Smart Solutions Category: Piping

With History of Success, John E. Green Selects Aquatherm PP-R Piping for School Expansion

John E. Green Co. of Highland, MI, cut labor and installation time by using Aquatherm’s polypropylene-random (PP-R) pipe systems for a 2013 project at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy (U of D Jesuit). The project went so well that when U of D Jesuit and John E. Green teams reconvened in 2014 to plan the school’s new science building, no other piping options were considered.

Past Success with Piping

U of D Jesuit’s chilled-water system features Armstrong pumps and Daikin air handling units, like the one seen here. To meet the construction schedule and save on labor costs, John E. Green had some sections of the new system fabricated at Aquatherm North America’s Lindon, UT, facility.

Aquatherm’s PP-R pipe systems played a key role in the success of the 2013 direct-bury water-source heat pump installation at U of D Jesuit. During that project, 4” Aquatherm Blue Pipe® was buried in an underground trench, serving as the supply and return piping that linked the campus’ boiler house to a 50,000-square-foot building that originally housed the school’s priests, but now serves as administrative space.

For that project, John E. Green provided design-build support. Bob Williams, director of plant operations at U of D Jesuit, worked closely with John E. Green’s Mark Bobrowski, senior mechanical engineer of preconstruction services and a U of D Jesuit alumnus.

The 2013 installation is leak-free. The pipes will not corrode or leach into the soil and are environmentally friendly. In fact, Aquatherm currently has the only piping systems in North America that can contribute directly to LEED v4 credits.

Science Wing Takes Flight

John E. Green installed Aquatherm Green Pipe for U of D Jesuit’s 45° F chilled-water application, keeping the building cool even on hot, humid days.

Construction of the new science wing began at the end of the 2015 school year, and the new building opened in time for the 2016–2017 school year. The four-story, 40,000-square-foot science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) center includes laboratories for robotics, chemistry, CAD, biology, and physics. It also houses U of D Jesuit’s Shell Eco-Car program.

The new STEM center is the largest addition to the campus since the main school building of the current campus was built in 1930. (The original high school was built in 1877.)

To condense installation time to meet the construction schedule and save on labor costs, some sections of the new chilled-water pipe system were fabricated at Aquatherm North America’s Lindon, UT, facility. With the fabrication assistance, Bobrowski noted, “we were able to maintain the schedule and budget by getting this work done efficiently.”

Because of their light weight compared with metal pipe, Aquatherm fabricated spools were carried manually to the roof without a mechanical assist. Tying Daikin air handling units and air-cooled scroll compressor chiller and Armstrong pumps together is Aquatherm SDR 7.4 Green Pipe® in 2″, 2 1/2″, 3″, and 4″ diameters.

“The more you do, the better you become. Toward the end, I really had a good handle on what to do and how to make a perfect fusion [with Aquatherm’s heat-fusion process], and there’s definitely a labor savings compared to welding steel pipe.”

—Josh Umphrey, Journeyman Pipefitter, John E. Green

Aquatherm is joined by heat fusion. The pipe and fitting are placed on a 400–500° F heating iron, then connected. This process bonds the pipe and fitting at the molecular level without the use of chemicals or mechanical connections and eliminates systematic weaknesses and fail-points. Once the installation was complete, the Aquatherm-required pressure test was performed using compressed air. There were no leaks.

Seeing Is Believing

Aquatherm trained and certified John E. Green’s Journeyman Pipefitter Josh Umphrey onsite to install Aquatherm piping. Although this was Umphrey’s first experience with Aquatherm, he was impressed.

“The more you do, the better you become,” Umphrey said. “Toward the end, I really had a good handle on what to do and how to make a perfect fusion, and there’s definitely a labor savings compared to welding steel pipe.”

He added that there is a tendency to be skeptical when a product almost seems “too good to be true.”

“Most of us tradesmen in the field are ‘I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it’ types,” said Umphrey. “But I will say that after going through the process and the pressure test, I’m more than comfortable installing and recommending Aquatherm pipe.”

The chilled-water Aquatherm Green Pipe in hangers on the rooftop of U of D Jesuit’s new STEM center required protection from ultraviolet rays because it is exposed to sunlight.

