GEA Westfalia Separators’ Marine Service Training
Houma, LA – September 22, 2026 – Separator Spares & Equipment, LLC completed the GEA Westfalia Separators’ Marine Service Training program in Oelde, Germany. The training strengthens the company’s technical readiness for maritime service work and expands its hands-on maintenance capabilities across mineral oil and industrial centrifuge applications used throughout the marine industry.
The GEA Marine Service Training blended classroom instruction with direct, hands-on separator work over several days at GEA’s Oelde facility. It covered topics such as the fundamentals of mechanical separation, safety precautions and damage prevention, mineral oil separation, bilge oily water separation, automation, hands-on inspection and overhaul processes. The Separator Spares team works directly with GEA Westfalia Separators’ experts to gain practical skills in separation theory, troubleshooting, diagnostics, and performance optimization. This knowledge translates directly into more efficient maintenance, faster troubleshooting, and improved reliability for customers.
The service training emphasized GEA’s OSE and OSF separator models, along with the company’s Bilge Master and NOx systems. It included instruction on automation control panels covering both IO-based and newer X control platforms. GEA technical trainers walked participants through real-world maintenance scenarios, drawing on equipment history to illustrate common failure points and best practices for extending service life. The format allowed technicians to apply classroom concepts directly to physical equipment, reinforcing retention and preparing them to diagnose separator issues under field conditions.
“This training allows Separator Spares technicians to learn directly from factory experts and gain a deeper understanding of the GEA Westfalia Marine Separators,” said Ryan Picou, Chief Operating Officer of Separator Spares & Equipment. “That knowledge allows the team to work more efficiently and deliver a higher level of service to customers.”
“At GEA, we place a strong emphasis on technical competency and customer support. Separator Spares & Equipment’s successful completion of our Marine Service Training program demonstrates their commitment to maintaining the highest standards of service for vessel operators. By investing in factory-level training, their team is better equipped to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient support for GEA marine separation equipment throughout the system’s lifecycle.
What makes this achievement particularly meaningful is the long-standing relationship between GEA and Separator Spares & Equipment. I have had the privilege of working alongside their team for more than a decade, while their association with GEA extends even further. Through customer visits aboard vessels, time spent together at our facilities in Oelde, industry trade shows, and countless opportunities to support customers worldwide, our relationship has grown well beyond that of manufacturer and reseller.
Over the years, we have stood together through both successes and difficult times, reinforcing a partnership built on trust, respect, and a shared commitment to serving our customers. Those experiences are what transform a business relationship into something much more meaningful. In many ways, the Separator Spares team has become part of our extended GEA family. This training is another example of their commitment to continuous improvement and their dedication to delivering exceptional service to the marine industry,” said Matthew Wiszowaty, Market Marine Manager at GEA.
“At GEA, factory-level marine service training is reserved for GEA personnel and select partner organizations that have demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting GEA’s customers and equipment. Separator Spares & Equipment’s successful completion of this program reflects both their investment in technical excellence and the trusted relationship they have built with GEA. Through hands-on training and advanced instruction on GEA marine separation systems and service best practices, their team is better equipped to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient support for vessel operators. GEA is pleased to recognize this achievement and looks forward to continuing the partnership,” said Matthew Wiszowaty, Market Marine Manager at GEA.
The knowledge gained through the program is expected to translate into more efficient maintenance planning and improved reliability for vessels and operators that rely on GEA Westfalia separation equipment. Marine separator systems play a central role in fuel and lubrication oil purification, bilge water treatment, and overall engine room reliability, making specialized, factory-level training a meaningful factor in reducing downtime and extending equipment life across commercial fleets.
About GEA Westfalia Separators
GEA Westfalia Separators is a global mechanical engineering company specializing in the manufacture of industrial centrifuges, separators, and decanters for liquid-solid and liquid-liquid-solid separations. GEA Westfalia separators and decanters are used in thousands of applications by nearly every industry. This includes dairy processing, food and beverage, marine, oil and gas, power, chemical, pharma, data centers, farming, mining, industrial fluids, and water and wastewater management. GEA Westfalia separators are available with different drive types: gear drive, belt drive, direct drive, and integrated direct drive.
Whether fuel, lube oil, bilge water treatment, fuel oil conditioning, engine cooling, or seawater desalination, GEA Westfalia offers marine system solutions that enable strategic efficiency improvements and cost reductions while sustainably optimizing product and process quality. GEA Westfalia offers its customers in the maritime sector system solutions that are comprehensively and systematically designed for the special requirements on board. All GEA products are designed for extreme conditions and operate reliably even in rough seas. They provide high performance in an energy-efficient manner while ensuring maximum system availability. At the same time, GEA Westfalia supports the shipping companies’ goal of protecting both the crew and the environment.
To learn more, visit our GEA Westfalia Separator partner webpage or visit GEA.com.
About Separator Spares & Equipment, LLC
Based in Houma, Louisiana, Separator Spares & Equipment, LLC is a leading supplier of complete separation, oil filtration, and heat transfer packages. The woman-owned company has grown from a spare parts provider to a thriving, reliable, global supplier of spare parts and engineered equipment. Serving marine, oil and gas, power generation, mining, data centers, and industrial markets, Separator Spares & Equipment is known for its reliability, technical expertise, and commitment to helping customers reduce downtime and maintain peak system performance.
Separator Spares & Equipment, LLC provides maintenance services, spare parts (separadoras GEA Westfalia), engineered solutions, and technical support for GEA Westfalia high-speed centrifugal separators, marine separation systems, oil filtration, and heat transfer packages.
Separator Spares & Equipment Completes GEA Westfalia Separators’ Marine Service Training