Uponor North America (Uponor) is launching a new Stainless-steel Manifold targeted for residential and commercial radiant heating and cooling applications. Made of corrosion-resistant stainless steel, the manifold is available in 1″ and 1¼” sizes in 2 through 8, 10 and 12 loop configurations. It features integrated flow meters for easy system balancing, full-port ball valves Read more
Industry News
Uponor North America (Uponor) is launching a new Stainless-steel Manifold targeted for residential and commercial radiant heating and cooling applications.
Made of corrosion-resistant stainless steel, the manifold is available in 1″ and 1¼” sizes in 2 through 8, 10 and 12 loop configurations. It features integrated flow meters for easy system balancing, full-port ball valves with temperature gauges, and balancing and isolation valves for complete loop isolation.
“Pre-assembled right out of the box, the manifold provides contractors with faster installs and also offers greater material cost savings. “Adding the Stainless-steel Manifold to our radiant manifold offering allows us to provide our customers with a cost-effective, pre-assembled metal alternative,” says Mark Hudoba, director, Heating and Cooling at Uponor. “Now professionals can choose from our comprehensive offering of stainless-steel, engineered polymer (EP) or TruFLOW™ brass manifolds to meet any radiant application need.”
“Caleffi Excellence” Better than Ever! Caleffi Excellence, an ongoing contest which invites designers of hydronic or plumbing systems opportunity to showcase their work and receive wide recognition, is recommencing. Beginning September 2014 and continuing for 12 monthly periods, designers and installers can submit via an online portal, installations that incorporate Caleffi products. New to this Read more
“Caleffi Excellence” Better than Ever!
Caleffi Excellence, an ongoing contest which invites designers of hydronic or plumbing systems opportunity to showcase their work and receive wide recognition, is recommencing.
Beginning September 2014 and continuing for 12 monthly periods, designers and installers can submit via an online portal, installations that incorporate Caleffi products. New to this year, Caleffi will select three finalists from each monthly period; the winner will be determined by an instant poll of attendees to Coffee with Caleffi™, our popular monthly education webinars. The winner will receive an iPad® mini.
After one year, a grand prize winner will be chosen from the 12 monthly winners. Selected by Caleffi executives, the grand prize winner and their guest will travel to Italy to see Caleffi World Headquarters and receive a personalized tour of our factories and design facilities.
Liberty Pumps has broken ground on a major building expansion that will add an additional 81,000 square feet to its manufacturing and warehouse space, as well as another 8,000 square feet to its product research and development area. Since its last expansion in 2008, Liberty has more than doubled its sales. “This expansion will provide Read more
Liberty Pumps has broken ground on a major building expansion that will add an additional 81,000 square feet to its manufacturing and warehouse space, as well as another 8,000 square feet to its product research and development area. Since its last expansion in 2008, Liberty has more than doubled its sales. “This expansion will provide needed space for additional manufacturing cells along with supporting inventory – improving workflow and productivity. We want to make sure that as we grow, we continue to provide a high level of service to our customers.” states Randall Waldron, V.P. of Sales and Marketing. “Expansion to the R & D facilities will support development of new product lines and improve the product time to market.” The project also includes several pieces of new manufacturing equipment intended to improve efficiencies and further support the company’s “source and build in the U.S.” initiatives. Construction is planned to be completed by February 2015.
Company Partners with Major Long Island, New York, and New Jersey Wholesale Distributor TOTO, the largest plumbing manufacturer in the world with $5.1 billion dollars in annual sales, announced today that the company is increasing its market reach in the Northeast region of the United States by entering into a distribution agreement Read more
Company Partners with Major Long Island, New York, and New Jersey Wholesale Distributor
TOTO, the largest plumbing manufacturer in the world with $5.1 billion dollars in annual sales, announced today that the company is increasing its market reach in the Northeast region of the United States by entering into a distribution agreement with
Blackman Plumbing Supply. Starting today, TOTO’s full line of residential and commercial fttings and fxtures will be available at all of Blackman’s 19 branch locations throughout Long Island, New York, and New Jersey and will be on display in all Blackman showrooms.
“Blackman Plumbing is proud to deepen our partnership with TOTO, an industry leader known for anticipating and creating the next generation of fxtures,” said Robert Mannheimer, President and CEO of Blackman Plumbing Supply. “Our new relationship with TOTO will allow Blackman Plumbing to continue to offer our discerning customers world-class products at the cutting edge of contemporary design.”
With this distribution agreement, TOTO and Blackman embark on a new relationship that offers TOTO increased distribution channels through which to provide customers in the Northeast region of the U.S. with its full line of residential and commercial products for the whole bathroom, which have set the standard for world-class performance and innovation as they help improve people’s quality of life.
