Singer Valve Introduces Its Total Automatic Purging System

Todd Philbeck of Singer Valve joins Todd and Todd of Water Online Radio to talk about Singer’s TAPS initiative and the advantages of ductile iron valves versus plastic.

Todd Schnick: We’re coming to you live from Dallas, Texas. This is day two of AWWA ACE 2012 and Water Online Radio. I’m your host, Todd Schnick, joined by my colleague, Todd Youngblood. Todd, we’re joined by yet another Todd. This is going to be really interesting.

Todd Youngblood: I thought we had the market cornered on the Todd thing.

Todd Schnick: Well, let’s welcome the third Todd. I want to welcome Todd Philbeck, who is an Account Sales Manager with Singer Valve. Welcome to the show, Todd.

Todd Philbeck: Thank you, Todd and Todd.

Todd Schnick: And Todd. Alright, before we get into it, Todd, take a second and tell us a little bit about you and your background.

Todd Philbeck: I work with Singer Valve. I’ve been with them for three years. I started out actually building the valves, and moved into the sales about two years ago. I’ve started from front to back, actually.

Todd Schnick: Tell us more about Singer Valve. What is that organization all about?

Todd Philbeck: Singer Valve is a 55-year-old control valve company. We are global and have been around for 55 years. We handle everything in the water market.

Todd Schnick: Now, you just talked about moving from building the valves to selling the valves. Why would you make a career move like that?

Todd Philbeck: It was the next step in the company. We had an opportunity, and I really enjoyed working with the valves, and now I get to go out and see the end users and actually get to see the valves out in the field. It’s nice to see them in the factory setting, and then move out into the actual field and see them actually work.

Todd Schnick: Singer is introducing something new at ACE 2012, something called the TAPS. Tell us all about that.

Todd Philbeck: The TAPS, yes, it’s very exciting. TAPS is actually a Total Automatic Purging System, designed to resolve distribution water quality issues, while simultaneously scouring your transmission lines, to eliminate biofilm and sediment buildup.

Todd Schnick: What led Singer to develop that product to begin with?

Todd Philbeck: At Singer, we’re known as a solutions provider, just known throughout the industry for that, and we saw an opportunity to introduce one of our valves, which is a true, ductile iron valve, and put it into a flushing application, which a lot of the flushing valves you see on the market are plastic. Our valve is ductile iron, epoxy-coated, and is NSF-approved.

Todd Schnick: Is this unique to the market?

Todd Philbeck: Yes, it is. The biggest thing that makes it unique is it is ductile iron, fusion epoxy-coated, inside and out; has stainless steel washers, bolts, inside trim. Our valve is also available up to 12-inch in globe and angle valves, so you have a multitude of sizes for a pipe scouring, especially.

Most importantly, with the TAPS unit, it comes with a staining feature, which is a way not to overdraft your system, like a lot of flushing valves you see, they’re on or off. Our valve has a set point that we can keep at a fire flow level, our psi, your minimum system requirements. This is so you’ll never overdraft your system. In the event of a fire on your flushing event, you will not overdraft the system.

Todd Schnick: Why not plastic? It’s lighter, it’s easier to work with, it’s durable, it doesn’t corrode.

Todd Philbeck: It’s not NSF-approved.

Todd Schnick: It’s cheaper.

Todd Philbeck: No, it’s actually not cheaper. Our ductile iron valve is actually very competitive, if not cheaper than some of the plastic versions, and the plastic is not NSF-approved. It’s one of our valves that’s been around for 55 years. It’s not something new to the market. This valve has been around for forever, so we just use it in a flushing application now.

Todd Schnick: What results can people expect from TAPS?

Todd Philbeck: We’ve gotten overwhelmingly positive results. One of our biggest and most positive applications was St. Bernard Parish, down in Louisiana. After Hurricane Katrina, they had a big issue where people moved out and didn’t move back in, so St. Bernard Parish went from about 70,000 people down to about 20,000, so they had no water usage. They were looking for a way to get water through the system. They put in the TAPS unit, and was able to flush the water through the system and offer quality water to their people.

Todd Schnick: Todd, if I look around the water utility industry, the folks, they’re not exactly known for being as innovative or willing to adapt to new technologies and methods. How do you address that?

Todd Philbeck: You show them. You introduce things like that, and that’s one reason I like to go from the factory out into the field, because I see all this stuff that Singer’s doing all the time, and developing, and I want to get that out to the market and say, “Hey, these guys, we’re the solutions provider. What issues are you having? We can take it from there.”

Todd Schnick: You’ve got some credibility coming as an insider, I guess.

Todd Philbeck: You can sit down with engineers and you can tell them, “Hey, I used to build that thing,” and now you’re not just a sales guy.

Todd Schnick: You’re one of them.

Todd Philbeck: Yes.

Todd Schnick: Todd, let’s shift focus for a second and let’s go up to 10,000 feet and look down on the water industry. What trends do you see coming down the pike in the next three to five years?

Todd Philbeck: The biggest thing related with the TAPS is the NSF approval. NSF’s getting really big. Like I said, the plastic valves, they’ll never be NSF-approved. This valve is already approved, it’s done. It’s our regular control valve.

Todd Schnick: One of the things that we hear a lot about is the financial pressure on public utilities in municipalities. What financial impact can you have, to help save these utilities a couple of bucks?

Todd Philbeck: This is a great solution here, because you’re actually saving labor. You see these guys standing at fire hydrants, flushing their systems by cracking fire hydrants open. Well, the TAPS unit is programmable.

You can go program multiple units to go off at multiple times, and there’s no guy running around, trying to turn fire hydrants on and off and forgetting to turn them back off. It’s water savings and a money savings.

Todd Schnick: What is Singer Valve doing, and what can the industry as a whole do to take advantage of this notion of drinking water treatment? It’s so ripe for innovation. What more can we do to take advantage of that?

Todd Philbeck: Just education, just get out there. Singer Valve offers a lot of training. We do a lot of training at our facility, and it’s just to get some operators in there and show them what the solutions are and what’s really out there. A lot of people don’t know everything that’s out there, so it’s a lot of education.

Todd Schnick: Is this unveiling of TAPS the only thing you’re accomplishing here at ACE 2012? What else do you have going on?

Todd Philbeck: TAPS is our biggest thing. That’s our focus this year.

Todd Schnick: Alright. Todd, I hate to say it, but we’re out of time. Before we let you go, how can people get in touch with you, and where can they learn more about TAPS and Singer Valve?

Todd Philbeck: They can get in touch with me at SingerValve.com, or directly, at Todd@SingerValve.com.

Todd Schnick: Alright. Todd Philbeck, Account Sales Manager at Singer Valve, it was great to have you. Thanks so much for joining us.

Todd Philbeck: Thank you, Todd.

Todd Schnick: Alright, that wraps this segment, on behalf of our guest, Todd, my cohost, Todd, I’m Todd, and all of us at Water Online. We’ll be right back with our next guest.