ASET Technology Alberta Fall 2021 - 21

spotlight
With a catalog of parts to build from, NORLAB can create highly customized lab environments
to match client needs.
NORLAB's Senior Product Specialist Tyler
Holmberg has seen the company evolve
into a powerhouse in the laboratory
furniture and fume hood industry.
laboratory industries. He points to fume hoods, cabinets
used for storing chemicals and venting out vapours, as one
of NORLAB's wares that was revamped in the face of industrial
changes.
" About 15 years ago, the oilfield came up with a new process
for testing samples. And they called it a Dean-Stark
process, " Holmberg says. " The problem was that this was
a giant process, and it didn't fit inside normal fume hoods. "
To counter this problem, the company went about custombuilding
and manufacturing Dean-Stark fume hoods for
the industry. At the time, Holmberg says NORLAB was the
only company making these appliances, but it wasn't long
before other industry actors took notice and followed suit.
This situation repeated itself a few years later, when labs
went under the knife in response to their high energy demands
of air circulation.
" There was a change that they wanted, to reduce the amount
of air that fume hoods used, or what we call performance
fume hoods, or ultra-performance fume hoods or low-flow
fume hoods. And that's really where we have been working
with suppliers and customers, to custom-design these lowflow
fume hoods for this new requirement and new need for
the clients, " he says.
The competition soon took notice, but given the relatively
small size of the industry, Holmberg says that replication is
par for the course. " We find that it's a very much commodity
driven market. So somebody comes up with something new
and if it's successful, very shortly, everybody's doing it. "
As his role evolved at NORLAB over the
years, Holmberg says his designation
as a C.E.T. has also shifted and grown,
in ways not originally expected. While
the original edge came from employer
recognition and a bigger boot to wedge
in the door, Holmberg now points to
benefits revolving around professional
and personal development. These gains
haven't benefited solely him, either.
" As I became a manager and responsible for more people,
then I really started using some of the continued learning,
where we would take people and send them through estimation
classes, or we would send them through the management
classes, and that kind of thing, " he says.
" Almost every year I am sending myself and/or employees
to the ASET courses that you're offering, because there's
just so much value there. "
A product line responsive to a myriad of lab settings and
applications, and an innovation streak with no signs of fading
shows that NORLAB will hold firm on the forefront of lab
furniture, fume hoods and more.
TECHNOLOGY ALBERTA | FALL 2021 | 21

ASET Technology Alberta Fall 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASET Technology Alberta Fall 2021