The majority of Ed Moran’s career has been closely tied to Omega Flex. One could even say he’s a lifer. Prior to joining Omega Flex 24 years ago, he was an independent manufacturer’s representative for the organization, ultimately working his way up through the company beginning in 2001, first serving as National Sales Manager, then as Vice President of Residential Markets, Executive Vice President of Sales, to his current position today as President. Moran also serves on the Board of Directors. That experience has provided Moran with a deep understanding of Omega Flex’s values, culture and mission. As the organization celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, PHCPPros sat down with Moran to learn more about the organization’s journey, product lines and key milestones over the years.

PHCPPros: Omega Flex is celebrating its 50-year anniversary this year. Tell us about its origins and some key milestones over the years.

The original founder of Omega Flex was a gentleman by the name of Koji Shimada. He started the company in 1975, manufacturing metal hose and braid for industrial applications. In 1996, Mestek purchased Omega Flex, mainly to use it as a launch pad for a corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST) gas piping system called TracPipe. Shortly thereafter, we introduced the TracPipe product and sales grew dramatically. In 2005, we became our own entity, publicly traded on Nasdaq.

PHCPPros: Tell us about Omega Flex’s four core products. 

Our legacy products are industrial metal hose and braid — that can be metal hose from a quarter inch all the way up to 16 inches in diameter. Also on our industrial side, we do engineered assemblies for very specific OEM applications, primarily in the cryogenics field. In fact, we’re making an investment in that part of the business this year with new equipment. 

TracPipe was released in 1996 and within a few years we became the dominant supplier of CSST in the industry. In 2004 we released CounterStrike CSST and have been selling it in residential and commercial markets ever since. CounterStrike is our flagship product and continues to lead the market today. It is manufactured from 3/8 inch to 2 inches in diameter and is used for natural gas and propane from the meter to various appliances that would use those fuels. Probably one of the biggest milestones was in 2011 when we transitioned the TracPipe product entirely to CounterStrike as part of our commitment to innovation and safety.

In 2008, we introduced our DoubleTrac piping product for double containment which we designed to be the most durable piping product out there for the transportation industry and has a unique listing since it can be used above and below ground. Primary applications for DoubleTrac piping are the retail gas business and commercial applications for backup generation, wastewater treatment and marinas. 

Finally, MediTrac corrugated medical tubing (CMT) was launched in 2019 and is used for the transfer of medical gases throughout a healthcare facility — that could be hospitals, veterinary clinics, dental offices — anywhere where you’re using medical gases that need to be at a high purity. Due to our manufacturing process, MediTrac CMT doesn’t require any secondary cleaning prior to its use in a pure environment. 

Overall, our products aim to provide a safer, more efficient piping system. They are designed to bring value to the installing contractor but also give design help to the engineer since a flexible system can fit in certain areas that a rigid system can’t. We are a proud U.S. manufacturer and source our materials domestically. 

PHCPPros: Has Omega Flex changed since you became president in 2023?

Omega Flex has a culture that’s been very successful for 50 years. What we’ve done is try to maintain and refine that culture. We haven’t made any significant changes; however, one of our biggest jobs has been to elevate people into new positions and hire new people to fill vacant positions since several key people have retired.

PHCPPros: How does Omega Flex support its customers? 

The best way to support our customers is to supply them with quality products, that’s our number one priority. We also provide our customers with installation training. Installers must pass a training class to be able to install the product. 

We support the rest of the team with the appropriate training as well. We do lunch-and-learns with engineers; spend a lot of time educating codes and standards personnel about new products; and for most of our products, we have exclusive software to help with sizing a piping system. We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time developing a catalog of BIM models for all our parts and pieces so that they can be appropriately specified by an engineer.

In addition to all of that, we spend a lot of time at trade schools, supporting the education of these new types of products at the trade school level, and supporting the efforts of developing the trade. In fact, we recently completed a training for new manufacturers’ reps and two representatives from a trade school in New Mexico, who came out to get trained so they could go back and train their students. 

PHCPPros: Do you have any new initiatives or products coming down the pipeline? 

We always have new products in development. If there’s anything in Omega Flex’s DNA, it’s the mantra that the lifeblood is going to be new products. In order for our company to continue to grow, we have to develop and commercialize new products. However, it’s not just about developing new products; it’s improving the products we currently have with accessory items, changes to the fittings, things of that nature. We’re always looking to bring added value to our established products. 

PHCPPros: How are you promoting Omega Flex’s 50th anniversary? 

Obviously, it’s a milestone that’s worthy of a celebration. We have several employees who’ve been instrumental in our success and work in a number of locations. We have three facilities in Pennsylvania, one in Texas, and one in the United Kingdom, and we plan on hosting employee celebrations at each one of our locations over the remainder of the year. 

PHCPPros: What does the future look like for Omega Flex?

Our company’s culture has served us well. We want to preserve and expand that culture, grow the business globally, and continue to develop new products that bring value to the market.