Safe and Efficient

Bobrowski recommended and specified Aquatherm for the project’s chilled-water piping system because it is corrosion-resistant and will not scale. No hot work permits are needed because Aquatherm’s heat-fusion technique poses virtually no fire hazards. Additionally, no solder or glues are used that could wear or corrode the pipe.

Because Aquatherm is so light, installers can move faster without the risk of injury that often accompanies metal pipe, saving on labor costs. The pipe’s light weight also eliminates the need for extra heavy-duty hangers. Finally, joining the PP-R pipe via heat fusion speeds up the welding process, saving even more on labor costs.

“I think it was a good deal for U of D Jesuit and a good experience for John E. Green,” Bobrowski said. He called Aquatherm’s PP-R piping “a great new product” and anticipated using Aquatherm piping on future jobs.

Most importantly, the customer is pleased. “When [Bobrowski] first introduced the Aquatherm pipe to us, I liked its insulation properties and the speed of putting it together,” Williams said. “On [the 2013] job, the team had budgeted for the trench to be uncovered—and an excavator operator required onsite at his hourly rate—for eight or nine days. The Aquatherm installation only took six days. If we had put steel or welded pipe in, it would have taken a lot longer and increased costs dramatically.

On the roof of the new STEM center, John E. Green paired Aquatherm’s Green Pipe with a 142-ton Daikin air-cooled scroll compressor chiller. Because of their light weight compared with metal pipe, Aquatherm fabricated spools were carried manually to the roof without a mechanical assist.

“So when John E. Green wanted to bring it in on this other project, I was all for it,” Williams continued. “On this project, we again appreciated the inherent insulating properties of the Aquatherm pipe, and we can bill this as a green product. Even though we’re not building a totally green building, we’re able to boast a bit about what we are doing here.”

For more information, visit www.aquatherm.com.

Parker Hannifin’s ZoomLock Braze-Free Fittings Allow Davis Mechanical to Fix Refrigerant Line Leak Fast

To repair a refrigerant leak in the computer room of an office tower tenant, Davis Mechanical Service, Inc. turned to Parker Hannifin Corporation’s ZoomLock™ Braze-Free Fittings, avoiding the need to use a torch or get a burn permit. As a result, Davis Mechanical completed the whole repair in less than an hour and with minimal disruption to the client.

No Time for Downtime

The AXA Towers are among the tallest buildings in Syracuse, NY, and have been iconic fixtures in the city’s skyline since Tower II’s completion in 1973. Recently, one of the AXA Towers’ tenants experienced a R-410A refrigerant liquid line leak in their computer room’s variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system, caused by aging joints coming apart. Originally, these lines were held together with a complex, expensive glue and a pinching press that has, over time, started to loosen.

Keeping servers online and accessible is crucial to a company’s operations. Thus, the tenant required immediate assistance to patch the leak. With the leak’s proximity to their computer system and data center, conventional brazing was out of the question.

“We had to do it in such a manner that caused minimal disruption and maintained cool temperatures,” said Davis Mechanical President Chris Geatrakas. “And because of the location of the leak, we could not easily bring in a brazing torch to repair the leak in a conventional manner.” A portable temporary air conditioning unit was set in place to maintain temperatures as repairs were performed.

Fast and Fire-Free

To tackle these challenges, Davis Mechanical employed ZoomLock Braze-Free Fittings. ZoomLock’s innovative design features a crimping tool to join copper tubes without brazing equipment. Also, ZoomLock fittings are leak-proof, and workers can repeat the joining process faster with ZoomLock than with brazing.

By avoiding brazing tools with ZoomLock, Davis Mechanical was able to make the necessary repairs without having to acquire a burn permit, disable the building’s fire suppression systems, or hire a firewatcher during the job.

“We removed the refrigerant from the line, cut the line, cut the bad piece out, and ZoomLock-repaired the leaking line in a very short time,” Geatrakas said. “We evacuated the system of air, opened valves up, and got them up and running in less than an hour.”

