Mueller Steam Specialty
Mueller Steam Specialty was founded in New York City in 1956 as a small specialty manufacturer servicing the valve industry by manufacturing pipeline strainers. The company moved to North Carolina as it continued to expand, and once again in 1992 to a new, larger facility in St. Pauls, N.C.
The company now boasts more than 300,000 square feet of manufacturing space devoted to Mueller’s product lines. Along with pipeline and specialty strainers, the company also manufacturers check and butterfly valves.
Today, Mueller Steam Specialty is one of the world’s largest suppliers of strainers and among the top providers of specialty products serving the valve industry. What helped solidify this position in the industry was Watts Water Technologies Inc., which acquired Mueller Steam Specialty in 2005. Watts Water pumped resources and support into Mueller Team, which have enabled the company to consolidate previous efforts while simultaneously planning for future growth and expansion in products and services.
Although it has seen many changes, the company says its dedication to quality, service and delivery remains the same. “As always, Mueller Steam Specialty brand strainers and valves will continue to be the premier products of their kind in the marketplace,” Mueller Steam Specialty says.
Customized Products
Mueller Steam Specialty has supplied its line of standard products for decades. Recently, the company added custom design fabrication to its capabilities.
Mueller Steam Specialty is able to supply custom-designed fabricated units from its own fabrication division within its 300,000-square-foot facility in St. Pauls. The company says this enables its operation to provide customers with quick, economical delivery of products designed and built by the industry’s most experienced manufacturer.
Breadth of Products
Mueller Steam Specialty says it supplies its customers worldwide with all of their requirements for “Y” strainers. Whether the need is a for a low-pressure cast iron threaded strainer or a larger high-pressure special alloy unit with a custom cap design, Mueller Steam’s Y strainers will fit most applications.
“We maintain a large stock of both standard and special sizes and materials,” the company says. “This stock includes end connections of threaded, flanged, socket weld, butt weld, solder, silbraze and grooved ends. We also have units with screwed caps, bolted caps, hinge-type covers and swing-type clamp covers.”
Mueller Steam Specialty’s Simplex Basket Strainers are required when the application requires a strainer with an extremely large capacity. Most of the strainers have an open area ratio of 6-to-1 with even greater open ratios available.
The company explains that its basket strainers are available in a variety of combinations of materials, pressures, end connections and several cover configurations.
Duplex strainers by Mueller Steam Specialty can be used for applications where critical systems cannot be shut down for strainer basket cleaning, according to the company. Such systems include cooling water, compressors, condensers, fire lines, fuel lines, chemical process systems, pump suction application and similar services.
The company says its Ball-Plex duplex strainer – which come in sizes of 3/4 to 6 inches – offers bubble-tight seating, true in-line maintainability, easy seat replacement and long, trouble-free service life in a simple and rugged design.
Mueller Steam Specialty also manufactures fireline strainers for fireline services. These units are approved by Underwriters Laboratories and are designed specifically for applications like automatic water sprinklers and spray systems in firelines. The company says the large open area ratio helps prevent problems typically caused by the clogging of the screen.
Family Togetherness
Founded in 1874, the Watts Water Technologies group of companies says it designs and manufactures valves and related products that promote the comfort and safety of people and the quality, conservation and control of water used in commercial, residential, industrial and municipal applications. Watts Water Technologies Inc. was incorporated in Delaware and has operations in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
“Watts’ objective is to increase sales and increase sales and earnings by expanding into new markets, continuously developing new products for existing markets, making key acquisitions and reducing manufacturing costs,” Watts says.
Throughout its international operations, the Watts Water Technologies family of companies relies on five “pillars” as focus areas: comfort, quality, conservation, safety and control.
For comfort, Watts manufactures engineered hydronic radiant heating and snow-melting systems as well as electric radiant floor-warming systems and PEX tubing for residential and commercial installations. The group also provides a line of boiler safety and control products for solar, ground and wall-hung boilers.
For its quality focus, Watts provides high-quality drinking and process water through its range of reverse osmosis water purification systems, which range from under-sink residential systems to high-volume of commercial systems. The company’s backflow-prevention devices protect the water supply against the reverse flow of water in piping systems, ensuring the quality of drinking water.
Watts’ ZeroWaste reverse osmosis system provides quality water to homeowners while conserving water. Its hot water recirculating systems deliver instant hot water at the tap, conserving water and energy.
The company also says it works closely with standards-setting agencies and plumbing and building code officials to develop plumbing regulations that maximize safety for customers. Along with its traditional line of safety valves, Watts provides thermostatic hot water mixing valves, hydronic heating system safety units and hot water safety products.
To help its customers control the state and flow of water, Watts offers a line of flow-control devices that range from small quarter-turn water supply stops for baths and kitchens to 110-inch double flanged butterfly valves supplied by Watts in China to the Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze River.
“Watts’ devices offer the right solutions for its customers’ residential and commercial water control needs,” the company states.