Armstrong International: Making It Easier for the Customer for 125 Years

COLUMBUS, OH — Through two world wars, two global pandemics, a Great Depression and a Great Recession, Armstrong International has grown and thrived as a company by serving the thermal utility needs of its customers.

Founded by Adam Armstrong in 1900, the company got its start manufacturing mechanical potato diggers. In 1911, the company introduced its inverted bucket steam trap and began to focus on thermal control solutions. Today the company is a fifth-generation, family-owned manufacturer with more than 3,000 employees serving markets around the world.

Brian Armstrong is from the latest generation of the family, serving as Director of Armstrong International’s Hot Water Group. He spoke with CONTRACTOR at the recent American Society of Plumbing Engineer’s Convention in Columbus, OH about the company’s new product offering, its promise to its customers, and what it sees as the future of hot water.

CONTRACTOR: So, what brings Armstrong International here to the ASPE show?

Brian Armstrong: We've been a part of the American Society of Plumbing Engineers going on 30-plus years now. We come to the show to highlight our technologies, which includes our water heater packages, and our digital mixing solution, the Brain, which we've had for 15 years now, and which is a very specifiable product for the industry that can help customers with legionella control, temperature control, and scald protection. 

Ultimately, we're here reinforcing our message that Armstrong is about providing healthy hot water systems for plumbing engineers, and for end users.

CONTRACTOR: What are you seeing as the growth opportunity for Armstrong right now? What are you moving into now because you see its importance a few years out?

Armstrong: The biggest growth opportunities we see right now are really in three areas within the hot water group.

The first is heat pump technology. We see as customers are trying to go be more energy efficient and work towards different sustainability goals. We're now getting into that, in the heat pump space. We have a high temperature heat pump solution to support our customers.

We also now offer our new, on-demand, gas-fired water heater with an integral digital mixing valve. It means we can do everything in one solution. We can deliver for our customers precise temperature control, which again is going to mean energy efficiency, protection from legionella and other waterborne pathogens, as well as scald protection. 

Last, we have a new product called the nano bubble generator. It allows customers to remove scale within their domestic hot water system. That’s also going to allow better energy efficiency, it will help lower maintenance and labor costs, as well as improve the longevity of their equipment.

CONTRACTOR: There are a lot of new water heating standards coming into place. There are also natural gas bans being enacted in some parts of the country. How is Armstrong adapting to this changing regulatory environment? 

Armstrong: A wider product offering—kind of an all-around approach.

We want to support our customers, whatever market they're in, whatever path they're going towards. So for California, New York, states that are having more regulations around banning natural gas, that's where our heat pump technology comes into play. That's where looking at alternative fuel-compatible products—electric water heaters, electric boilers—and where we can help educate and support customers to meet their specific needs.

Other areas across the US, where natural gas is still an acceptable fuel source, that's where we have high efficiency, gas-fired water heaters. Again, it's really asking how we can support our customers if they're still going down that route, or if they want to start moving towards a more net-zero, decarbonization approach. We can provide any system solution for our customers. So, really going with a wider product portfolio and range.

CONTRACTOR: What kind of education and training are you offering to support the contractors that are out there installing your products?

Armstrong: One of the sayings we have at Armstrong is, knowledge not shared is energy wasted. So, we're always working to educate. We want to make it as easy as possible for our customers, even as technology gets more complex from an electrical, mechanical, and plumbing standpoint, trying to make our offerings as plug and play as we can.

That means also having the educational seminars, schools, resources, as well as customer service and support. We want our customers to know we're standing behind our system solutions in every way possible. So again, just bringing it back to how experience matters. We've been doing this for 125 years and our customers can trust that we're going to be able to educate and inform as technologies get more complex.

CONTRACTOR: We're here with an engineering crowd and the engineers all want to use BIM. Are you offering that kind of digital support?

Armstrong: We support Revit SolidWorks, and we're also in different software packages called Spec Link and Construct Connect. Again, trying to make it as easy for our customers as possible with a plug and play solution. They could take one of our product models and easily put it into an overall system design that they're building. We really can support all of the different avenues, depending on what the customer's looking for.

CONTRACTOR: Has it been a successful show for you here at ASPE?

Armstrong: It has been a great show. We're honored to be here. Just this year became an affiliate partner with ASPE, and we’re proud to be supporting the Society. And we appreciate CONTRACTOR Magazine for taking the time to talk.