Industry Profile: David Bayreuther

David Bayreuther leads product management for Valmet Flow Control, where he’s been for 30 years. A graduate of Northeastern University, he has an M.S. in mechanical engineering. He is active in API, ASME and ISO standards committees, and is President of the Board of Directors of the Manufacturers Standardization Society (MSS). Bayreuther has published a variety of technical articles and presented at various industry conferences. He resides with his family in a small town near Worcester, Massachusetts.

What inspired you to pursue a career in the world of valves and actuators?
My career started as a valve engineer at General Dynamics Electric Boat Division designing and developing valves and actuators for nuclear submarines. I can’t say that I chose to pursue a career in valves, but like many in this industry, I sort of fell into it. One responsibility for my first role at Electric Boat was developing valves for the U.S. Navy. It was my first introduction to valves. One of my mentors in the group would frequently say, “Valves make the world go around.” As my knowledge of valves and awareness of their widespread use in industries increased, I learned to appreciate why he said this. When the Cold War ended, I decided to apply what I learned at EB and move into the commercial side of the valve industry for my future career.

Why did you decide to get involved with VMA? 
Shortly after I started at Neles-Jamesbury, my manager started planning for retirement. He was a member of the VMA Technical Committee and asked me to take over his role. At my first VMA event, I offered to buy the chairman of the committee a beer. He agreed and immediately offered me the position of vice chair. Shortly after, I enjoyed several terms as chairman of the Technical Committee.

Tell us about your work with MSS and how it overlaps with VMA.
The scope and purpose of VMA and MSS are different. MSS develops and publishes industry standards for valves and actuators, as well as flanges, fittings, pipe hangers, packing, seals and other components. MSS was founded over 100 years ago, and our slogan is “The technical voice of the industry.”  This is where some overlap occurs. MSS has over 120 member companies, many of whom are also VMA members and frequent presenters at VMA events. 

Are there any exciting projects or initiatives you are working on that you’d like to highlight to our readers?
It is essential for MSS to maintain our current portfolio of standards and keep them up-to-date for our members and the industry. To remain healthy and grow, MSS also needs to continue to develop new standards, and we are expanding the scope of that work to include product standards for challenging industry applications. To help us in this effort, our bylaws permit us to have industry experts from end users join our committees. We are excited to see that the first standards from this initiative are now being published. For example, MSS SP-160, Valves for Hydrogen Fluoride (HF) Alkylation Service was published at the end of 2024. We are seeing that application standards are quickly adopted by industry since key experts from end users participated in writing the standard.

How do you stay abreast with changes in the valve/actuator industry? 
I read a lot of materials every day including industry magazines, trade association news, social media, industrial valve news updates, various websites and reports from patent applications.

What do you think the biggest challenges are for valve manufacturers? For end users?
One area I hear about that affects both manufacturers and end users is the loss of technical expertise. For instance, many of my mentors are retired, and young engineers frequently change jobs, so a knowledge gap at the mid-career level has developed.

Are there any emerging trends or technologies that you are particularly excited about?
There are always emerging trends piquing the interest of our industry and currently AI and digitalization are key topics. Valves for hydrogen has been around for a little while, and additive manufacturing (3D metal printing) is being discussed more. I try to avoid being caught in the hype curve when these topics first appear, knowing that technical limitations and commercial realities eventually temper the excitement, and then the practical work begins. Personally, digitalization to extract more information from valves is something that I believe will develop in the future.  

What advice would you give someone who wants to explore a career in our industry or one of our end markets?
I encourage students and new graduates to pursue a career in our industry. Usually after a tour of the factory and R&D laboratory, prospective candidates can see the wide variety of career choices and interesting products and applications where valves are used. For many years, we have run a successful cooperative education program with local technical high schools where the students can get hands-on training. Many of the first students are now managers in our company, working in roles including sales, engineering, product management and service center managers.

Is there a piece of advice you were given that has stuck with you?
One piece of advice I often give to new engineers is something my father told me when I started my career — there are many ways to learn. He said some can learn from reading, others from someone talking about what they know, and others by touching the electric fence themselves. He asked me which person has the best knowledge about what it really feels like? His point was to do the work. Get your hands dirty and learn from first-hand experience. You will have better knowledge because of it.

Sailing with Tessie.
Source: David Bayreuther

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
My wife and I enjoy skiing in the winter, and golf and sailing in the summer. We are starting to get the boat ready to be back in the water by May so we can enjoy the summer sailing around New England.