Platform for an international career

Since joining FLSmidth in 1991, Karsten Brink Floor, Sales Manager at FLSmidth Airloq, has seen many sides of the company and worked on both sides of the Atlantic. But it’s a fascination for the complex plants we build that keeps him fired up.

When asked why he joined FLSmidth, Karsten laughs as he replies, “I needed a job, and that wasn’t easy for an engineer in 1991.” Then he continues. “Seriously, I looked at FLSmidth and saw that it was a great platform for an inter-national career. Then pretty much as soon as I started work, I got hooked on cement plants. It’s what happens: you either get hooked on them or you move on. I was caught, and 18 years later I’m still here.”

Still, Karsten knows that not everyone thinks of working with cement plants as something very interesting. “When I first joined the company, the joke was that if you wanted to really stop a party, all you had to do was say that you worked with
cement. But there’s so much engineering involved in a cement plant – it’s completely fascinating. When you look at a cement plant you realise the sheer complexity of it. It contains every kind of engineering imaginable, from construction to nuclear. It’s a massive machine.”

Keeping on the move
Karsten began his FLSmidth career as a commissioning engineer at FLSmidth Automation – and it was there that he started to work with what’s become his specialty: gas analysers. He’s had numerous positions, including a three-year posting in the US building up a new Gas Analyser department for sales, service and support.

He’s now back in Denmark, and all the contacts he has made during his 18 years prove useful. “In my time in the company, I’ve got to know a lot of people,” he says. “People I knew in my first job are now spread throughout the organisation – and that makes it easy for me to get things done. My network is particularly strong because I’ve been on site a lot. When you’ve worked on site with someone, you learn to get straight to the point.”

Building links between Minerals and Cement
Working now at FLSmidth Airloq, Karsten has recently been involved in developing what he hopes will be a revolutionary new product – a fast gas analyser. The analyser offers customers two clear advantages in process control: It significantly reduces the risk of explosion and cuts shut-down time.

“How the new analyser came about is a complex story,” explains Karsten. “But it was a combined effort between FLSmidth Minerals, FLSmidth Automation and FLSmidth Airtech in the US, and FLSmidth Airloq and FLSmidth R&D Dania in Denmark. It can be applied to both cement and minerals pyroprocessing, so it’s a great example of how the two wings of FLSmidth’s business can benefit each other.”

And Karsten’s next task? “Right now I’m mainly working to promote the product – our goal is to make it the best-known and most successful product of its kind in the world.”

Related links:
Go to FLSmidth Airloq