Innovation at Brentwood

Thinking outside the box.

Forming Our Future

Forming Our Future

Brentwood was built on innovation. It’s a tool that helps us to embrace change and allows us to take well-calculated risks. It enables our employees to be both strategic and creative as they develop new ways to accomplish tasks and solve problems.

We’re very proud of Brentwood’s history and the employees who have made it possible. Below are a number of Brentwood innovations that either changed our business, taught us a lesson, or both.

If you’d first like to learn more about Brentwood products or are interested in a career with us, please visit those sections of our site.

Key Innovations

Key Innovations

Perforated Plate Wrap

In 1978, at the request of General Battery, Brentwood learned the punch and die process for creating battery perf, now known more commonly as Koroseal. We quickly mastered this process, developed the correct polymer formulation, and began supplying the material on a large scale.

Long Catheter Trays

Brentwood produced catheter trays for our medical customers throughout the 70s. We learned that standard coiled packages often rendered the catheters unusable and set out to develop a solution: We custom built a thermoforming machine that would allow us to make the trays in a straight line up to 60 inches long. Today, we have further expanded this capability to make trays up to 72 inches long inline.

Film Fill Pattern

After entering the cooling tower industry in the 70s, we set out to develop a fill product that would be superior to our competitors' products. In 1983, we created a stronger fill with the perfect honeycomb pattern. This achievement enabled Brentwood to buy out the competition and set the tone for our future success.

Polychem Non-Metallic System

In 1984, Polychem invented non-metallic head and stub shafts and installed the first 100% non-metallic chain and flight wastewater treatment system. For that project, we outfitted 48 collectors, each nearly 300 feet long, earning Polychem a reputation for performance and reliability.

Stretching the Limit

We received a call in 1989 from a customer asking if Brentwood could supply 8-foot-diameter jackets for in-ground fuel tanks. We could only form a diameter up to 6 feet , but the customer insisted the jackets had to be 8. Eager to solve the problem, we utilized a novel approach: we formed a 6-foot-diameter jacket and stretched it over a frame to meet the 8-foot requirement.

Raw Material Production

We opened a facility in Lebanon in 1989, which was the first step in making Brentwood a vertically integrated business. We knew we would gain an edge on our competition if we were capable of producing our own raw materials. Today, this facility produces about 50 percent of the raw material required to manufacture our domestic water, wastewater, and cooling tower products.

Best Commercial Wheelbarrow

The Brentwood Wheelbarrow was designed at the request of a farm-owning customer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. With special design consideration given to strength, stability, and ease of use, our wheelbarrow quickly became the best on the market.

Amtrak Amfleet Parts

In the early 90s, Amtrak's part supplier went out of business, and they were in search of a company that could form replacement parts. No tools could be obtained, so Brentwood redesigned the tooling in-house, making us the only viable supplier. This effort allowed Brentwood to gain all of Amtrak's replacement part business for some time.

Tube Settler Assembly

Our unique tube settler assembly method was patented in 1993. The method featured perfect alignment of flat sheets with corrugations on adjacent modules. This maintained even flute spacing and created a nesting effect between the modules, which enabled greater water treatment efficiency.

Mechanical Assembly

In the late 90s, Brentwood was searching for an alternative method to gluing plastic sheets together to create fill packs. During a lunch meeting, someone noticed a clamshell sandwich container that gave them an inspired idea: By using a series of corresponding cones and attachment tabs, we could crimp the sheets together to form strong packs - a technology known today as mechanical assembly.

SmartGuard Monitoring

Brentwood improved upon the Polychem chain and flight system by developing the SmartGuard Collector Monitoring System. SmartGuard acts as a safeguard for collector systems recognizing flight misalignment or irregularities in sprocket motion and shutting the system down before damage can occur.

Mack Truck Bumper

A pivotal moment for Brentwood's heavy gauge thermoforming business was creating the first plastic truck bumper for Mack's Pinnacle highway vehicle in 2006. A special machine was purchased for this purpose and and enabled us to form thermoplastic olefin (TPO), a material inherently difficult to form due to its narrow temperature band.

Managing Stormwater

Brentwood developed the StormTank Module in 2007, upon learning some of the limitations of using crossflow media for stormwater management applications. The Module design offered an open design with large void space, HS-25 strength, and the ability to be easily maintained. It was followed in 2014 by the StormTank Shield, a device designed completely from scratch, to address the issue of pollution.

AccuFAS Submerged Media

The AccuFAS submerged fixed-film system was developed to build on Brentwood's success within the wastewater market. It utilizes our trickling filter media, but by submerging it in a wastewater tank and using air diffusers, AccuFAS functions as a turbocharged trickling filter, working to reduce the pollutants in the water to an extremely low level.

SedVac Removal System

SedVac was developed in 2012 as a unique sediment removal system for water treatment plants. It differs drastically from traditional pipe-system designs and has been engineered to clean the floor, resist clogging, and waste less water. In head-to-head testing, SedVac has removed twice the amount of sludge in half the time.

Patented Innovations

Patented Innovations

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