The Nichols Portland Division’s Product Development Department is staffed with skilled professionals ready to bring an effective, innovative approach to your project.

Our team offers specialized experience. Our engineers have been involved in the design, testing, prototype fabrication, problem solving and product validation for a wide range of automotive and industrial applications. We have accumulated a wealth of experience in acoustics/vibration - fluid mechanics - data acquisition - cavitation - instrumentation - system dynamics - pump design - and valving.  We have fine-tuned our methodology and systems to help you optimize pump performance. Our clients - including Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, and Ingersoll-Rand, among others - use our lab as an extension of their own in-house facilities. Our services are timely, cost efficient and confidential.

Ask for our ideas at any point in the product development cycle, or use our services start to finish. We would be happy to design a pump to meet your supplied specifications. We are ready to optimize pump performance, with an iterative cycle of performance testing followed by any necessary design modifications. And we can provide product validation testing to assess the robustness of the design.

You'll find a list of engineering services below but please consider the Nichols Portland Product Development Department your engineering "think tank." Bring us your problems and goals (such as improving efficiency or reducing manufacturing costs). We'll put both our experience and ingenuity to work.

Standard services:

• Engineering Services
• System design
• Complete pump design
• Porting design
• Flow control valve
• Pressure regulating valve
• Gear element design
• Gerotor design
• Tolerance stack-up analysis
• Product development testing
• Engine and transmission spin testing
• Oil aeration
• Portable lube flow analyzer (LFA)
• Displacement determination
• Performance mapping
• Durability/duty cycle testing
• Product validation testing
• Dynamic response testing
• Cold start/priming testing
• Cavitation analysis
• Strobe/video analysis
• Acoustic/vibration analysis
• Simulated high altitude testing
• Fuel pump simulated gasoline testing
• Measurement parameters
• Speed
• Torque - average and instantaneous
• Pressure - average and instantaneous
• Volume and mass flow
• Temperature
• Viscosity
• Dimensional
• Dynamic analysis
• Sound pressure level (air and fluid)
• Sound power level
• Sound intensity
• Hydraulic pressure ripple
• Vibration
• Prototype fabrication
• Gear elements
• Pumps – casting
• Pumps – billet
• Valves

We have more than a half-century of experience and a background that includes the development of gerotor, vane, spur gear, crescent and roller vane pumps. Find out what we can design, develop, or test for you.  For more information, or to discuss a specific project, please call the division.

We look forward to working with you!

Parker Hannifin Corporation

Nichols Portland Division