AquaPhoenix expands equipment product offering with acquisition of General Treatment Products.

We are pleased to announce that AquaPhoenix has acquired General Treatment Products, Inc. (“GTP”) out of Brea, California. This is a very exciting time for both companies, as well as our customers and employees. Both AquaPhoenix and GTP have years of experience supplying the water treatment industry with quality products and equipment. Our shared knowledge, expanded product offerings, and geographic locations will surely enhance your customer experience by providing all testing products as well as your feed and control equipment needs in one place.

How can we help you?
As we continue to expand our product offerings, we hope you will look to us as your one source for chemical feed and control equipment, test kits, reagents, meters, and lab supplies. With AquaPhoenix, you get one reliable contact for all your product needs. Our locations across the United States, including Pennsylvania, Texas, and California, give us the ability to reduce lead times and shipping costs on certain products (think big, bulky tanks). Additionally, we are a Master Distributor for Walchem Metering Pumps and Controls in Arizona, California, Hawaii and New Mexico.

Expanded products include:

Containment Tanks	Mixing Tanks / Stands	Glycol Feeders	Bypass Feeders

On Monday, March 9^th, AquaPhoenix was visited by Frank’s youngest daughter and just a “few” of her 5^th grade classmates. We were so grateful the students were able to attend this field trip earlier this month before school closures. They spent time with each department on their tour and got hands-on with our line of Kemtec kits.

During their time at AquaPhoenix, students participated in three activities. Each class was able to tour our facility and ask many questions of our employees. They also rotated through two Kemtec stations for hands-on STEM instruction.

AquaPhoenix Tour

During the tour, students were led through the AquaPhoenix facility to see each department and observe our manufacturing process. Students were encouraged to ask questions along the way.

Kemtec Oil Spill Jr Activity

Students learned about physical and chemical properties of oil while experiencing how engineers and scientists approach oil spill disasters with this hands-on lesson. Working in teams, students created their own oil spill models and used them to simulate basic oil containment and removal techniques.

Kemtec Sedimentary Rock Formations

In this activity, students create their own sedimentary rocks. Each individual rock was formed by layering plaster with sediment.

Thank you to all of the teachers, parent volunteers and employees who make events like this possible.

To learn more about our Kemtec line of classroom-ready hands-on kits, visit www.kemtecscience.com.

At AquaPhoenix, we are not afraid of change. Change within an organization is essential to allowing employees to learn new skills, explore new opportunities, and exercise their creativity.  Such changes benefit the overall organization through new ideas and increased commitment. When we decided to conduct a comprehensive review and reorganization of our shipping department, we were excited by the challenge such change presented.

Since our move into our new building in 2016, AquaPhoenix has seen a 26% increase in orders shipped per day. This is a great problem to have, but our shipping department was struggling to keep up. With the use of Lean Manufacturing tools such as Value Stream Mapping and Spaghetti Diagrams we identified several improvement opportunities. Primarily, we found that our process was very batch-oriented as orders were being clustered in our tracking department before moving to shipping. The result was a bottleneck at shipping when large batches were received, putting extreme pressure on our motto that “…anything that can ship today will!”

A cross-functional team consisting of representatives from almost every department in the company began brainstorming ideas to relieve the bottleneck. We believed that we had to incorporate a one-piece flow method, which would mean that each order would be tracked, packed, and shipped in quick succession.  By implementing the one-piece flow methodology, bottlenecks would become immediately evident which would allow our team to quickly respond by flexing our labor where needed. Many meetings, “debates”, revisions, and pots of coffee later we had an agreed upon design and plan. Thanks to excellent teamwork and communication we were able to safely and efficiently rearrange our entire warehouse with zero downtime ensuring our customers never experienced any delays!

Most importantly, many of the great ideas incorporated into the project came, unsurprisingly, from the employees working in the areas affected. By following through on those ideas and keeping everyone engaged throughout the project, our employees have full buy in and ownership for the results which has greatly contributed to the success of the project. This great crew is what makes the difference and is the best team we’ve ever had.

Early metrics show a marked improvement in throughput per labor hour worked in shipping, and we continue to track progress daily. We were able to achieve an increase in capacity of 33% while reducing the overall footprint by 100 square feet.  These improvements mean our customers receive their orders promptly and on time.  It also means that as we grow, our customers can continue to receive the same excellent customer experience they’ve come to expect from AquaPhoenix. As a company, we promise to continue working hard to raise the bar and kick butt for our customers.

