Problem
A pool maintenance service operator identified a labor-cost driver in its field operations: equipment setup and teardown consumed a significant share of technician time on every service call. The proposed solution was a vacuum function integrated directly into the service pole — eliminating the separate equipment currently required. That requirement drove the engineering problem: a self-contained, pole-mounted pump and motor system with sufficient flow performance for pool debris removal, within a power budget and enclosure geometry compatible with handheld field use, manufacturable at a consumer price point.
Approach
Adept established the engineering parameters for the vacuuming duty cycle — required flow rate, head, debris tolerance, and run time against the available power source — and used them to drive DC motor selection. The impeller was then designed to match the selected motor’s torque and speed characteristics, a sequencing decision made at the program level rather than left to the analysis itself. Pump specific speed analysis determined the impeller class; a mixed-flow impeller was selected and its geometry refined through CFD analysis, scoped and directed by Adept and executed by a senior-level specialist analyst. The housing and pump assembly design — plastic injection part and assembly design, mold-flow optimization, and resolution of fill and cosmetic issues ahead of tooling commitment — was performed directly by Adept. The design was validated through engineering sample testing and carried through first production run.
Results
The pump and motor assembly met the flow and duty-cycle requirements established at program start within the pole-mounted enclosure envelope. The design was released to production tooling. The product — the VacDaddy, from Advanced Pool Technologies — reached market and remains in production.
