Our Engineered Solutions Group: How We Design the Difference
It can be time-consuming to select the most appropriate valve for a specific application. And once you do, that choice may require some compromise from your design or valve performance. When an off-the-shelf valve or manifold design doesn’t cut it, Humphrey Products’ Engineered Solutions Group offers an alternative.
Principal Engineer Mark Friedman has spent 23 years bridging the gap between what’s on the market and what design engineers need. With that experience and a variety of valve designs at his fingertips, Mark has collaborated on and designed “perfect” valve solutions for clients’ needs predominantly in the medical and analytical fields.
“I’ve worked as a design engineer my whole career,” Mark said. “I love problem-solving and physics, so this is a sweet spot.”
Humphrey engineers don’t just sell products. They join your design team as pneumatic and fluid handling experts, which is exactly what Mark did to help a major medical device manufacturer take patient comfort to another level. Discover how we got the job done.
What’s the Engineered Solutions Group?
Humphrey’s Engineered Solutions Group (ESG) is where engineering expertise meets practical innovation. They specialize in designing, developing and producing fluid and pneumatic systems. That includes modifying existing proven products as well as creating solutions from scratch.
“It’s our way of providing valve and valve system designs that are tailored specifically for OEMs,” Mark said. “We can create simple special valve components and full system assemblies from the ground up.”
Instead of forcing your design to fit an off-the-shelf part, we adapt to produce valves, manifolds and systems based on your application needs, not the other way around. That saves you time, money and headaches.
Is My Project Suitable for Engineered Solutions?
Engineered Solutions is ideal when you need expert valving and pneumatic know-how. Often, customers come with a single part in mind but leave with a solution that solves broader challenges they hadn’t anticipated.
The ESG team also dedicates time to educating customers on our capabilities and providing optimization recommendations they may not have considered.
They specialize in custom valve solutions across multiple industries:
- Medical and dental
- Material handling and conveyors
- Analytical instrumentation
- Transportation and railroad equipment
- Food automation and process control
- Manufacturing equipment
- Environmental applications
“Many times, engineers can find what they need in the general market, but they don’t realize they can enhance it with a custom design,” Mark said.
What’s the Process for Designing a Custom Valve or Valve System?
Our process is hands-on, collaborative and focused on delivering personalized insights. You’ll work directly with an experienced engineer in a peer-to-peer environment, which improves communication and allows you to arrive at a solution faster.
“We listen and figure out what the customer needs instead of just what they’re asking for,” Mark said. “I consider myself part of a client’s design team.”
Our process:
- Discovery: This step includes on-site visits or calls to understand the application, technical requirements, quality standards and regulatory needs.
- Concept and prototyping: We explore multiple solutions, iterating until the design meets performance and technical criteria.
- Production readiness: We prepare tooling and assembly and test fixtures, fully qualifying them before we start production.
- Delivery and support: Your custom valve or system arrives defect-free, and we follow up to ensure product performance and your overall satisfaction.
What Other Capabilities Are Available from Engineered Solutions?
Think of ESG as your “one-stop shop” for custom design engineering.
Capabilities include:
- CAD design support
- Testing and prototype building
- Computational fluid dynamics
- Magnetic analysis
- IQ/OQ/PQ as required
Whether you’re selecting a part or brainstorming a unique system, our engineers can assess feasibility and guide you from concept to completion.
“We know what can and can’t be done,” Mark said. “With new customers, you have to build trust, and a lot of projects start out small.”
ESG in Action
To understand what the Engineered Solutions Group does is to see it in practice. When a leading medical device manufacturer needed a pneumatic control solution for its critical care patient support surface, they turned to Humphrey’s ESG team.
Their hospital bed is a pressurized air-filled surface that uses a dynamic surface technology system that prevents pressure ulcers, enhances patient microclimates and responds to emergencies. It’s a product that demands precision, and that’s the kind of challenge our ESG team enjoys.
The Challenge
The client needed a pneumatic control manifold that could regulate six independent zones of the patient surface and provide rapid zone evacuation while meeting strict medical and regulatory requirements. The components had to adhere to a lightweight, compact form factor.
The Humphrey Approach
The Engineered Solutions Group worked as an extension of the client’s design team to embed themselves in the client’s objective. We created a custom-engineered, injection-molded manifold and developed a unique gasketing method, resulting in a lightweight, leak-proof component. The custom design also included a manual high-flow relief valve mechanism that deflated the surface when immediate CPR was necessary.
The solution met the requirements and went further, with mounting and interfacing conveniences to enhance assembly to the bed. The development evolved through multiple iterations until we got the final result just right.
The Results
The customer anticipated a need for repair kits for the field but due to the development process, the finished manifold performed reliably, and they have yet to use them. That’s the ESG difference: deep technical expertise and genuine collaboration to adapt as your project evolves. Whether your challenge is as complex as a medical-grade pneumatic manifold or as focused as a single specialized valve, our engineers are ready to become part of your team.
Let’s Talk
Leverage our technology and expertise to make the most of your application. Our team is at your disposal, and we look forward to new challenges. Get in touch with our team at 1-800-477-8707 to start a conversation and learn about products.