California Motor Controls
Efficiency as a Standard with Universal Pump Controllers

Wastewater pours out from a plethora of sources comprising homes, rainwater, and industries. Equally numerous are the separate control programs required to manage wastewater treatment processes such as water level, pressure, voltage, current, temperature, and more for the pumps. The resulting confusion and cost of managing the separate controllers inspired Tom Duling to found California Motor Controls, a designer of superior motor control solutions, in 2004. Duling’s experience, working for a major national systems integrator and Global component manufacturer as a Regional Manager for over 27 years, underlined the importance of having a great product to help drive the business. With thousands of hours spread over 15 years of research, development, and enhancement of the company’s offerings, Duling developed CMC’s PUMP Vision line of controllers. These universal pump controllers combine multiple water/wastewater pump applications such as level control, pressure booster control, and well pump control to deliver ease-of-use, cost-effectiveness, quality, and accuracy to municipal, commercial, and agricultural water & wastewater pumping applications.

Duling, as President and CEO of CMC, still leads his R&D team and regularly works with the executive team that now runs the company's day-to-day operations. Among the executives is Jarrod Slate, Chief Operations Officer of CMC, with a background in Mechanical & Electrical Controls Engineering. Duling recruited Slate, while the latter was managing a mechanical engineering firm in 2004. The vast knowledge gained by working directly for Duling empowers Slate to continue the growth of a positive and efficient culture at CMC, which is known for leading a customer-focused business. His personal goal of being an inclusive leader to his employees has inspired them to take pride in building innovative, quality products, enabling CMC to form lasting partnerships with customers and vendors alike.

As a boon to wastewater management, the PUMP Vision PV1200 and PV600 Universal Pump Controllers can both be configured for level, pressure, or well applications. They share the same program logic, data logs, and offer full pump station management comprising PUMP Vision pump control, MOTOR Vision motor monitoring, and SCADA Vision communication capability, with differences in the screen size and graphics. The controllers closely monitor the power of the motors and forestall failures.

It’s a constantly evolving product. If a customer finds a feature our product doesn’t already provide, we will evaluate and possibly add it as a standard

They have built-in communication and email capabilities alongside the ability to monitor pump station peripherals such as generator status and more. Their Main and Pump dashboards exhibit the complete system status on one easy-to-operate screen.

PUMP Vision PV1200 goes a step ahead of PV600 as it provides clearer menus and graphical data presentations with its larger, easy-to-view 12" digital touch screen. This controller is user-configured to operate simplex, duplex, triplex, and quadplex systems with numerous sequencing possibilities. Besides, the PV1200 records operating conditions, system and pump faults, flow rates, and more with data logs for evaluation.

From an engineering perspective, CMC has enhanced its scalability to develop quicker and cleaner submittals and produce drawings faster, which translates to improved production with higher accuracy. With value for aesthetics, CMC enhances the look and quality of their products that customers appreciate. For instance, every control panel is bench tested before launch. And, from an operator standpoint, the CMC product offers ease of use with superior graphics that provide feature-rich options. “It’s a constantly evolving product. If a customer finds a feature our product doesn’t already provide, we will evaluate and possibly add it as a standard. For higher volume applications, new product development can assist our customers with standardization,” says Slate.

Internally, CMC looks at the business from a customer service standpoint. The company constantly strives to improve their offerings and deliver the appropriate response to their users and solidify their relationships. “It is our goal to create a different experience for our customers based on their needs, their past relationships with other vendors, and their feedback, be it positive or negative,” states Slate.

Illustrating their performance, Slate cites the example of Caltrans, the transportation department of California that aimed to modernize and acquire standardization of wastewater management, cost-effectively. The ability of PUMP Vision to consolidate the voltage meter, amp meter, and more into one controller for increased efficiency and ease of use impressed the transportation giant. Moreover, the PUMP Vision PV1200 alarms helped Caltrans’ operators mitigate previously unseen problems and undertake preventive maintenance. CMC was approved on building many Caltrans pump plants throughout California, using their PUMP Vision PV1200 controller.

On the horizon, CMC envisions continued equipment and capital purchases to deliver efficiency to both their clients and employees. The company aspires to expand and build a stronger foundation with better internal processes to ensure less challenges for their partners. "Our growth has really been organic. We will continue to improve our products, our efficiency, and our relationships," concludes Slate.