How New Flyer Relies on Swagelok Leak-Tight Fittings for Safe Bus Fuel Systems
Swagelok helps New Flyer, North America's leading bus manufacturer, deliver safe, reliable, and innovative clean-energy transit solutions. From leak-tight fittings and valves to safety training, engineering support, and local inventory management, Swagelok provides the expertise and products needed to keep production moving and fuel systems performing reliably. Together, the companies support the growing adoption of compressed natural gas (CNG) and fuel cell electric buses, helping transit agencies reduce greenhouse gas emissions while meeting demanding reliability standards. Through a strong collaborative partnership, Swagelok and New Flyer continue to advance safer, more efficient transportation solutions for communities across North America.
Video Transcript
New Flyer is the biggest bus manufacturer in North America. We employ over 2,300 Americans, which is more than the rest of our competitors in the United States combined. Our design engineering is a little different than automotive. So the customers for New Flyer—it’s twofold. It’s transit authorities that have to buy and operate our buses and count on our reliability every day, and then, even more importantly, it’s the people standing on the street corner every day relying on us to get them to work, to the grocery store, and everywhere else.
So building a bus from start to finish here in Anniston starts with us cutting American steel, and six weeks later, it will come off the end of the line. Customers are getting increased pressure to reduce greenhouse gases, and it lends to our favor that New Flyer is the leader with zero- and low-emission buses.
Hands down, the most critical application on every bus is the fuel system. And when you are responsible for thousands of passengers who ride New Flyer buses all over North America every single day, there is no margin for error.
Quality is so important to New Flyer because their buses transport precious cargo—moms, dads, and children.
So on the fuel system, they only use Swagelok products. Quality, repeatability, and performance are critical, and that is why they rely on Swagelok for those critical applications.
We work very closely with Swagelok, one of our most important suppliers. The local staff here and the team come in and make sure we are happy with the on-time delivery, the quality of the product, and everything else.
Swagelok’s fittings, quick-connects, and AFS valves, which were designed specifically for the alternative fuels industry, are used to plumb the CNG tanks that go on top of the buses.
They are one of the most important parts that we put on the bus because it would stop other production if we did not have our Swagelok fittings.
Collaboration with New Flyer is absolutely critical. Their business is tied to tight production schedules, so our ability to work closely with their production teams, carry inventory locally on unique parts, and continuously have the flow of products is paramount in our relationship together.
The best indicator of trust from a supplier that I can speak to is that I do not have to spend any time chasing down Swagelok for on-time deliveries or quality issues. It is almost like the offensive line of your operation. If they are doing their job, nobody knows about them except for the good people who come in and work with us from Swagelok. And when they do, they are very professional, they are concise, and they are helping us come up with solutions.
When we have better flow of information back and forth, that is where our true partnership comes from. I think we get there by really listening to understand their business—really, truly understanding what their pain points are. I think it is more about deploying the right resources to their needs and truly understanding their business.
Swagelok does a good job of being more than just a parts provider. They also help us with solutions, whether it is training, testing, or helping us with certain parts of the design engineering. Swagelok goes above and beyond what a typical provider does by just sending you parts on time.
So we provide safety installation training and inspection training, which basically allow your technicians to pull up our tube fittings safely and correctly, but also to visually go through and see if there are any issues before the system is brought up to pressure. We have trained well over 100 associates at the Anniston facility in the last four years.
Swagelok started providing fabrications for New Flyer about four years ago. We have built a test stand for them where they test their pressure relief devices and their fuel boxes and make sure there are no leaks before they install them on the buses.
New Flyer’s business is going to continually evolve, and it is important to us to continue to challenge ourselves to deliver more value to them.
Swagelok and New Flyer—I expect us to continue to work closely together. They provide us vital components for our fuel cell electric buses, and as those continue to become more of an industry norm, we will just work closer together going forward.
Beyond products, they are going to rely on us more tomorrow than they are today, and that is our responsibility in partnership with them.
