Since the early 1930's Nichols Portland has designed and manufactured more gerotors for more different applications than anyone else in the world.
Nichols Portland is a division of Parker Hannifin Corporation. We have the resources of a multi-billion dollar international company. At the same time, we maintain the flexibility of an autonomous, self-contained organization.
We control every aspect of our operation; from product design and materials analysis through tool design, performance testing, manufacturing and delivery.
Other suppliers may try to sell you cheaper gerotors. No one can help you make a successful product more cost effectively than Nichols Portland.
Testing & Development
Creative problem solving for pump system design, performance testing and product validation. Put our experience to work. Bring us in at any point.
The Nichols Portland Product Development Department is staffed with skilled professionals ready to bring an effective, innovative approach to your project.Our team offers specialized experience. Over the years, our engineers have been involved in design, testing, prototype fabrication, problem solving, and product validation for a wide range of automotive and industrial applications. In that time we have accumulated a wealth of experience in acoustics/vibration - fluid mechanics - data acquisition - cavitation - instrumentation - system dynamics - pump design - and valving.
And 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're 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. However, we invite you to consider us 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!
Following is a list of standard services. If you don't see what you need, please ask! We welcome custom work, and our engineering team thrives on unique challenges.
- 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 contact the division. We look forward to working with you!
Parker Hannifin Corporation
Nichols Portland Division
2400 Congress Street
Portland, Maine 04102
PHONE 207-774-6121
FAX 207-774-3601
