Flow News

New Lead-Free Valve Brochure

Posted on September 21, 2020 by flowdesign

With our ICSS Automatic Balancing Valves and UA Zero Manual Balancing Valves, you can count on the optimal hydronic balancing solution for all your potable water applications. Both Lead-Free Balancing Valves meet or exceed standards established by the Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act (RLDWA) of 2014, and the ICSS is NSF/ANSI 61-G Certified and approved directly by NSF for commercial hot water contact applications.

Check out our newest product brochure on IMI Flow Design’s Lead-Free Balancing Valves Here

Video Challenge Series: Get to Know Zach Sifuentes

Posted on September 10, 2020 by flowdesign

With social distancing keeping us apart, we challenged the IMI Hydronic team to connect with customers through video that shares their favorite activities and IMI products.

The series continues with Zach Sifuentes, Mechanical Engineer and IMI Flow Design’s IT Support and JDE Data Manager, who enjoys staying active outdoors with his family, including their newest addition.

Just as Dallas’s parks optimize opportunities for family fun, Zach appreciates the capabilities of the Harmony pressure independent balancing and control valve to optimize HVAC system performance. With full stroke and no lift limitation for perfect EOM characteristic, direct flow setting and readout, breakaway isolation valve and digitally configurable actuator saving up to 50% in commissioning time, Harmony is the precise PIBCV for modulating control.

To learn more about IMI Flow Design’s Harmony valves, click here

Or reach out to Rich.Eberle@imi-hydronic.com or Hailey.Mick@imi-hydronic.com for more information.

Amy Cole Joins the Americas Team to Lead Growth Acceleration

Posted on August 28, 2020 by flowdesign

Welcome, Amy Cole, new President of IMI Hydronic Engineering Americas. Amy joined us in June to lead the growth of the IMI Flow Design and IMI TA brands in North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean.

Growth strategy, execution, culture, and customer enthusiasm have infused Amy’s leadership over her 32-year career, including 24 years at Hilti, a global leader in products and services for construction. She brings extensive experience in sales, marketing, manufacturing, operations, and product development in the Americas, all of which give her deep understanding and insight into helping IMI Hydronic customers grow their businesses.

Amy’s commercial success and extensive interaction with engineers, consultants, architects, and other influencers informs her understanding of the powerful role IMI Hydronic Engineering’s technical expertise plays in differentiating the company from its competitors.

Sustainable, profitable growth is also what excites Amy about her new role. “The potential in the Americas first drew me to this opportunity,” she explains. “The US alone is the second largest market in the world for hydronic systems.” She appreciates demonstrated commitment to growth, including recent approval of the North America Growth Accelerator, a five-year, customer-centric initiative focused on disruptive technologies and other innovations that will help sales reps and their customers overcome the current marketplace challenges that concern them most.

Amy sees that commitment reflected in IMI Hydronic’s culture that emphasizes the development of its people. “IMI’s Graduate Program is world-class – the best I’ve ever seen – giving our grads high-level access to global growth projects, as well as broad, hands-on functional experience.” She notes the program also creates new opportunities for others not in the program.

Working alongside Phil Clifton, IMI Hydronic Engineering’s Divisional Managing Director, excites Amy too. “Phil is a champion of falling in love with the customer’s problem, creating a mindset that helps everybody understand what we’re trying to do and motivates them.” She also appreciates IMI Hydronic’s executive team, characterized by diversity of both thought and experience, as well as a genuine commitment to The IMI Way, the company’s code of responsible business. “Everything is better than advertised. Working on a team of nine, from eight different countries is exhilarating.”

Amy’s enthusiasm extends to her Americas’ senior leadership team too. “We have a perfect blend of expertise from long-time team members and of fresh ideas from newer members that works really, really well,” she notes. “Add Growth Accelerator on top of that combination, and we’re energized and well-positioned to seize new opportunities.” She’s also engaged in the digital aspect of growth, learning more about driving digital possibilities as a platform for Growth Accelerator.