“The Northeast region of the U.S. is a high priority for TOTO,” said David Krakoff, President of the Americas Sales Division for TOTO USA. “Our ability to partner with an organization of Blackman’s caliber to enhance our coverage of Long Island, New York, and New Jersey is a particularly signifcant event.” Krakoff noted that Blackman embraces TOTO’s core values—technology and innovation in products that respect the environment while meeting people’s needs for comfort, beauty, performance, and design for people of all ages. “Our two companies share these values, so we envision a tremendous level of success and growth together in the future,” Krakoff concluded.
Universally recognized for their enduring quality, reliability and timeless elegance, TOTO products’ added scope of availability through all Blackman’s locations will be an important addition to TOTO’s national offering.
“Like TOTO, Blackman holds the customer experience in the highest regard,” said Jason Fitzsimmons, Vice President of the United States Sales Division for TOTO USA. “They always go above and beyond what is expected to provide excellent service throughout the sales cycle— before, during, and after purchase.” Fitzsimmons continued, “Working with Blackman provides
TOTO with expanded access to retail, wholesale, and commercial customers in the important Northeast region and offers us more opportunities to effciently deliver products where and when our customers need them.”
As part of its ongoing effort to expand and enhance the role of design across its key business processes, American Standard Brands recently welcomed three additions to the company’s design team. Emilie Williams, Greg Reinecker and Gabriela Ravassa are working at the Company’s design studio at headquarters in Piscataway, NJ, reporting to new Vice President Read more
As part of its ongoing effort to expand and enhance the role of design across its key business processes, American Standard Brands recently welcomed three additions to the company’s design team. Emilie Williams, Greg Reinecker and Gabriela Ravassa are working at the Company’s design studio at headquarters in Piscataway, NJ, reporting to new Vice President – Design Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff.
Emilie Williams, as associate design director for faucets, leads all design projects for that category. Williams formerly served as senior designer at Ignite USA, where she designed and developed housewares products for the Contigo and AVEX brands. Previously, Williams spent eight years as lead industrial designer at Delta Faucet and senior designer at the Masco Corporation, where she worked on the Brizo brand. She holds a Bachelor of Industrial Design from North Carolina State University.
Greg Reinecker, as lead designer, oversees industrial design projects from concept through implementation across various product categories. Reinecker has worked with two leading design consultancies — Teams Design in Chicago and Axis Design in Austin, Texas — and brings over 10 years of experience in multiple industries, including power tools and housewares.
Gabriela Ravassa, working as industrial designer, pursues projects across all categories, but is currently focused on trade faucet lines for American Standard and DXV, the company’s new flagship luxury bathroom and kitchen brand. A graduate of Parson School of Design, Ravassa worked with eyewear brand Don Vetro, as well as OMHU, a Scandinavian brand specialized in elegant mobility aid products for the elderly.
The new trio brings the current U.S. design team to six members ― including L’Hénaff; Alyson Lyons, lead designer; and Christophe Bucher, chief industrial designer – chinaware products ― plus three associates located in manufacturing facilities overseas. L’Henaff joined the Company in October 2013 in the position of vice president – design. “Jean-Jacques is leading us in a forward-thinking direction, creating world-class product design for products that perform fabulously while looking beautiful and meeting the high-style demands of today’s customer,” said American Standard President and CEO Jay Gould.
Prior to joining the company, L’Hénaff has been a design executive for Kohler Asia, Audiovox, and Terk Technologies, and held various design management positions for consulting firms such as Henry Dreyfuss Associates and The Arnell Group in New York City. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Product and Transportation Design from Ecole Superieure de Design Industriel in Paris.
In reinvigorating the design function at American Standard, L’Hénaff and his team have taken a more “user-centric approach to the design process,” he said. “It is all about the user’s experience. We focus not only on the product’s look, feel and function, but also on the overall experience we want the user to have when interacting with them.”
The keys to this approach are two-fold. The first is a commitment to validating new design concepts by submitting them to first-hand consumer testing early in the development process. “The idea is to test our prototypes early, learn early and repeat that cycle again and again until we obtain the right experience,” he said.
The second key is closer ongoing communications among team members, including their colleagues in China. “One designer may focus on faucets, another on bathing and another on chinaware, but we cannot work in silos without regard for each other’s challenges and perspectives,” said L’Hénaff. “Each American Standard or DXV product is a brand ambassador, so all of us are involved in building the brand, and each is on board with what’s happening with our product line as a whole. We have been given this unique opportunity to build on fifteen decades of design tradition and re-interpret it for 2015 and beyond. We are intent on making the most of it.”