would continue to be “the leading edge” full service control valve supplier in their trading area.
While the core ‘customer-first’ mission is the same today as it was 50 years ago, Eastern Controls has also embraced technology and continues to expand their value offering to their customers. In 2016, Eastern Controls built a state-of-the-art Process Training Unit (PTU) located in Edgemont, PA, which is used as not only a customer and employee training tool and Masoneilan product showcase, but also as a platform to help customers move into the Industrial Internet age by showcasing Masoneilan’s ValvAware advanced online valve diagnostics software. The Eastern Controls PTU is also the centerpiece of their annual Process Solutions Summit training event which hosted over 400 customers for 2 days in 2018!
Eastern Controls, Inc. enjoys a solid reputation as the premier industrial process controls sales and engineering organization in the Mid-Atlantic region. The growth of the company has largely been the result of their highly trained technical sales and service personnel, their in-depth knowledge of ECI’s product lines and applications, and a “Customer First” commitment to helping solve customer problems. The Eastern Controls team stands ready to meet the demands of a wide variety of process control applications in every major local industry, including Power, Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, Pharmaceutical, Food & Beverage, Pipeline, Pulp & Paper, Semiconductor, Environmental, and HVAC.