The name of Pavel Melnikov, Russian entrepreneur and inventor is known well enough in the field of sanitary engineering, including pipes, fittings, pipeline accessories, pumps, heaters and much more.
And although this part of the Russian market is quite saturated, in addition to the high quality of products his successful long-term retention of the leading position in competitive struggle is contributed by that Pavel Melnikov offer designers and fitters products that no other supplier has.
These products are results of Pavel’s inventive work; they are patented, tested and fully equipped with comprehensive technical documentation.
Inventor’s secrets from Pavel Eduardovich Melnikov himself
Having currently about 100 copyright certificates, Pavel continues his inventive activity which allows him to develop his business successfully and take leading positions in the rating of companies engaged in plumbing engineering. We asked Pavel Melnikov, ‘Is it difficult for you to come up with something new in an industry that is considered quite conservative?’ and that’s what he answered:
“You probably imagine that Pavel Eduardovich Melnikov sits down at the table or computer and thinks ‘Now I’m starting to invent!’ But in reality, everything happens quite prosaically. For example, we were sailing ordinary oblique and straight purification filters.
They are installed on the inlet to the apartment immediately after the shut-off ball valve. The task of these products is simple, they prevent penetration of insoluble particles into the domestic water meter, pressure reducer and water fittings installed in the apartment.
In the technical passport we attach to all our products we indicated that the filter should be installed with the filtering chamber plug pointing down (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1: Installation schemes for apartment filters
ПРАВИЛЬНО – CORRECT НЕПРАВИЛЬНО– INCORRECT
It is necessary for sludge sediment in the filtering chamber, as then it can be removed from there by twisting the filter plug off. It would seem that everything is simple and clear! But installers began to contact us with a question, ‘Pavel Eduardovich, but tell us what to do when the water flow is directed from bottom to top?’ Exactly this type of the water supply systems inlet to the kitchens in apartments was provided in many residential buildings of mass standard series.
And indeed, in this case, whatever one may say, the filter plug must be directed either up or sideways, but not down. So, during the water intake sludge is pressed by its flow to the filtering chamber’s mesh; but when the water intake stops, this sludge goes down the pipe. That is, the lower pipe branch turns into a sludge sump gradually but completely blocking the pipe’s free cross-section (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2: Sedimentation of sludge in the pipe branch due to incorrect installation of the filter
To remove such a mud clog, it is necessary to completely disassemble the inlet section of the pipeline. To prevent this trouble, a horizontal section of the pipeline must be made on which then the filter will be installed.
But to do this some kind of spare free space is needed, and it is often just absent in the washing space in conditions of an equipped kitchen. As a result, the task reduces to the compliance with two conditions:
– water stream redirected down up
– and filter plug pointing down
The simplest solution to this problem was found immediately. Surprisingly, no one has thought of this before! No one, except of Pavel Eduardovich Melnikov, of course… It was necessary just to deploy the filtering chamber towards the flow. That’s how the universal filter which chamber’s axis relative to the pipe’s axis is not 900, but 750 was born (Fig.3).
Fig. 3: Universal filter’s scheme
As laboratory tests showed, such an angle of chamber‘s inclination sufficiently ensures the sludge sediment inside the filter without its getting into the vertical pipeline’s section. This solution was patented and put on stream. Now this filter has the VT.386 vendor code and it is in rather high demand (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4: VT.386 filter
It would seem that the problem is solved! But what about those tenants whose filters were installed incorrectly? You can remove old filters and change them to VT.386. But making this on the scale of the entire residential quarter is very burdensome. And besides, the release of new filters still does not fully cover the demand. But there was a solution to this problem too.
I have developed a special insert into an ordinary oblique filter which reverses the water flow inside the filtering chamber. I called this insert “The flow inverter”. Water freely passes through the inverter and enters the filter mesh through its windows. As a result, the sludge sediments between the inverter’s casing and the mesh (Fig. 5). As you can see, there is nothing complicated in this device too.
Fig. 5: The operation principle of inverter for the oblique filter
I got a copyright certificate for this inverter too, and now it is produced for oblique filters with different diameters at VT.116 vendor code (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6: VT.116 inverter
So, it turns out that I don’t look for inventions – they find me themselves. The main thing here is to formulate a task that needs to be solved properly, and there will always be an answer, perhaps even very simple.”
