NEW Product Development and Testing

The Water Think Tank offers state-of-the-art knowledge of water treatment product design and the underlying technology for both current and emerging techniques. From our work on projects developing new technology, new products, and new applications, we stay up-to-date on cutting-edge developments.

We have long and deep experience in reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, microfiltration, depth filtration, adsorption, UV, ozone, and advanced techniques. We have designed and helped commercialize scores of new products in a variety of applications, know the market requirements for performance, and are just as important for convincing performance data.

We supplement this expertise with realistic costing, component sourcing, and assembly feasibility analysis.

WTT offers a fast response to market opportunities by helping design and prototype new products and technology to help your business grow.

Product and System Design and Testing Services:

• Basic configuration for the deployment of new technology
• Application-specific product improvements
• Definition of feature, benefit, performance, or price point criteria that meets end-user demands
• Component design and system engineering
• Performance and application specifications
• Competitor analysis and SWOT evaluations
• Regulatory compliance studies
• Fail-safe risk assessment
• Patent application support documentation
• Breadboard and prototype fabrication
• In-house or benefit focus groups
• Quality specifications

New Product Performance Evaluation

Choosing what performance criteria to test is a crucial marketing decision and is complicated by the choices of written and unwritten industry standards, product certification choices, and regulatory interpretation. Contracting with an outside lab can be enormously expensive, and often the decision of what to test is based on an outsider's perspective.



Water Think Tank expertise in this area comes from three decades on the front lines of business management, but is especially valuable from direct participation in dozens of industrial and regulatory groups that set these test standards. Some of the agencies we actively advise include NSF International, the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the US EPA, ASTM Committee D19 on Water, and the Water Quality Association.

But meeting short-term test standards alone will not protect your company from product failures. The actual end-use environment and water quality conditions will determine if a product or technology will fail. Discovering failures when the product is already in the customer's hands can be costly and even sink a new product.

WTT excels at not only testing and rating a product or system on its performance but also at evaluating the marketplace and regulatory implications when designing the test. We work with clients to define, then replicate, actual in-use environments and consider pertinent regulatory and health standards. This ensures that the product or system will perform as needed within the full range of intended applications and environments.

We will perform the tests as well, drawing from a group of field test personnel trained to install, operate, monitor products in the field or lab, and, most importantly, react to results. Personnel are assigned on a per-project basis according to their direct experience with the technologies evaluated.

WTT provides in-depth, objective product performance evaluations that thoroughly screen for product weak points before high expenses or negative market reactions occur.

Performance Evaluation and Rating Services:

• Protocol development
• Laboratory benchtop, test station, and field testing
• Identification and liaison services with specialty labs, including university and agency labs
• Manufacturing QA/QC and ± variability testing
• Regulation pass-fail tests
• Installation, usability, and durability tests
• Fail-default analysis, design options

Technology Application and Pilot Studies

Finding that a given technology supports a specific new application can lead to an entirely new business opportunity. WSM excels at developing alternative uses and applications. The development of a product also includes testing to see if its performance covers the full spectrum of expected operational conditions and how it compares to competing alternatives.



WSM responds to the question, "Could this new application of our water technology support a potential new business?"

Application and Pilot Testing Services:

• Creation and review of test protocols to ensure data reliability
• Test station design, construction, and calibration
• In-house or in-field evaluations
• Short-term to long-term (multi-year) studies
• Regulatory challenge testing (viable or non-viable)
• On-line data acquisition and logging (hardwire and remote)
• USEPA and FDA test protocols
• Standard methods were applied.
• Pilot system design, assembly, and installation
• Failure-default evaluations
• Mechanical and water quality specifications

WSM adds value through performance evaluation and verification testing. This helps clients.
avoid costly market failures.

assistance in Regulatory Compliance

Compliance with regulatory performance criteria must be met in full during all expected operating circumstances. However, at times, regulations for drinking water quality, water discharge, foodstuffs and beverages can be complex and changing. Product certification processes like NSF and UL can add burden to the business development process and sometimes are only of limited value in some applications. Regulatory compliance is generally secured by ongoing performance testing once a system has been installed. In many cases, data generated from previous installations or site-specific pilot testing can be used for acceptance of non-conventional technologies previous to installation.

WSM is a superb resource for manufacturers and marketers to correctly address regulatory requirements via product performance verification, review of historical data, and quantitative definition of future data requirements needed for technology evaluation and acceptance.

Regulatory compliance Services:

• Testing protocol development
• Pilot testing services
• Guidance to meet state and federal regulations
• Regulatory agency interface
• Marketing claims and performance claim development and substantiation
• Data support packages

WSM’s intimate knowledge of the regulatory infrastructure, technology acceptance protocols, and water treatment technologies will either facilitate your market entry success or let you know in advance if it should be reconsidered.

Technology and System Operations Training

Once installed, equipment and technologies will perform only as well as operators can master their operation. No matter how advanced all equipment packages are, they require system operators and service technicians that are technically adept and well trained.

WSM provides water treatment plant installers, operators and service personnel with the required training programs and supporting documentation and certification services.

Technical & System Operations Services:
• Instructional material development
• Guidance to meet state and federal regulations
• Customized and general on/ off- site training packages continuing educational credits

WSM trains and supports operations personnel to maintain water treatment processes in control, leading to client satisfaction.