Brandon Acker of Titan Abrasive Systems On 5 Things You ...

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

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I was born &#; as with most family businesses being born is the starting point. I grew up working in the family business, Titan Abrasive Systems. I attended Arizona State University and, following graduation, decided to start my own business (actually a few different businesses).

I eventually found myself back in Pennsylvania working for Titan. After several years learning all the ins and outs of the business, I decided to purchase it from my uncle in . At that point, I began the process of completely redesigning and upgrading the entire product line. Now, 11 years later, Titan is stronger than ever with a focus on innovation and a mission to lead the industry into the future.

Can you tell us a bit about your family business and your role in it?

Titan Abrasive Systems has been manufacturing equipment for abrasive blasting, including blast rooms, blast cabinets, and blasting machines since . Abrasive blasting is used in a wide range of industries, including aerospace, manufacturing, military, and more.

The basic purpose of abrasive blasting is to remove excess material (dirt, oil, rust) from all types of surfaces to recondition them and improve their performance, as well as creating better adhesion for paint or other coatings. Blast rooms and blast cabinets are the actual areas in which the abrasive blasting is conducted. Blast rooms are generally quite large; our standard sizes are 10' x 10' x 10'; 10' x 10' x 15'; and 15' x 10' x 25'.

My title is president, which in a family business means wearing many hats and doing a little of everything. In my position, &#;the buck stops here&#; is a highly accurate catchphrase.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?

I don&#;t have many stories that your readers would find interesting in the usual sense of the word. My career has been very fulfilling and rewarding, but I&#;m not sure I can offer any anecdotes that readers would define as interesting.

Having said that, the world of abrasive blasting itself is extremely fascinating &#; not so much the manufacture of the equipment but the applications for which abrasive blasting is utilized. Nuclear plants use the process to clean the components of their cooling pump motors. Medical equipment manufacturers use it to smooth down the tips of hypodermic needles, so they don&#;t rip a patient&#;s skin. The process is even used to blast the heat shields on spacecraft traveling to the moon. These are just a few of the amazing applications; we&#;re learning about new ones seemingly every day.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Hengxuan Abrasive are exported all over the world and different industries with quality first. Our belief is to provide our customers with more and better high value-added products. Let's create a better future together.

As a smaller company in the abrasive blasting space, we are much more agile and flexible than the industry &#;giants.&#; Consequently, we can provide a level of innovation and customization that the larger companies usually can&#;t handle. What&#;s more, we&#;re willing to take on jobs that other companies avoid, whether it&#;s because of the complexity, the amount of effort involved, or simply not having the requisite expertise. We work directly with our customers and are eager to solve their challenges; conversely, many companies simply want to &#;stay in their lane,&#; producing the same equipment over and over and shying away from pushing engineering boundaries.

An example would be the highly customized blast room that we built for Framatome, a major player in the nuclear industry. Framatome is heavily involved in the refurbishment and maintenance of coolant pump motor components. The reactor coolant pump set is one of the most highly radioactive components in a nuclear plant. And since the motors which drive those pumps are in the vicinity, they are subject to high levels of radiological contamination.

It was a challenge, but we devised a turnkey blasting solution to help Framatome remove the contamination from motor parts and prepare them for what&#;s called a Service Level 1 coating, all while helping the company meet the strict federal guidelines that govern the nuclear industry.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We are currently working with an aerospace company to design a blast room that will be used on components of rocket engines which will one day take people to Mars. Needless to say, we take considerable pride in our contribution to the world of space exploration, knowing that we&#;re playing a role in helping mankind expand its horizons and its knowledge of the universe. That may sound somewhat grandiose given our relatively minor involvement, but the service we provide is essential to the efficient operation of this sophisticated machinery.

Speaking of space, I&#;d like to note that the name of our company pays homage to Saturn&#;s largest moon, Titan. I don&#;t think that back in , when naming the company, my uncle thought we would one day be blasting spaceship components. I&#;m sure he&#;d be very surprised &#; and proud &#; of how far we&#;ve come.

None of us is able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My wife has been by my side every step of the way. She supported me for years when I worked countless hours without taking a paycheck in order to grow the business into what I believed it could be. Certainly, there were times I wasn&#;t quite sure where the business was headed; consequently, it takes a special type of spouse to stick with you during those times of doubt. She was incredibly encouraging to me despite those bouts of uncertainty, no small feat when deep inside she was just as nervous as I was about how things might turn out.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I have not started any foundations or given millions to charity, if that&#;s what you mean. What I have done is this: assumed control of a family business and helped it thrive. In doing so, I&#;ve created jobs for many people who earn a good living with Titan. The success of Titan has also contributed, in a small way, to helping our customers succeed in their own businesses. So I wouldn&#;t say that I&#;ve used my success to help the world; rather, I have worked hard at being successful, and there have been many positive outcomes as a direct result of that success.

On a related note, I heard a quote years ago that always stuck with me. I can&#;t remember it verbatim, but the essence of it is, a lot of people want to change the world. And there are certainly enough things that need changing. But no single individual should worry about changing the entire world themselves; just focus on changing your little corner of it. If everyone commits to that small task, we&#;ll change the whole world in no time.

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