A study by Jay Peters, principal advisor of Codes and Standards International, compared the time required to join refrigeration tube of various sizes by brazing to the time required to join identical copper tubing with ZoomLock fittings. Using ZoomLock saved time at each size; joining went from 31 percent faster with the smallest fittings to 77 percent faster with the largest fittings. While the time needed for traditional brazing increased with each size by a significant margin—35 seconds for 1/4″, 42 seconds for 5/8″, and 75 seconds for 1 1/8″—the difference in installation time between ZoomLock’s smallest fitting and largest fitting was just one second—24 seconds at 1/4″ and 25 seconds at 1 1/8″. And most importantly for Davis Mechanical’s needs, ZoomLock requires no torch, making it a perfect fit for the job and more efficient than traditional solutions.

The quick, torch-free installation of ZoomLock fittings saved time for Davis Mechanical and ensured that they would not compromise computer systems in the affected area. “No lost data, no lost downtime,” Geatrakas noted. “It made our work much easier, cost the customer less, and made us look good.”

For more information, visit www.zoomlock.com. MCAA thanks Parker for being a supporter of MCAA 2017.

University Mechanical Use of Uponor Radiant Flooring Leads to LEED Platinum

To help San Diego State University’s (SDSU’s) Associated Students reach its goal of making all its buildings LEED® certified by 2020, University Mechanical installed an Uponor in-slab radiant heating and cooling system in the new student union. Now, the three story Aztec Center is not only highly sustainable, it is also LEED Platinum certified. (Associated Students is a student-directed, not-for-profit auxiliary organization of SDSU.)

Construction of the 202,000-square foot building began in the spring of 2011. It houses student offices, a recreation center, and an intercultural relations center, including a 1,200-seat lecture hall and a 300-seat theater.

The Aztec Center boasts numerous energy-saving features that make it more efficient than its predecessor and significantly reduce operation costs. The HVAC system includes Uponor’s hydronic radiant heating and cooling system coupled with a dedicated outside air system. It is designed to consume 40-percent less energy than standard HVAC systems.

University Mechanical used 75,000 feet of Uponor’s 5/8" Wirsbo hePEX™ tubing on three floors on the west side of the building to serve 36,000 square feet of space in the new Aztec Center, one of several energy-efficient features that led to LEED Platinum-certification for San Diego State University’s student union. — University Mechanical used 75,000 feet of Uponor’s 5/8″ Wirsbo hePEX™ tubing on three floors on the west side of the building to serve 36,000 square feet of space in the new Aztec Center, one of several energy-efficient features that led to LEED Platinum-certification for San Diego State University’s student union.

San Diego-based University Mechanical had worked on two similar radiant heating and cooling installations, both smaller in scope, at the nearby University of California at San Diego campus—the Structural and Materials Engineering Building and the Health Sciences Biomedical Research Facility.

The project used 75,000 feet of 5/8″ Wirsbo hePEX™ tubing on three floors on the west side of the building to serve 36,000 square feet of space, including dining and lounge areas on the first floor and meeting and office spaces on the second and third floors. The tubing was spaced 6″ on center and fed by 21 Uponor engineered polymer manifolds. The chilled and heated hot water were supplied from the campus central utility plant.

Today, SDSU students enjoy a highly sustainable student union, while school officials are proud to know that nearly 80 percent of the materials from the original student union were recycled or reused in the new Aztec Center.

For more information, visit www.uponor-usa.com.

Mechanical Solutions Halves Installation Time with Parker Hannifin’s Transair Piping

For a new production facility in St. Louis, MO, Mechanical Solutions found they could install Parker Hannifin’s Transair piping for the compressed air system with about half the number of workers needed for a black iron system. Mechanical Solutions also found that with Transair piping, they could preassemble parts in the shop, saving even more time on site.

High Expectations, Short Timelines

When SKF of Sweden designed the North American flagship for its Lubrication Business Unit (LBU), they dubbed it Project SOTA (State of the Art). The 313,000-squarefoot, $26-million building includes manufacturing space for machining and assembly, a distribution center, and two floors of office space. It is one of 13 locations worldwide that produces lubrication distribution systems, from handheld grease guns to automated industrial lubrication systems for mobile and stationary machinery.

Because Transair’s quick connections eliminate the need to thread, solder, or glue pipe, Mechanical Solutions could assemble parts for SKF’s new compressed air system in the shop, saving installation time on site.

Construction began on October 22, 2014, and employees were moving in on October 19 of the following year. Deadlines to get internal systems up and running were tight, and a lot of the design and engineering was done concurrently with construction, said Bryan Stanford, SKF’s continuous improvement manager of the LBU.

