‘There just has to be a better way…?!ʼ

Hi, I am John Manning, the inventor of MJ-HAMMER. After years working in Underground Water Construction, I was determined to find a better way to assemble mechanical joints; my frustration was the inspiration for MJ-HAMMER.

MJ-HAMMER is a specialized tool for use on water pipe mechanical joint and dresser coupling assemblies. While running an underground construction crew I would be frustrated when a leak was identified during inspection, the result is wasted hours spent to identify the location of the leak, and high cost to correct after the pipes had already been laid. The source was always at the connections, and usually on the underside of the pipe; caused by poor assembly of the mechanical joints, poorly fitted gaskets at the connections and bends.

Seems obvious now, yet before MJ-HAMMER no one had identified that the tools being used during assembly were the issue, consistently the geometry of the tools’ strike surface was too big, too small, or too sharp to gain steady and accurate contact with the gasket. Combine this with the challenge of reaching the underside of the pipe, it is difficult to access, and even more difficult once the pipe is set in the trench and surrounded by earth. I had an idea and took it to Steve Woolfson, owner of the Boston based contract design and manufacturing firm PHASE(n).  In 2018 we formed a plan, prototyped the new Mechanical Joint tool, and filed the patent. MJ-HAMMER production started later that year.  

Today MJ-HAMMER provides the solution to a nagging and costly problem faced by municipalities and contractors alike, so many working in underground water construction have turned to MJ-HAMMER, it has quickly become the standard of practice. MJ-HAMMER is based in Boston, our facility is located in the Boston Harbor Shipyard & Marina. Our partner, PHASE(n), has a long history of developing time and money saving solutions through better design. Our goal for MJ-HAMMER is to be a better solution for the waterworks industry.