Looking ahead, Amy sees unlimited potential, despite the challenges of a global pandemic. “I firmly believe that when you invest in teams, get close to your customers, and innovate you emerge from a downturn stronger than ever.”

Hydronic Engineering Defined

Posted on August 13, 2020 by flowdesign

 

Optimal performance! The common goal of engineers, controls contractors, building owners and operators when designing, installing and commissioning HVAC systems. And that means two things:

  • Consistent comfort for tenants and users at every building location
  • Energy efficiency for reduced consumption and costs

 

Hydronic engineering is the foundation for optimal HVAC system performance. Here’s a short slide show on the critical role hydronic engineering plays in the development of optimal HVAC systems, created by Mike Trantham, Engineering Manager at IMI Hydronic North America.


IMI Flow Design delivers a full line of manual, automatic and pressure independent balancing and control valves, coil hookup kits, hoses and other associated products, all well known for their superior quality. Contact us anytime at ask.FDI@imi-hydronic.com to see how we can help you achieve optimal performance on your next HVAC project.

Short Social Media Survey: Need Your Help!

Posted on August 4, 2020 by flowdesign

In the fast-paced and ever-growing online world, we’re relying more than ever on digital platforms and online resources to communicate with each other. And we have a lot of options for finding information, as well as where, when and what to post content.

IMI Hydronic North America wants to determine the most effective platforms to communicate with and best support you. So, we’re conducting a brief survey to better understand your social media use, needs and preferences.
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Please take a few minutes to share your thinking here.

And thank you in advance for your participation.

Finance’s Lisa Garcia Goes Above and Beyond

Posted on July 23, 2020 by flowdesign

Here’s to IMI Hydronic North America’s Lisa Garcia, AP Staff Accountant and July’s winner of IMI’s Above and Beyond award. This company-wide honor recognizes employee excellence, teamwork and performance that exceeds job expectations.

In her nomination, Becky Man, Financial Director for the Americas, noted Lisa’s above-and-beyond work during the annual inventory at IMI Hydronic’s North American headquarters in Dallas. “Lisa virtually ran the inventory for Finance single-handedly, putting in considerable additional hours and dealing with several difficult situations both professionally and calmly.”

Thank you and congratulations Lisa Garcia!

Video Challenge Series: Get to Know Julie Coronado

Posted on July 18, 2020 by flowdesign

With social distancing keeping us apart, we challenged the IMI Hydronic team to connect with customers through video that shares their favorite activities and IMI products. 

The series continues with Julie Coronado, Customer Support Supervisor at IMI Hydronic North America, who enjoys the outdoors, especially walking her dog. Just like walking is central to Julie’s exercise routine, the AutoFlow Cartridge, her favorite IMI product, is the heart of every AutoFlow Valve from IM Flow Design. With a patented hybrid port, the ½” AutoFlow Cartridge can control rates as low as 0.5 gpm with precision.

Watch Julie’s video, then, go to https://www.imiflowdesign.com/e-catalog/#1 to learn about our full line of AutoFlow Valves. Or connect with Armando.Reyes@imi-hydronic.com, Hailey.Mick@imi-hydronic.com or Rich.Eberle@imi-hydronic.com to find out more about designing with them for your hydronic balancing system.

 

Valve Authority

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Mike

So, what is authority? Intuitively, we can imagine a circuit with a pump, a small restriction, and a large valve with which we intend to control the flow. When we throttle the large valve almost nothing happens when it is near the open position, then the flow changes suddenly near the closed position. The valve is said to have poor authority because most of the time something else is controlling the flow.

The problem with low authority in a control valve is that it produces unstable operation during low-load conditions (ASHRAE 2020, 46.9). Thinking about the valve in the situation above, if we intend to set a precise flow rate it might not happen because a small tap to the handle sends the flow above the target and a tap in the other direction sends it below.