“Our compressed air system started going in around June or July, and we only had about a three-month period to get it done,” Stanford said. “We needed something that was lightweight and easy to assemble to help us meet the tight schedule. This was a very tight-budget project, and any cost-savings ideas had to be examined and taken very seriously.”

New Space, New Solutions

The compressed air system is connected to some 190 pieces of equipment at SKF’s facility, including handheld tools and large pieces of equipment in the machining and assembly areas, such as metal cutting and turning equipment. Compressed air is also vital to the operation of assets in its distribution center, with air-powered lifts in the warehouse. This new building was an opportunity for SKF to improve on its old location. Rather than install another black iron compressed air piping system, SKF opted for an aluminum piping system, which is easier to work with and resistant to corrosion, said Stanford.

“The previous place was an old building with a lot of black iron compressed air piping,” Stanford said. “We knew that we had to be state-of-the-art, and with black iron piping you get corrosion that eventually leads to performance loss and pressure drop over the years. That’s something that we won’t see with an aluminum product.”

After considering several products, SKF chose Parker Hannifin’s Transair piping for its new compressed air system. Cost-effectiveness was the main driver in that decision, Stanford said, explaining that although the material costs are higher with aluminum, the installation costs were reduced by 15 to 20 percent. That savings can be attributed to Transair’s lightweight, quick-connect design, so it takes fewer workers less time to assemble and install the system.

Using Transair would also help SKF save money in the long run by preserving its equipment. Transair’s smooth interior and full-bore design promote constant airflow and corrosion-resistance, ensuring extended longevity of equipment and fewer changes of filter elements.

Typically, 10 workers would be needed to size, assemble, and hang black iron pipe, but Mechanical Solutions only needed four to six workers at any given time to do the work using Transair, said its general foreman and pipefitter, Jeff Fox, a member of the St. Louis Plumbers & Pipefitters UA Local 562.

Lightweight Piping Easy to Install Though the work was done quickly, Fox said, he was initially skeptical of the aluminum pipe. Mechanical Solutions has done multiple compressed air installations in the past, primarily using copper, sweat copper, and schedule-40 black iron piping.

“When I first saw it, I didn’t care for it,” Fox said. “I’m old school and I don’t like a lot of change. Transair is a lot lighter than black iron and seemed too easy to install.”

The first thing Fox noticed was how much cleaner Transair was compared with black iron pipe, he said. While black iron requires threading and oiling the pipe, Transair’s quick connections eliminate the need to thread, solder, or glue pipe. Workers could assemble parts of the installation on the shop floor and raise them in place when finished.

Lightweight piping also helped when workers had to assemble piping fixtures in the air, Fox said. Ceilings throughout SKF’s facility are 32′ high, and piping is held in place by nearly 700 pieces of metal framing struts about 20′ off the ground. Mechanical Solutions installed about 11,000 linear feet of piping throughout the building in 3″, 2″, and 1″ diameters, with 1″ and 7/8″ diameter drops. Transair’s quick-connect design made this work much easier and less time-consuming, said Fox.

“When you’re using threaded pipe in the air, you have to level the pipe before you put it in,” Fox said. “With Transair, it’s like screwing in a light bulb. You don’t have to level it until it’s already in place. It’s also a very good-looking system.”

Flexibility for the Future

Ease of use also lends itself to quick changes and flexibility, which was a major selling point for SKF, Stanford said. Both the building and its utilities were designed and built with expansion in mind. With compressed air, coolant, electric, and water lines all hanging from the same infrastructure, SKF will need Transair to be flexible and easily modified as the facility changes through the years, he said.

Typically, 10 workers would be needed to size, assemble, and hang black iron pipe. Mechanical Solutions only needed four to six workers at any given time to install the Parker Hannifin’s Transair aluminum piping in SKF’s new, state-of-the-art facility.

“We need the flexibility to change our manufacturing process quickly to adapt to our customers’ needs,” said Stanford, “whether that means installing a new line or revamping our current lines.”

Workers met the three-month deadline and got the work done within budgetary constraints, Stanford said. Since SKF began operations of the facility, Stanford has seen very few issues with the Transair installation.

