Multi-Duti Production Supervisor Louis Williams assembles a Genesys pump and motor assembly. The Springs manufacturing company is gaining global marketshare.

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Springs Pump Maker Fishing for Overseas Business

By Monica Mendoza
monica.mendoza@csbj.com

A small Colorado Springs pump maker is determined to give the global manufacturing industry a run for its money.

After years of developing its signature water pump called Genesys, sales at Multi-Duti Manufacturing Inc.™ are on the way up — it sold more pumps in January than all of last year.

Now, the company, which had about $3 million in revenue in 2011, has caught the attention of the federal government with the award of a $380,000 grant to develop a pump for the emerging aquaculture industry.

In its 8,000-square-foot manufacturing warehouse, MDM™ will set out to prove that an American manufacturer can design and produce a high-quality product that industry needs and wants to buy.

“I think we are a laboratory that is actually showing that it works,” said Gene Ashe, MDM™ president.

It’s a Global Economy

Pumps are the second most sold mechanical device in the world, and Ashe’s family has been selling them for generations. But, in 1978, at age 25, Ashe struck out on his own with his own patented seal and started a manufacturing company.

In 1981, he bought a California company, Advance Pump Co., because he wanted the intellectual property, he said. The pump design was wonderful and Ashe had the idea of using stainless steel to make it. He got a rude awakening into the global marketplace.

“After we tooled up for that and were ready to go, imports came in at half of our cost,” Ashe said.

The company, which sells a variety of pumps, kept on with pump sales for use in the industrial chemical process market and then broke into the residential consumer market. People bought MDM’s pumps for their koi ponds.

“We got a really strong reputation by applying an industrial product into a residential application,” Ashe said. “We found that we were the most expensive product, but when you look at how much energy was saved by using our pump, sometimes it paid for itself in six months.”

All along, Ashe was wondering how he could use the design he bought back in the 80′s and make a pump to compete with the cheaper ones made overseas.

“We decided, with what comes in from overseas, we could not compete,” he said. “But, if we made it out of a composite material we could. We went through 13 years of research and thinking and experimentation on how we could make a complex product that was once made in a foundry, but now how do we make it in composite material?”

It’s that exploration of technology and finding the right material that sets American manufacturers apart, said Dave Anderson, MDM™ principal. In his estimation, research and development is the key to the survival of the American manufacturer.

MDM™ exports 100 percent of its product out of Colorado Springs with about 30 percent exported overseas. It’s been a tough ride, Anderson said. MDM’s products get a 20 percent Value Added Tax when they arrive in most other countries. Meanwhile, products overseas imported to the U.S. are sold at an artificially lower price, Anderson said.

The global competition forced MDM™ to get lean and pare down its inventory. But, it never stopped MDM™ from trying to build a pump that can outlast stainless steel, Anderson said.

And while the economy smacked the little company around in 2008 and it lost about 30 percent of its business, MDM™ managed its expenses, cut back on employee pay but never laid off employees, and continued to invest in research and development,
Anderson said.

“We kept the (over)head down and we kept doing it,” Anderson said.

Genesys is born

A lot of manufacturers are quick to move production of product overseas because things are cheaper, Ashe said.

“But, they are not adding up all of the costs,” he said. “We understood there is not just the tooling cost, but there is the intellectual property, there is the idea of, is it going to work when you put it into the machine?

Ashe spent twice the money on tooling Genesys in the U.S. then he would have overseas.

“The idea,” Ashe said, “is that American tool-makers could do it right the first time.”

Genesys, which is made from bulk molding compound, went to market two years ago for $3,000 a unit. Now the pump’s energy efficiency has piqued the interest of large fish farmers who need a pump that circulates and keeps pristine waters in their aqua farms. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken a keen interest in aqua farms as reports that wild fish will be all but extinct by 2050.

In 2009, MDM™ received a Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop an axial flow pump technology for use in aqua farms. In September it won phase II of that grant to make a prototype. The grant reviewer called the pump design “work that may result in a significant advancement in the industry.”

