I had the opportunity recently to sit down with Robert Corazzini, a Regional Sales Manager for Cincinnati-based Clippard, a company known for its valves and other components in the pneumatics, automation and fluidics industries.

“A lot of what’s new and exciting at the company revolves around our NR product line, which is the line of media separated valves, all Teflon valves and also the pinch valves,” Corazzini told me. “We did launch that a couple years ago but sales have doubled every year for the last three years.”

Corazzini said the main market for that line is medical and analytical types of applications.

“To branch out on that product, we’ve launched gradient mixing valves this year. So we can have a single input with multiple outlets or multiple inputs with a single output. If you’re mixing reagents or chemicals, that would be a type of product that we can use. We’ve been incorporating a lot more of that into using our acrylics.”

Clippard has been in acrylics for a while with its modular valves, but now the company has been incorporating its other valve products into acrylics. This work is pretty much 100% custom.

“We sell pieces-parts like everybody else, but where our growth has been last couple years is in providing the value added — doing systems and custom solutions for customers,” Corazzini said. “We also launched pneumatic pinch valves, so in cases where a solenoid is not working, where you need a higher pressure, we can pilot it with another valve.”

Clippard also has new regulators coming out this year, including a more precise regulator and some product launches in the Spring … I couldn’t get the inside scoop on them but was told that these will be “game changers” for the company. I’m definitely intrigued!

Corazzini said that price is always something that customers are concerned about but it’s not the most important thing. He told me that delivery is always one of the key features they are interested in.

Clippard has two facilities right in Cincinnati. The company does partner with some overseas suppliers, to round out its portfolio, but the bulk of the work done is in-house.

“One of the great features with Clippard is that we still machine and manufacture in the United States,” he said. “So, our lead time’s relatively short. Our engineers are right on staff and they’re ready to help people right away. As a result, a lot of the projects we have won is because of that intimacy that we’re having with engineer-to-engineer relationships. Also, having that flexibility to machine in-house and not relying on overseas suppliers is a huge advantage for us.”

Clippard
www.clippard.com