Kody Bickford

Kody Bickford is the Valve Assembly Technician working in the Portland, OR office. Kody is the primary Valve Assembly Technician since the departure of the technician in the Dublin office almost a year ago. This has increased the workflow through the Portland facility dramatically. In addition to the normal valve builds, Kody is now responsible for all the builds for the turboexpander customer base.

Kody designed and built trip valve data loggers to provide test documentation for critical trip valve assembly actual performance. This performance documentation is mandatory for demanding customers shipping critical valve assemblies all over the world. Without this capability, Valin would not get these valve assembly orders.

Kody is the consummate professional in his position and performs at a high level every day in the shop. He is willing to work until the job is done by coming in early or working late to meet the customer’s requirements. Kody is the last check for very complex assemblies. He asks relevant questions and has the mechanical ability to overcome any challenges that arise during a build. The turbo compressor valve assemblies are all unique in their configuration and require the ability to look at schematics, understand what is needed, and work with the Application Engineers to ensure a quality product is provided on behalf of Valin.

Valin recently worked on an order for a large international project-based customer that required extensive documentation and testing. Kody was instrumental in the process of building the valve assemblies to the customer’s exact and thorough requirements. He addressed the documentation aspect for the order by recording valve data, serial numbers, and supplying the information in the exact format the customer required. Prior to shipment, there was a virtual meeting with engineers, the client, and a team from Valin. During the meeting, the valve assemblies were reviewed and discussed, and a live test of the Close Time requirements was also performed. The meeting was a success with all the customer's questions answered. Feedback from the client was that Valin’s customer was very impressed and stated, "they are not easy to impress". This is due to the excellent work performed by Kody.