Rebecca Webb, assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs mechanical and aerospace engineering department will oversee the analysis of the axial flow pump. She will use a computer physics program to test the product’s perimeters and study the pump’s flow characteristics.

“The beauty is that it allows us to do more tests, than you could experimentally, quickly and more cheaply,” she said.

The MDM™ and UCCS partnership puts two engineering students to work, Webb said.

“I think it’s a great way to collaborate . . . the benefits are huge,” she said.

Ashe calls his new axial pump design the Qsys. It’s based on the idea that the most efficient way to move water is through a propeller, like on a boat. The Qsys propeller pumps will be units that can connect to one another for more flow or more pressure
depending on the size of the farm.

Ashe, who bankrolled the research and development of Genesys over a decade, said he has two years to test his design and build a prototype. He predicts that, once the product hits the market, sales could be about $10 million in the first year.

“The overall umbrella is, don’t let anybody tell you we can’t compete in manufacturing in this country,” Anderson said. “We have to do all the micro stuff right — lean, R&D, and product performance is critical.” nCSBJ

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Video: Dismantling Detroit

We chose to focus our cameras on Detroit out of a gut feeling that this city — often heralded as the birthplace of the middle class — may well be a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the country.

Detroit lost 25 percent of its population between 2000 and 2010, and now, broke, finds itself on the verge of a possible state takeover. Yet visual reminders of a better time both haunt and anoint the residents here. The past is achingly present in Detroit, and the way its citizens interact with the hulking, physical remnants of yesterday is striking.

A few years ago, there was a rash of power outages in Detroit, caused by people illegally cutting down live telephone wires to get to the valuable copper coils inside. The Detroit police created a copper theft task force to deter the so-called “scrappers,” young men who case old buildings for valuable metals, troll cemeteries to steal copper grave plates and risk their lives to squeeze any last dollar out of the industrial detritus.

One freezing evening we happened upon the young men in this film, who were illegally dismantling a former Cadillac repair shop. They worked recklessly to tear down the steel beams and copper fasteners. They were in a hurry to make it to the scrap yard before it closed at 10 p.m., sell their spoils and head to the bar.

Surprisingly, these guys, who all lacked high school diplomas, seemed to have a better understanding of their place in the global food chain than many educated American 20-somethings. The young men regularly checked the fluctuating price of metals before they determined their next scrap hunt, and they had a clear view of where these resources were going and why. They were the cleanup crew in a shaky empire. Somebody’s got to do it.

One of the men, who had come up from Kentucky to scrap after losing a job in a coal mine, stands out in our minds. Taking a short break from the action, he looked up and said with disgust, “All that’s left here are the remnants of what was.”

The next day we went back to check on the progress of their project. The entire building was gone.

Article Source

MDM, the industry leader in efficiency, reliability and lowest total cost of ownership, celebrates another innovation milestone!

MDM has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research Grant (SBIR – Phase II) to prototype a truly new axial-flow pump.  MDM successfully completed a Phase I SBIR in 2010, demonstrating the technological feasibility of the new axial-flow design, which achieves 75% efficiency.

“The Multi-Duti Manufacturing (MDM) team is not resting on its laurels after introducing the low-cost / high-performance Genesys B73lean product line in 2009,” according to Gene Ashe, President.  “In addition to having another large centrifugal pump tooling-ready, we’re set now to prototype a truly new high efficiency axial flow pump design.

From grant reviewer comments:

“One of the most significant research proposals related to RAS aquaculture I have ever reviewed. “

“Totally new design of a pump that yields a 75% efficiency is a significant achievement”

“A plan of work that may result in a significant advancement in the industry.”

For thirty years, MDM Advance and Sequence® product lines have offered the lowest total cost of ownership in water, wastewater and chemical processing pumps. Contact us to learn more about the axial flow product, in development, the B73lean high volume centrifugal pumps, or the Advance and Sequence® products.

