T&S Brass Welcomes New Operations Manager
T&S Brass and Bronze Works has hired Michael Williams as its new operations manager.
Williams, a manufacturing leader with more than two decades of experience, will manage the operations for the assembly and packaging of the 6,000 finished plumbing products produced every year at the T&S headquarters in Travelers Rest, South Carolina.
Williams, a Georgia native, holds a degree in business management from Jacksonville State University and a master’s degree in business administration from Lincoln Memorial University. He is a member of the South Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, Williams has served multiple combat tours.
Williams is taking over as operations manager from the retiring Gary Cole.
For more information, visit tsbrass.com.
Get Versatility in Your Tankless Water Heater Installation
Cramped spaces under tankless water heaters can make installing and servicing valves difficult. LFTWHG2 tankless water heater valves with VersaFit™ technology provide versatility in your installation. Configure the hot valve with ease, install without headaches, and relax with trouble-free servicing and performance you can count on.
- Install with ease with field configurable hot valve
- Enjoy trouble-free servicing with forward-facing drain ports
- Easy operation with smooth turning, low-torque handles
For more information, visit wattswater.com.
PressACR™ Fittings: The Contractor’s Choice
NIBCO has been recognized for excellence in product design for its PressACR fittings by a program sponsored by The Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration News magazine. An independent panel of contractors acted as judges in this contest.
The company’s fittings are UL recognized to 700 psi due to an innovative patent pending groove design and crimp pattern supporting the higher-pressure requirements of HVACR systems.
NIBCO has also added three reducing coupling sizes and two tee sizes to its Press System lineup. The company offers a single-source package of press valves, fittings and tools. All NIBCO Press products have a snug fit so systems can be dry fit before cramping.
NIBCO also offers a 585HP ball valve with a reversible handle, large packing nut, triple-sealed stem and patented laser-welded design. Up until December 31, upgrade to the 585HP ball valve at the same price of the standard 585-80-LF series.
For more information, visit nibco.com.
IPEX Invests in State-of-the-Art Molding Plant
IPEX recently announced a major investment in a new state-of-the-art injection molding plant to be built in Pineville, North Carolina. The new facility will encompass Industry 4.0, including artificial intelligence, and will significantly increase the company’s ability to manufacture fittings for plumbing, electrical, industrial, and municipal applications.
The nearly 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is being custom designed and built and will become the technological flagship for the company’s operations and one of the most advanced plastics manufacturing facilities in the industry. The plant’s flexible automation capabilities will enable total automation for all facets of sorting, labelling, counting, packing and assembly.
To ensure world-class safety results from day one, the facility will incorporate industry-leading health and safety best practices. The plant’s automation capabilities will eliminate the majority of manual repetitive processes and tasks, and the production floor will be forklift-free, with vehicles auto-guided by artificial intelligence, increasing plant safety. Also, with sustainability in mind, the plant will be fully climate-controlled, use energy-efficient lighting, and high efficiency machines to reduce the use of both electricity and water.
Given the importance that IPEX places on innovating to create new products and ideas to fulfill customer needs, the plant layout will also provide IPEX with space for testing and prototyping a great number of new products already in development.
This new facility will increase production capacity substantially and will provide new career and job opportunities, with the expectation to hire more than 150 people from the local area. The plant’s use of Industry 4.0 will increase the need for supervisory, technical, and quality control positions.
Construction of IPEX’s ground-breaking facility is expected to be finalized in late 2022 with full operations expected to start in early 2023. Once the project is completed, the Pineville site, which includes an existing molding facility, will be home to nearly 100 injection molding machines, IPEX’s biggest molding complex.
IPEX has announced significant expansion plans this year. The Pineville manufacturing plant is the company’s fourth new facility announcement in 2021, following three new distribution centers in Garland, Texas in the United States, and in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in Canada.
For more information, visit ipexna.com.
New Threaded Revit® Families Available
ASC Engineered Solutions has expanded its digital design solutions with the addition of threaded fitting Autodesk Revit families. New, free digital content includes Anvil & SCI branded cast, ductile and malleable iron products, in both standard and heavyweight offerings. In addition, ASC now offers threaded pipe fittings BIM and CAD content.
All ASC Anvil and SCI brands of threaded products can also be downloaded in traditional 2D and 3D CAD formats from the company’s BIM library, along with fabrication content components (ITM files). Sharpe® valve CAD files are also available for download.
The company’s extensive BIM and CAD content library available online includes its full hangers, grooved and threaded fittings product lines. Additional files are in development and will be released quarterly.
For more information, visit asc-es.com/bim-portal.
New E-X-P® Complete Product Line Enhancements
New E-X-P® Complete product line enhancements offer everything needed for a successful gas-powered tankless water heater (TWH) installation. The new kits combine your choice of E2 series or Ultra-Compact series TWH service valves with Webstone’s exclusive Gas Sediment Trap; a forged brass solution for the sediment trap assembly that’s required by code for all gas appliance installations. Each 3/4” kit includes two color-coded service valves, a residential pressure relief valve, and the gas sediment trap kit with an FIP gas ball valve and a 24” gas flex line. Connection options include press, sweat, FIP, push and PEX.
For more information, visit webstonevalves.com.
A. O. Smith Champions Energy-Efficient Products by Highlighting Available Market Incentives
A.O. Smith is making it easy for consumers who purchase energy-efficient appliances to quickly find ways to earn hundreds of dollars in market incentives. A.O. Smith’s website, hotwater.com, now offers a zip code-enabled rebate finder powered by EcoRebates that helps consumers find rebates and tax credits for their new high-efficiency water heater.
The new tool is easy to use. Customers can enter the location of installation and see the current rebates and terms available for a wide selection of high-efficiency A.O. Smith products at hotwater.com/water-heater-rebates/.
The Voltex® Hybrid Electric Heat Pump is one of the many sustainable products A.O. Smith offers that is eligible for many utility rebates. The cutting-edge hybrid electric design integrates heat pump technology to produce a product three times as efficient as a standard electric water heater. A $300 federal tax credit is available for Voltex models when purchased for existing homes used as a primary residence (customers should check with their tax advisors for applicability).
According to the most recent Residential Energy Consumption Survey, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Energy, more than half of all residential energy consumption is used for heating and cooling. By choosing to purchase an ENERGY STAR® certified unit, such as a Voltex heat pump water heater, consumers are not just receiving cost savings on their energy bills. They are also helping balance supply and demand and for a more efficient and sustainable utility grid system.
For more information, visit hotwater.com.