Drive controls work for washing equipment

In a flooded, busy marketplace, how do you differentiate yourself from your competitors? The answer - add a distinctive, unique benefit to your offerings.

According to Don Scordo, founder and president of Washing Equipment Technologies, staying closely involved with the industry as it changes, knowing the competition, and understanding what's going to be on demand and why, before it happens, all go a long way towards helping position your company in a more competitive way.

Washing Equipment Technologies is a developer and manufacturer of self-serve and distributors for touch-free car wash equipment systems.

Their customers include such prominent names as Classy Chassy Car Wash, Laserwash Car Wash Inc, Hess, Mobil/Exxon, Sunoco, and Jiffy Lube, BFS Foods and Popular Chains Precision Wash, to name a few.

When asked about what's his company's unique advantage, Scordo shows no hesitation - "Equipment which the public loves, service, and a knowledgeable sales team." Keeping the end user in mind is a unique competitive advantage offered by Washing Equipment Technologies.

Clearly, the company understands that sooner or later it is the car owner who drives his or her vehicle to a particular car wash location who needs to be "sold," and developing systems that appeal to consumers has been a company focus.

I-Wash, the company's latest self-serve coin-operated car wash equipment, is a patent-pending system that's meeting with great success.

Scordo states, "We have over 100 bays operating presently, with orders coming in every week; depending on how we set up distribution, we hope to triple that next year." Asked whether there are any comments from users, the answer is simple - "They love it." What's the biggest difference between the I WASH and other similar machines? Scordo mentions simplicity, a self contained, single-pump design, and easy installation.

"It was an idea I've had for a long time; I've seen the self-serve industry stuck in the same mode for too long, and it pushed me to develop my idea into a product," explains Scordo, who adds that finding the right components was crucial to bringing his invention to actual implementation.

Learning of a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) of the right physical size, offering the right performance, and at the right cost, was a crucial step, and Scordo actually credits AC Technology's VFDs for being key to making the I WASH what it is, stating "We actually designed the system around the drive's size, ease of use and operation." The SCF Series physical size, low cost, EPM programmability, and worldwide service and support were definite factors in the decision-making process; and Scordo comments that the expertise and accessibility of AC Tech's staff provides additional reliability.

"I knew that I could count on an entire, top-notch team," says Scordo, who gives credit also to KOM Lamb and manufacturer's rep, Keller Industrial Products for what he calls "a tremendous job helping select and specify the proper inverter for the application." The EPM, or Electronic Programming Module, is a little pluggable "chip" that lets the user program an AC Tech drive's memory, copy it in two seconds, archive it, clone it, personalize it...allowing drive production and programming to become streamlined - and error-free.

As AC Tech's Northeast District Manager John J.

Parker Jr.

comments, this is a feature specially appreciated by OEM's; it effectively provides a secure backup on every drive and cuts down on downtime.

"The EPM reduces the OEM's service expenses, since it keeps the factory default of the drive configuration, as it was programmed at the factory," explains Parker, continuing, " in this case, if a Washing Equipment Technology customer changes the program and ends up with a malfunctioning bay, they can simply reset the drive to the way it was when originally shipped; the result? Cutting down on unnecessary field service visits, and for the customer, no downtime." Scordo describes the AC Tech VFD's exact job description as follows: "Controlling the speed of metering and self serve high pressure pumps." And he explains that each inverter is set up to use three separate preset speeds ((low/medium/high); with each inverter's preset speed providing the necessary pressure and flow to apply different products.

"Our I WASH controller communicates with the VFD to speed up to purge the line for each product and/or to slow down the pump so we can change the pressure we need for the function the customer chooses.

The controller also directs the flow of pressure and solution, either to the brush or to the gun." As Scordo summarizes, "What's most unique option is that the controller can actually blend solutions, creating its own personality with scents and colours.

Pulsing two different colours creating a rainbow of foam on the car or a blend of smells in the bay keeps the customers coming back...

or spending more time in the bay.".

Back to top