Milton Roy On Metering Pump Technology

Taseen Karim, municipal market manager for Milton Roy Company, sat down with Water Online Radio for this live interview from the show floor at WEFTEC 2011 in Los Angeles. Karim discusses the importance of chemical feed systems and Milton Roy’s position in the metering pump market. Listen or read on to learn more.

Todd Schnick: We are back, broadcasting live from the Los Angeles Convention Center and the tradeshow floor of WEFTEC. I am Todd Schnick, joined by my cohost, Todd Youngblood. Todd, we are kicking off hour six in the home stretch.

Todd Youngblood: Unbelievable. It seems like we’ve been here for about a week and half.

Todd Schnick: Feels like we have been here for a week and half.

Todd Youngblood: It feels like home.

Todd Schnick: It does feel like home but it’s hour six and we have an exciting guest to kick us off on our final stretch. He is the municipal market manager for the Milton Roy Company, his name is Taseen Karim. Welcome to Water Online Radio.

Taseen: Thank you, Todd. I really appreciate it.

Todd Youngblood: It is great to have you. Before we get into it, Taseen, why don’t you take a few minutes and just tell us a little bit about you, your background, and the work that you are doing for Milton Roy?

Taseen: I am the municipal market manager for Milton Roy Company. I have been with the company now for eight years. I have been in the profession, in water/wastewater treatment for the past 25 years.

I am an engineer, chemical engineering background, environmental. Basically, I have been doing water/wastewater treatment, from an equipment aspect, for the last 25 years or so. Started off in Texas, I moved to Philadelphia back in 1999, and I joined up with Milton Roy in 2003.

Todd Schnick: Why don’t you walk us through and help the audience understand exactly what you are delivering to your customers?

Taseen: What Milton Roy does is we manufacture diaphragm chemical metering pumps. There are many varieties of diaphragm chemical metering pumps that are out there available.

Milton Roy was a leader in manufacturing reciprocating diaphragm metering pump technology since 1936. This is our 75th year and we are known for the quality and durability of the pumps and are recognized as the leading brand for metering pumps worldwide.

Todd Youngblood: What makes you recognized like that? What makes you different?

Taseen: We were the first ones that came out with a metering pump back in 1936. Throughout the decades, we have been making innovative products that the marketplace has accepted.

Our pumps are very durable. They are made to be very robust. We have a very loyal customer base. We offer different technologies within the diaphragm metering pumps, beginning with solenoid technology, which is hydraulic actuated diaphragm metering pumps and mechanically actuated diaphragm pumps.

Todd Schnick: What is the economic impact of all this? That is just such a hot topic with the economy being in a pretty rough patch. How do the differences that you just talked about translate into value for your customers?

Taseen: That is a very good question and where we excel, I believe – from the feedback that we have from our customer, is that we provide the lowest total cost of ownership with regards to pumping, dosing pumps.

We offer different gradations of technology and, depending on the type of pump that they need – in terms of the durability, in terms of the service, and with regards to the controls that are going to be required for that pump – chemical feed is a staple in any water or wastewater treatment plant. It is absolutely the heartbeat of the system. Without a reliable chemical feed, the process can be negatively impacted.

Todd Schnick: Well, we are obviously at WEFTEC, so what are the different pump systems that you sell into the water/wastewater market?

Taseen: Well, Milton Roy only provides reciprocating technology diaphragm pumps. There are other brands of pumps that want to promote themselves as a metering technology. We don’t believe, in order to get the same accuracy and the durability and longevity of the pump, I don’t think anybody can really compare Milton Roy with a rotary pump.

Todd Schnick: Let’s talk about technology a little bit. What kind of innovations is Milton Roy coming out with or has come out with recently or what’s coming in the next year or two?

Taseen: Milton Roy has been a leader with regards to bringing out new technology. We were the first company that came out with a digital pump, which is the Centrac pump, which can do a 200 to 1 turndown with a very precise accuracy of 0.5%.

In recent years, we have come up with – in our solenoid pumping market – a new digital Roytronic metering pump that is very well accepted. It has the capability of doing advanced communication and it is able to do digital signals, communicate digitally, accept 420 input and 420 output into the pump.

We are always looking at market trends of advanced communication, extending the stroke length with integrated controls. Those are products that are in our pipeline that we expect to be releasing shortly.

Todd Youngblood: In terms of a global marketplace, you’ve got a lot of loyalty given that you’ve been a leader in the industry for so long. Are you finding companies from around the globe starting to erode at that base? What is your reaction to it? How are you working with that?

Taseen: Competition is definitely around the corner every time you go around. As you see in this tradeshow, there are a lot of pump companies from overseas that have come in. We are a globally based company – we have offices and manufacturing facilities in Europe and China and India, but we make most of our pumps for the North American market in our Philadelphia-based facility.

The durability of our pump and the robustness has been really displayed in all the pumps that we have put in very severe applications, and we have been able to combat the competition that we have faced. We have a very strong customer loyalty base. When they have our pumps, they compare the cost of ownership with regards to compared to other pumps that have been out there, side by side, and they have told us that we beat them hands down.

Todd Schnick: Help the Water Online community and thousands of professionals better understand the true value of how you deliver to your customers by sharing a very specific story of a win or victory that you achieved on behalf of one of your customers.

Taseen: Sure, we had a recent job back three years ago. This is a very competitive environment when you are trying to compete with your market to get a project moving. We were being compared with three other different competitive manufacturers, and the owner had our pumps for literally 15 years.

There were 18 pumps, and I walked in – I had never been to this facility prior to this – and he basically just told me there are only two things that he really absolutely must have, and one was Milton Roy pumps. Because, in the past 15 years that he has been operating these pumps, he had only spent $500 on a total of 18 pumps.

Todd Youngblood: Wait a minute.

Todd Schnick: Wow!

Todd Youngblood: $500 in 15 years?

Taseen: That is 15 years over 18 pumps.

Todd Youngblood: That is impressive.

Taseen: That sold the deal for the owners. That’s the type of reaction we get once we put in our pumps in critical service.

Todd Youngblood: Okay, after that story, I am not sure my question is so relevant any more. I was going to ask, you’ve emphasized total cost of ownership in that last story you told. I give it a gold star. But, in fact, if you are looking at the total solution and total plant, you are only a part of it, so what role is collaboration playing in what you are doing?

Taseen: Well, in terms of collaboration, we work with consulting engineers. We work with owners who really understand that the pump itself, the metering pump, is a device which is absolutely critical in their process. It has to now be able to control with different skill interfaces and controls schematic that engineers want. So the pump is going to be operating in terms of meeting their demands and as the plant flows and dosing requirements change on a daily basis.

We are constantly collaborating with the consultants in terms of understanding what their needs are, and we are collaborating with controls manufacturers in terms of making sure that we provide a very simplified, fully functional system.

Todd Schnick: Taseen, I hate to say it but we are out of time. Before we let you go, share with the audience how they can contact Milton Roy and learn about the good work that you are doing.

Taseen: You can always reach our website www.miltonroy.com. We are based in Pennsylvania. On our website, there’s literature and brochures about our product line and contact names of all the area sales managers. Please do contact us when you have a chemical feed need.

Todd Schnick: Outstanding. Taseen Karim, it was a pleasure having you. Thank you for joining us today.

Taseen: Thank you. I really appreciate it.

Todd Youngblood: Thanks, Taseen.

Todd Schnick: Good. That wraps up this segment. On behalf of Todd Youngblood, I am Todd Schnick. Water Online Radio will be right back.