“Since 2001, we have done extensive research & development, in the field, on pump configurations and pump companies. We have found MDM to be the most reliable, trouble-free companies to work with. We at Blue Oasis Pure Shrimp believe Sequence® Pumps are durable, efficient and superior to other pumps we have found on the market.”

- Adrian Zettell
C.O.O. Blue Oasis Pure Shrimp

For thirty years, Sequence® pumps have offered highest efficiency and lowest total cost of ownership.  The organization receives consistently high marks for customer service.  Ask us for referrals, while you ask us to help solve your most vexing pump performance problems.

Enviremedial Services is a cutting edge enterprise servicing the military and industrial wastewater treatment industry.  Specialize in transforming contaminated and polluted wastewater into clean, clear water suitable for recycling or discharge to sewer. Their unique Oil Water Separator processing units, both fixed and mobile are used in numerous private and military installations.

As Enviremedial and MDM share the same principals in quality and efficiency, the specifying of the Advance 1000 series pumps to the unique ESI Oil Water Separator unit provides a much welcomed OEM relationship.  We look forward to being an element in servicing the highly important industry of wastewater treatment!

To learn more about ESI, please visit: http://www.esicleanwater.com

Michael Paquette, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute writes:

“As an aquaculture engineer, working with salt water systems, the pump on a system holding thousands of kilograms of fish is an important selection. To me, a good system pump will be reliable, energy efficient, quiet, and will put out lots flow at low head. Finding these traits in available pumps at a reasonable cost had been pain staking. Anticipating the release of the Genesys line which had promises of meeting all my desires, I hopped on board and put in three units. I’m happy to say, I wasn’t disappointed.”

Sequence 4000 Pump from MDM Inc.

If Quality, Longevity, and Efficiency are NOT Important, then a Sequence®  Pump is NOT for You!

For over 30 years Sequence® pumps have continued to offer the lowest purchase price and annual operating costs when it comes to your pond pump.  We frequently hear from homeowners that replacing their old submersible pump (after multiple failures) with a Sequence® pump actually made this hobby fun again.  Inquire today about how a Sequence® pump can lower your monthly power bill, and give you more time enjoying your pond, instead of replacing faulty equipment!

Joe Jacques, Director of Life-Support for the Downtown Aquarium in Denver Colorado writes:

“My name is Joe Jacques, and I’m the Life Support Manager for the Downtown Aquarium in Denver. My staff and I are responsible for the maintenance and operations of all the equipment used in keeping our animal collection safe, healthy and easily viewed by visiting guests. That makes it extremely important to utilize the best equipment we can both find and afford for the task at hand. Our exhibits require pumps and motors that can run reliably,efficiently and economically 24/7. I believe we found such a pump in the Genesys 2x3x6. We had two Genesys pumps replace a set of Ingersol-Dresser pumps (B73.1 compliant) almost a year ago. Right out of the box these pumps had several advantageous features. One, it is a close-coupled pump rather than the Ingersoll long-coupled pump (B73.1 compliant). This gives the Genesys a  space saving smaller footprint with no need for realignment after a mechanical seal service. With the Ingersoll (B73.1 compliant), I would have to either dial align or laser align the pump/motor after such a service. This was either costly, time consuming or sometimes both. Another advantage is the ease of actually servicing the mechanical seal. It is a very simple task, easily accessed with no tolerances to adjust. Incredible time saver. We’ve been running these pumps 24/7 for almost a year without any problems at all. The efficiencies are equal to or better than the Ingersolls’ (B73.1 compliant). The Genesys pumps also run quieter and cooler. All in all, we are very pleased in the performance of the Genesys 2x3x6 pump and plan to slowly phase out the Ingersoll-Dresser pumps (B73.1 compliant) in favor of the Genesys. It is on the top of my 2011 wish list to purchase at least two more of these pumps early next year.

Sincerely,

-Joe”