HoverTech International is a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of air-assisted patient-handling equipment for emergency medical and acute care applications. Its patient-transfer, repositioning, and ergonomic lifting products are designed to reduce caregiver injury while increasing patient comfort and safety.
“After the fire, our supplier estimated six months before they would be online again. We turned to MRC, and we were back in production in just eight weeks.”
– Dave Davis, Owner
Situation
The company faced two parallel challenges, each of which required specific response strategies. In the first, the Philadelphia-based manufacturer of HoverTech’s battery cart—an integral part of their key products—suffered a devastating fire. This left HoverTech without a production partner and, as they soon realized, without the drawings they would need to find a replacement.
Simultaneously, HoverTech sought to create a new valve design that would streamline their manufacturing process and make the product more user-friendly.
Solution
HoverTech’s Owner, Dave Davis, reached out to the Manufacturers Resource Center, a subrecipient of the PA MEP. Once again, MRC recommended that the company engage Triumph Engineering, the firm that recently helped HoverTech create a more economical model for new markets.
“Triumph re-engineered the only battery cart we had left and created drawings for it,” Davis says. “With those drawings in hand, we were able to identify a new manufacturer (S&W) and get back into production in short order.”
“It was Triumph again who helped us with the valve design,” says Scott Moore, HoverTech’s Product Development Manager. “There was no off-the-shelf solution for what we were trying to do, so they devised a twist feature to enable opening/closing and filling from a single position. Triumph made it possible to integrate the inflate and deflate units in the same design.”
Results
• Triumph and S&W brought HoverTech’s battery cart production back online in just eight weeks (compared to an estimated six months for the original supplier); and
• The injection molder that HoverTech selected to manufacture the new valve will soon begin production. The new design will reduce manufacturing costs, improve ease of use, and reduce the possibility of error during the inflate/deflate steps.
For more information about HoverTech International go to: http://www.hovermatt.com/