MUELLER INNOVATION NEWS

Mueller Albertville Wins Manufacturer of the Year!

The Sand Mountain Reporter in Albertville, Alabama voted Mueller Water Products as Manufacturer of the Year for 2023. This readers choice award is a true reflection of the hard work and dedication of this team. The 443,600 square foot plant has close to 500 employees and manufactures dry and wet barrel hydrants, a variety of valves and iron castings to help fortify America’s water infrastructure.

The team works hard to support the community not only through multiple community service efforts but also by providing safe and stable jobs for its employees to better their lives and those of their families. Way to go Mueller Albertville!

Partner with Mueller for BABA-certified Water Infrastructure Projects

There’s no blanket approval for Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) projects. Every product and project is certified independently and different federal agencies have purview over funding projects for water infrastructure depending on the specific application. It is critical to understand your funding agency’s interpretations and waivers regarding product classification and domestic content so that your bid documentation meets the correct regulatory requirements and certifications. The Mueller team stands ready to assist you throughout the process — from quote to delivery. We’ll identify and document products within our portfolio that qualify for your water infrastructure project.

Mueller has BABA-compliant iron and steel models of: Hydrants, Gate Valves, Butterfly Valves, Plug Valves, Diaphragm Control Valves and Iron Service Saddles. Our BABA-compliant manufactured products, include Meter Pits and Meter Setters. The nuances of BABA compliance can be tricky. Get in touch with us in the planning stage to discuss your proposed project designs. We can advise on the best products to meet multiple objectives of compliance, project efficiency and performance and help streamline the compliance process.

Click Here to talk to us about your project.

PermaSeal^® Insertion Valve Provides Operational Efficiency in Arizona

The City of Phoenix Water Service Department installed a 6” PermaSeal Insertion Valve to reduce non-revenue water loss and limit customer shutdowns, and test the capabilities and benefits obtained from utilizing the resilient wedge gate valve design. The location was in the vicinity of a hospital, doctors’ offices, and a dialysis center — an area which would be problematic if a lengthy shutdown occurred. Typically, to replace a broken valves in such an area, the city would have had to turn off the water supply to these key locations and it would affect a large number of customers.

In this case the area was excavated the day prior to the installation, the main was plated, and then the live installation of the valve took place the next day. The advanced design of the valve integrates the functionality and performance of the Mueller® A-2361 Resilient Wedge Gate Valve and Mueller® H-600 Series ductile iron tapping sleeve in 4˝, 6˝, 8˝, 10˝ and 12˝ standard (DI, CI, PVC pipe) and oversized (A-C pipe) variants. With its “clean-seat” technology, the insertion valve provides users with reliable and repeatable watertight shut off, suitable for an exercise program, by having the gate seated on the precision cast surface of the valve body and not the host pipe. With a 350 psi rating, the valve allows for insertion into existing water mains with minimal service disruption and dependable functional service life.

The new valve was successfully installed in approximately three hours and the team was able to flush the water line and perform a brief shutdown to test that the line was dry, confirming that the installation was successful. Overall, the valve significantly reduced service downtime to customers.

CPWSD has also seen time and personnel resource savings by utilizing the new valve. For traditional water shutdowns, the City notifies customers 48 hours in advance of a shutdown which sometimes requires hiring additional personnel to go door-to-door to inform customers that they should expect a water isolation event. Because of the time, cost, maintenance, and customer downtime savings realized, CPWSD plans to make the PermaSeal insertion the valve of choice for future installations.

Click Here for more information on the PermaSeal Insertion Valve.

The Mueller^® Mobile Training Team Hits the Western Sales District in 2024

Senior Training Manager, Geroge Lacefield and Training Specialist, Jarred King have kicked off the 2024 mobile training season. This year the team will concentrate on customer training throughout the western sales district. They began this season by driving from Chattanooga, TN to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they partnered with Ferguson Waterworks who sponsored the class with over 100 water utility professionals in attendance. Mueller has 30 classes scheduled in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming and will conclude this year's season in October.

Attendees will learn about product selection, installation, operation, and maintenance in a fun and relaxed, hands-on learning environment. Class topics include hydrants, valves, leak detection, pressure management, service brass, drilling and tapping machines, pipe repair, hydrant security and more. Instructors are highly experienced water industry professionals, and the curriculum is approved for Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

If you are in these states and would like to take one of these free classes, please contact your Mueller Territory Manager.

Click Here to find your territory manager.

Exeter-Merritt Goes From AMR to AMI as its Water Network Grows

Exeter-Merritt first started using AMR (Advanced Meter Reading) technology in 2012 with Mueller’s AMR endpoint. At the time, the endpoint was the perfect meter interface unit for the Water Co-op to transmit an encoded serial number, water consumption, leak detection information, and status data operated on 902 to 928MHz radio frequency.

Mueller Systems accelerated the next iteration of the endpoint by introducing the Mi.Net® AMI Migratable solution. This AMR to AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) migratable endpoint solution can be installed as a mobile AMR system, giving utilities the flexibility to migrate over to a fixed network in the future should the need arise. AMI empowers utilities to design certain areas with fixed metering and deploy mobile solutions throughout the remainder of the utility while maintaining the full two-way command and control capability that enables functionality such as remote disconnect on-demand data log retrieval and even over-the-air firmware upgrades.

In mobile or AMR mode, the Mi.Net migratable endpoint transmits data every few seconds utilizing LoRa (long-range) technology. LoRa is a radio frequency modulation technology for low-power, wide-area networks (LPWANs). It delivers significant distance improvements in communication over many AMR systems available in the market. The Water Co-op can also avoid driving down unsafe roads as the transceiver picks up the reading from at least a mile away.

“Having the AMR system saves me eight to 12 hours on meter reading. Now, it takes just four hours; saving us time and money,” shared Barb Mathews, Network Manager and Operator at Exeter-Merritt Water Cooperative. Mueller Systems’ lightweight mobile transceiver works in tandem with its software to provide reliable data directly into Exeter-Merritt’s billing system. The new solution also provides the Water Co-op with data-driven evidence of a suspected leak through a comprehensive and robust data logging feature called “Consumption Profiling.” This capability is built into the Mi.Net Migratable system, allowing over 100 days of hourly usage analysis to be retrieved from the meter, with graphically displayed alarms. This enables utilities to respond to customer questions quickly, and proactively approach customers about possible leaks or tampering.

“Now when we have customers who don’t believe there is a possible leak or faulty issue with their side of the meter, we can provide them with detailed reports to show their daily consumption usage. This has helped gain customer trust by showing their meter profiles on the spot, with granular hourly data. It assists us in responding to billing questions and demonstrates when issues such as leaks or backflow conditions start and end.”

Click Here for more information on Mueller Metering Solutions.

Mueller Will be at the Following National Shows, We Hope to See You There

ACE 24 | June 10-13 | Anaheim, CA
CNFPA 2024 Conference & Expo | June 17-19 | Orlando, FL
HydroVision 2024e | July 17-18 | Denver, CO
Tri-State | August 5-8 | Las Vegas, NV
Smart Water Summit | September 22-24 | Charlotte Harbor, FL
WEFTEC 2024 | October 5-9 | New Orleans, LA

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