Narrator: Welcome back! You're tuned into Ship Shape TV.
America's favorite boat improvement show!
(music plays)
Wolf: John what we have here is our
vented gas fill that we're injected molding
on our molding machine.
John: Okay, and this
is a little bit different
than a traditional type of fill.
And let's talk about this. We're now down in Miami, Florida
at Perko Incorporated.
And who we have the honor
of having on the program, a very good friend of mine.
This is Wolf Hennig. And Wolf
heads up the product engineering
out here at Perko Incorporated.
I see that we have a lot of traditional fills here.
And you guys for a lot, a lot...I mean like it's over a century,
you guys are making this type of hardware.
And let's talk about some the traditional
styles that you guys make.
What is this one right here?
Wolf: This is our traditional
straight fill. It's made out of
chrome plated brass.
John: Okay. And what do you have to use
in combination
with that in order to fill up a tank with a liquid?
Wolf: I also have to use a vent,
because you have to escape the
air out of the tank as it's being filled
with the liquid.
John: Now is there a downside to
having a fill in the side of the boat
because that's traditionally where they mount them.
Okay, it has to be on the outside of
the boat. You don't vent on the inside of the boat.
Because what happens sometimes when your filling up?
Wolf: Well sometimes a little bit of the
fuel will escape out the vent.
John: You know that's kind of a downside
Wolf: Absolutely.
John: If you're spitting fuel into the water
that's not real cool for the environment is it?
Wolf: Absolutely not.
John: Okay what did you guys come up with to
kind of avoid that problem?
Wolf: We've come up with a vented fill,
which prevents that from happening.
We've developed a fuel fill
which has a 1-1/2 inch diameter neck where the fuel
goes in and is directed to the gas tank.
And then from the return line,
the air escape is a half inch
diameter line over here,
so the turn vent gets in.
John: Okay now check this out this really cool.
Because what happens,
is when your filling up the tank
and it does spit out a little bit of fuel.
It spits it back into the tank
rather than into the water.
That's ingenious!
Let's real quick talk about the machine that's
behind us. What is the material that
you're using to make this part
in this machine.
Wolf: This is a fiber full nylon which was
formulated for Perko for this particular application.
All of the tools that they use to manufacturer
Perko products are built right here on our plant.
John: Now what he's talking about is the molds.
To make this thing on the inside of this injection
molding machine. You make the mold.
You don't go out and buy them from somebody?
Wolf: No, we build them right here.
John: Let's talk about the locking device that
you guys came up with for the vented fills,
because I think this a great idea!
And you developed the whole idea
right here at Perko. But show us this lock.
Wolf: Well this is our locking device
which fits inside the fill.
Which is a neat feature
because the cap
covers the locking device which prevents
any water or
debris getting into a lock and clogging it up.
And it is just inserted into the fill,
and you turn the key and it's locked up.
John: You know with the price of gas today
and the price of diesel fuel,
boat tanks are becoming more and more targets for
people to maybe siphon out some fuel.
But that's not really why you want to get something like this.
You want to get something like to keep water
from a hose
going into your fuel tank.
Or to keep fuel from going into your potable water.
Or to keep fuel from going into
a holding tank or water going into a holding tank.
A lot of deck hardware
is made to match.
And if you have two or three fills
on your boat. You might have five fills
that all look the same.
Well you got to know which ones for which.
If it's locked, and your the only one that has that key.
If you lend the boat out or
if somebody is taking care of you boat or
something like that. There's no chance
for anybody to kind of mess up and
kinda screw them up.
Hey Wolf, thank you so much
for al the information. Hey right now
we need to take another time out but keep it
because when we come back we're going to be in
the boat shop. We're going to
break out the tools. We're going to install a lot of the
deck hardware on the 23 foot Albury Brothers boat.
We'll cover it, right after this!
The tool shed is still open!
Stick around, Ship Shape TV will be
back in a flash!