Gas apparatus innovator Loren Charles Smith dies

Loren Charles Smith, a well-respected innovator in the gas apparatus industry, died June 25 in Gainesville, Ga. He worked at The Harris Products Group from 1991 to 2012 as a senior project engineer.

Smith’s career with The Harris Products Group was a second act in his life. He officially retired from another company before joining Harris at age 65. His most recent efforts there involved collaboration with the Harris marketing team to share his knowledge and insights with Harris customers.

Smith developed the one-piece encapsulated seat, which is used in every Harris regulator worldwide. It allows the regulator and its seat to be pretested in subassembly and retested in assembly, protects the regulator body from debris, and offers the best filtration system available in a regulator, according to the company. He also played a key role in the development of the company’s new signature gas regulation product, The Perfect Flame™.

Smith was a key contributor to the critical CGA E4 standard, which specifies requirements for regulators used with compressed gases to reduce the supply pressure from a storage cylinder, pipeline, or other source to the use pressure. He also held six patents.