Purdue Student Engineers Conquer Blue-White® Assembly Challenge

In October 2025, at the WEFTEC Conference in Chicago, a team of Purdue University engineering students approached Blue-White® Engineer, Nick Anderson, with a proposal. The group was looking for a Senior Design Project with the company in hopes of taking on a real-world manufacturing challenge.

Although the school offered to assign a standard project, the students wanted something more — a challenge that would set them apart from their peers. Blue-White® agreed to work with the Purdue team, and to offer them a real manufacturing challenge.

The Project Assignment

The project began in earnest in January of 2026, when the team of engineering students traveled to the Blue-White® facility in Huntington Beach, California. They toured the factory with Blue-White® engineers and learned about the company’s product lines, including peristaltic metering pumps, and specifically Blue- White One Series FLEXFLO® peristaltic pumps.

Each of these peristaltic pumps has a pump head tube, and Blue-White® manufactures the tubes in-house. The challenge for the engineering students was to take what was a fully manual assembly task and automate it. Making it both more efficient and the end product more consistent.

The assembly procedure in place for One Series pump tubes required the assembler to go through several steps, including stretching the tubing, measuring it to the correct length, then cut, and attach an adapter, held securely and crimped, first to one end of the tube, and then the other. The process was tedious and slow.

Nick and the engineering students spent time discussing ideas and options, and the students returned to Purdue with a clear understanding of what was needed, including the specs that had to be met and the importance of quality. The team were determined to develop an automated system for assembling peristaltic pump tubes for FLEXFLO® One Series pumps.

The Results

Consistency is the name of the game with pump head tubes, and the engineering students came through. The fixture they developed eliminated the need for the assembler to continuously measure, cut, crimp, etc. Instead, they now simply feed the tubing in, press to secure the adapters, and unload.

When the time came for the Purdue Team to present their project, Nick traveled to join the students and watch the team in action. He was pleased and proud of them. The students presented their project, and out of 60+ unique projects, they were awarded the Third Place Medal. Congratulations.

Conclusion

Blue-White’s Nick Anderson had this to say about the project and the engineering students, “Over the last four months, Blue-White® has partnered with a team of six mechanical engineering student seniors at Purdue University on the development of an automated peristaltic tube assembly machine for their senior design project. It was amazing to watch as the team developed the design from end-to-end into a functioning system worthy of winning the 3rd place medal for best prototype out of 60+ unique projects! Having been through this process during my academic career, it was a unique experience to be able to serve in the ‘customer / advisor’ role receiving weekly updates on project status, manufacturing challenges, and design modifications. Overall, it was awesome getting to know the guys, their passion for engineering, passion for the project, and seeing their celebrations upon winning the award in-person!”