The basic definition of authority is (Petitjean 1994, 146):

Some sources use the version (ASHRAE 2020, 46.8):


In hydronic systems, though, the actual variable of interest is the heat transfer of the terminal which saturates with increasing water flow if all else stays the same (Figure 1). This leads to a definition of "Practical Valve Authority" denoted by β':

Here the numerator is the pressure drop of the control valve at nominal flow when fully open, or approximately ((Design Flow)/Cv)2

Figure 1

As a result of terminal saturation, even though the shape of the flow curve might be the same at higher pressure, the fact that it is scaled up means that the shape of the heat transfer curve (heat transfer vs stroke) is not the same at different pressures. As already alluded to, the trouble of low authority shows up as unstable control at low flows. The two curves in Figure 2 have the same resistances within the branch but different differential pressures across the branch. As can be seen, the slope of the higher-pressure curve is about twice that of the lower pressure curve in the neighborhood of the closed position. In Figure 7 we see a comparison for the same pressure as the orange trace in Figure 6, with either no balancing, manual balancing, or a flow limiter. It's important to note that this is the comparison with a pressure that would cause 2x overflow at the fully open position of the control valve without balancing, and thus it's a fairly large pressure being absorbed by the balancing device (for instance if the nominal flow was at 10 psi, this figure would be at 40 psi so the balancing devices would be absorbing 30 psi at the open position). While the curves are not identical, they all have the same maximum slope near the closed position. The curves in Figure 3 all have the same practical authority β' as defined earlier, but different values of β according to the definition that ignores the target flow rate.

Figure 2: Same β, different β'

Figure 3: Same β', different β

Figure 4: After turndown

Clearly from figures 2 and 3, β' is a better indication of authority for a hydronic terminal. In Figure 4 we see the same set of balancing situations as figure 3, but at the pressure represented by the blue curve in Figure 2. Once again, the slopes of the curves all converge in the neighborhood of zero showing that β' is a better indication of authority for a hydronic terminal.

Customer Service Team Goes Above and Beyond

Posted on July 7, 2020 by flowdesign

 

 

 

 

Here’s to the IMI Hydronic North America Customer Service team, June’s winner of the Above and Beyond award. This company-wide honor recognizes employee excellence, teamwork and performance that exceeds job expectations.

 

In his nomination, Chris Rodgers, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for IMI Hydronic Americas, noted the team’s overall dedication, working to improve department performance while supporting IMI Flow Design during a global pandemic. “You put in long hours,” he wrote, “along with extra hours working for other departments hit hard by illness and a perfect storm of stressful circumstances.

 

“You brought smiles to the faces of our customers,” Chris continued. “They noticed. I noticed.”

 

Congratulations Jenna Bauer, Julie Coronado, Marci Simmons, Shonte Webb!

 

Video Challenge Series: Get to Know Shonte Webb

Posted on by flowdesign

With social distancing keeping us apart, we challenged IMI Hydronic team members to connect with our reps and their customers through video by sharing their favorite activities and IMI products.

We continue the series, with Shonte Webb, a 21-year Customer Service veteran who enjoys reading a good book. Just like books open up new possibilities for Shonte, she appreciates the lead-free, NSF/ANSI 61-G certified ICSS automatic control valve that unlocks opportunities for customers in their commercial hot water contact applications. Our ICSS lead-free valves meet the industry’s latest lead content standard, established by the Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act (RLDWA) in 2014.

Take a look at Shone’s video, then go to https://www.imiflowdesign.com/e-catalog/#48 for more information about IMI Flow Design’s Domestic Water (Lead-Free) ICSS Balancing Valves. And to learn how to design them in domestic hot water circulation systems, contact Armando Reyes at armando-reyes@imi-hydronic.com, Hailey Mick at hailey.mick@imi-hydronic.com or Rich Eberle at rich.eberle@imi-hydronic.com. Or email us at Ask.FDI@imi-hydronic.com.