MUELLER INNOVATION NEWS

Celebrating 50 years of Excellence at our Albertville Plant

In June, we celebrate our 50th anniversary of the Albertville, AL manufacturing plant. This month, more than 500 Mueller employees, dignitaries, and community leaders will gather to commemorate this journey—a celebration that honors not just our longevity, but the deep bond between our company, employees and community.

When we opened our hydrant manufacturing operation in Albertville in 1975, few could have predicted how the partnership would transform both Mueller and the city. What began as moving hydrant manufacturing from Chattanooga to a new production facility is now a 422,000 square-foot plant situated on 77 acres of land that has helped shape Albertville's identity and economic foundation for half a century.

The plant's workforce includes 16 employees who have been with Mueller for more than 40 years, 54 employees with more than 30 years, and a further 154 workers who have been with the company for more than 20 years. Plant manager Michael Lang is also celebrating his 40th year with Mueller, and attributes this remarkable employee retention to our caring company culture and purpose, fair treatment of employees, and inclusive environment for growth.

The city of Albertville is now known as the "Fire Hydrant Capital of the World"—a distinction earned through its five-decade partnership with Mueller Water Products. Hydrant-themed décor can be found on various landmarks, including Sand Mountain Park and Amphitheater, Albertville Museum (where the "I" in the museum's sign is creatively represented by a hydrant), and establishments like Hydrant City Grill. Congratulations to our team in Albertville, you make us proud!

Check out this video for more about our Albertville plant

Mueller Receives AFS 2025 Casting Of The Year Award

Mueller received the highest numerical score in the Casting of the Year Award for developing an innovative monolithic bypass for water systems. The awards honors recipients for innovation, creativity, craftmanship and dedication to the art and science of metal casting.

The journey began eight years earlier when Mueller engineers Jason Bradley and Matthew Sutterfield were inspired by 3D printing demonstrations at an AFS Additive Manufacturing event. After a four-year pause, they partnered with Matthews Additive Technologies to create a 3D-printed mold using a proprietary cold hardened phenolic binder system, which allowed for a complex design with integrated cores and no loose pieces.

The result was a revolutionary 24.2-pound ductile iron casting that replaced a complex assembly of over 60 separate pieces. The new design reduced weight by 63%, decreased leak paths from 9 to 3, eliminated weldments, and cut assembly labor costs by 96%. Most impressively, the part required no post-processing machining after casting, as all features including O-ring seals and bolt holes were cast-in-place. The complexity of the design made it impossible to produce using traditional methods, demonstrating the production capabilities of additive manufacturing in metal casting.

This successful proof of concept opens the door for Mueller to expand the monolithic bypass approach across our entire family of gate valves, which come in eight different sizes. The project has strengthened the business case for bringing 3D printing technology in-house at Mueller. The monolithic bypass serves a crucial function in water systems by allowing water to divert around large valves, reducing the force needed to open them when pressure builds up in the system.

Click here to read more in Modern Casting Magazine

Small City, Big Savings: Sandy, OR Implements Smart Water Management

The City of Sandy, Oregon, implemented advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to address water loss concerns. This upgrade to Mueller Solid State Registers with a complete AMI network eliminated the monthly cost of manual meter reading while providing daily or on-demand readings. The system allows the utility to monitor water usage limits for high-consumption businesses and wholesale customers, marking the beginning of their smart city initiative.

Building on their AMI program, Sandy launched a three-phase approach to water management. In Phase 1, they used insertion meters and pressure loggers to identify approximately 33% water loss in one pressure zone, then deployed EchoShore-DX acoustic monitors in fire hydrants to detect leaks. Phase 2 focused on leak detection and repair, which discovered and fixed a 7.85 gallon-per-minute leak, saving over 4 million gallons annually and approximately $33,000 in unbilled water costs.

For Phase 3, the city installed five pressure loggers and two pressure control valves with built-in insertion meters to optimize network pressure without causing damage to pipes. This pressure management system allowed the city to maintain adequate pressure while reducing strain on infrastructure during low-demand periods. The combined technologies helped to significantly reduce water loss in the monitored district area, and streamlined alert management for the small utility, proving that even a small city can effectively use technology to save water and reduce costs.

Check out this video to get see how we did it

Mueller will be at ACE in Denver, Colorado

Our manufacturing and distribution facilities are continuing to produce the products you need. We have expanded our large valve casting capabilities at the Chattanooga, TN facility, and added a new facility in Kimball, TN to expand domestic manufacturing capabilities for large specialty valves. Come and ask us about our solution offering in these areas:

Flow Control Solutions

Mueller offers a full line of products for controlling water safely and efficiently across your distribution system, including valves and control systems. And for easy and effective maintenance and repair, we offer superior service line connection products and equipment. Products in this category include:

Valves: resilient wedge gate, metal seated gate, butterfly, check, plug, cone, air release, knife gate, slide gates, and more

Water Network Connections: drilling & tapping machines, service brass, and pipe repair

Control Systems: pressure and flow

Water Quality: flushing

Fire Protection Solutions

Safety is built into every Mueller solution. All our fire protection solutions are compliant with UL and FM requirements. Products in this category include:

Valves, hydrants, hydrant security, indicator posts, tapping materials

Pipeline Management Technology

Proven technology that enables utilities to assess and optimize water networks. Products in this category include:

Pipe condition assessment, pipeline monitoring, leak detection

Software: utility dashboard, monitoring services, notifications

Metering and Communication Technology

Smart metering paired with the Mi.Net® Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Sentryx™ Water Intelligence Platform provides water network agility and enables utilities to connect meters to their AMI network in specific areas or across the entire distribution system using existing cellular infrastructure – eliminating the need for maintenance. Products in this category include:

Meters: residential, commercial, industrial, fire service, registers, valves, setters, boxes

Communications: endpoints, data loggers

Software: water intelligence platform for water utilities to monitor, control, and monetize water distribution networks. Utility dashboard, billing consumer information software, customer portal, leak/network operation services

Services: field operations, network operations center, network-as-a-service

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