Our 2020 catalog is now available for download. With our diverse product offering, fast shipping and a no-hassle returns, we’re sure you can find something useful in here. If you have questions or can’t find what you’re looking for, please contact us. Thank you for your business!

Download your copy here.

The AquaPhoenix and H2trOnics family are pleased to welcome Tom Tinney to the team as a Technical Sales and Product Support Specialist. Tom is part of the growing support team and brings over 20 years’ experience to AquaPhoenix with direct, hands-on experience in the water treatment industry. Tom is actively involved in the AWT Training Program and is currently the Fundamentals and Application Feed and Control Equipment instructor. We are very excited to have Tom on board to help build on our culture of continuous improvement and growth.

On Tuesday, October 22, 2019 students from a local STEAM academy conducted three activities at AquaPhoenix Scientific. The purpose of their visit was to build on what they’ve been learning regarding the rain cycle and answer questions such as what is in rainwater, how does rain pull CO2 out of the air, and more.   (more…)

Back in 2017, when we moved into our new HQ in Hanover, PA we hosted an open house to celebrate the new digs. An open house is never complete without a signature cocktail, and so ‘The Phoenix Cocktail’ was born. We’ve kept the recipe secret ever since. Until now! Read on so you too can enjoy this fun drink.

Please review the testing and safety tips first:

Now, on to the delicious recipe.

Ingredients:

• Vodka, 45 mL
• Butterfly Pea Flower Tea*, 5 mL
• Lemon, pH 2
• H₂O Sample

*The tea is the star ingredient in this recipe. You can find it online. It’s also known as Blue Tea and is a caffeine-free herbal tea.

For the mocktail version, skip step 3. This tea is pretty tasty on its own.

Tasty Tips:

• Properly cool your sample before mixing.
• Use a white background to see color changes.

Salud!

In today’s competitive global marketplace, operational excellence is not an option; it is the only way to succeed. Manufacturing companies must make the ongoing quest for excellence a top priority if they hope to remain viable and continue to meet their productivity and profitability objectives. Specific initiatives may include LEAN, Six Sigma and Quality certifications, such as ISO.

AquaPhoenix is pleased to announce that our team has received the 2019 Award of Excellence in Manufacturing for “Process Excellence” by MANTEC. The awards are given to South Central Pennsylvania manufacturers that have demonstrated a commitment to improving the business through Smart Manufacturing.

Center: Nick Khuri, Continuous Improvement Manager accepts MANTEC award

Thank you MANTEC and congratulations to all the 2019 winners. To learn more, visit MANTEC at https://mantec.org/2019-finalists-2-2-2/

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes^® asks men to literally walk one mile in women’s high-heeled shoes. It’s not easy walking in these shoes, but it’s fun and it gets the community to talk about something that’s really difficult to talk about: gender relations and men’s sexual violence against women. By wearing women’s shoes, participating, gentlemen symbolically put themselves in the place of women for the purpose of raising awareness about the dire effects of sexual and domestic assault in our community.

This year, the brave men of AquaPhoenix strapped on their best high-heels and walked to help raise over $2,300 for our local YWCA. The money raised will support YWCA programs and services for survivors of domestic violence and family assault.

Visit YWCA Hanover to learn more and to see how you can get involved https://www.ywcahanover.org/get-involved/donate/.

How static charge affects drop count test results

When performing a drop count tests, it’s important to minimize interferences that may affect your results. In this blog, we will discuss the effects of static charge.

First, what is static electricity and how is it formed? Static electricity is an imbalance of electric charges within or on the surface of a material typically produced by friction in a dry, low-humidity environment. For example, the dry conditions in the winter are right for experiencing static more often than in the summer months.

In our experiment, first, we added drops to a plastic vial that we introduced a static charge. While holding the bottle vertically to optimize consistent drop release and size, the drops were attracted to the side of the vial and were narrow and elongated in appearance. The charged static surfaces reacted and changed the performance and behavior of the drop.

Next, we added drops to the vial with no static present. We wiped down the vial and dropper bottle with a damp paper towel/cloth to remove any static charge. The drops fell directly into the middle of the vial and the shape and size of the drops were normal. Simple measures such as using a humidifier in a room or opening a window can prevent or remove static charge.

The static charge introduced in this instance reduced the drop size by 17%. Drop count kits are usually +/- 10% accurate. Given drop count test kits and dropper tips are standardized for a specific size drop, test results and data could significantly be skewed if there is significant static charge present.

AquaPhoenix recommends reviewing and preparing for all potential interferences including static charge to provide accurate reliable test information.