“So far, only one connection came apart, but it was easily fixed and hasn’t given us any trouble since,” Stanford said. “Other than that, it’s performing great.”

For more information, visit promo.parker.com/promotionsite/transair/us/en/home. MCAA thanks Parker for being a supporter of MCAA 2016.

Parker Hannifin’s Transair Aluminum Piping Helps Lynch Complete Cleanroom Retrofit in Six Months

To meet a tight deadline, William F. Lynch Co., Inc. recommended Parker Hannifin’s Transair aluminum piping over copper piping, saving installation time, labor, and material costs. By using Transair, Lynch was able to install twice the piping specified in the initial design and still finish the job on time.

Nypro, a plastics injection molding company in Clinton, MA, contracted Lynch, of Worcester, MA, to retrofit an abandoned building so that it could expand and upgrade its health care production facility. As facilities age and building restrictions tighten, retrofitting an older building for modern-day manufacturing can be challenging, especially in the medical industry. In addition, the project timeline allowed just six months for construction.

Seizing an Opportunity

Nypro has been negotiating with a pharmaceutical company to fill the medical delivery devices manufactured by Nypro with the medicine at the time of production, improving efficiency for both parties. However, Nypro’s Clinton facility was too small to handle the expanded scope of work, said Senior Manager of Maintenance & Facilities Mark Butler.

Nypro sought an additional location for its health care division with adequate space for an ISO 8-compliant cleanroom, which has strict regulations regarding airborne particulate cleanliness. The room also required laminar flow—in which air flows in a parallel pattern with no mixing of layers—and HEPA air filters installed in the ceiling, Butler pointed out.

“We keep the particle count down by pressurizing the room, so when you open the door, the minute particles, if any, blow out instead of in,” Butler said. “We’re also very particular about the room’s temperature and humidity.”

The company found a 193,000-squarefoot abandoned building with 58,400 square feet for the cleanroom and another 18,000 square feet for cleanroom expansion. The rest of the building houses support, warehouse/shipping, and offices. Project work included rework of the mechanical systems and the design and installation of a compressed clean dry air (CDA) system. CDA air is critical to Nypro’s manufacturing process, primarily for molding equipment and other pneumatic devices in the assembly area that operate the high-speed assembly equipment.

Aluminum: Alternative to Copper

Initially, Nypro wanted to install a copper CDA piping system, which would have taken more than 1,300 labor hours, said Lynch’s president, Mac Lynch. The complex project schedule did not provide enough time for a CDA installation. After exploring options to reduce manhours, Lynch recommended Parker Hannifin’s Transair aluminum piping.

“The initial design had about 2,300 feet of CDA piping,” Lynch said. “As the project evolved and all parties saw the advantages of using this system, other phases of the project incorporated Transair into the design. Total installed CDA pipe was more than double the initial design—about 5,400 feet, a little over a mile—and we still met the project deadline.”

Parker Hannifin’s Transair aluminum piping was so easy to install that Lynch was able to install twice as much as the initial design called for and still meet Nypro’s six-month project deadline.

Unlike traditional copper piping, Transair does not require any brazing or purge gases, eliminating the need for that added labor expense for the Nypro retrofit. “One man can install most of the pipe alone, and the fittings save quite a bit of labor,” said Mac Lynch, president of Lynch.

The Nypro installation required about 5,400 feet of CDA pipe, which would have taken more than 1,300 labor hours with copper— exceeding the project’s six-month deadline. With Parker Hannifin’s lightweight Transair piping and quick-connect fittings, Lynch met the deadline and the CDA requirements.

Using Transair allowed Lynch to meet the deadline and the CDA requirements. Aluminum is lighter and easier to manage than copper and does not require any brazing or purge gases, observed Lynch, thus eliminating the need for that added expense.

“We didn’t need a big crew hanging the larger Transair pipe,” Lynch said. “One man can install most of the pipe alone, and the fittings save quite a bit of labor.”

Easy to Install, Repair

During the project, workers built section mock-ups on the shop floor before fitting them in the ceiling braces. Only one pipe joint in the entire installation leaked during the testing process, and the quick-connect fittings allowed for an easy fix.

“With a brazed joint, we would have had to cut it out, replace with new, rebraze and purge again, costing a day’s labor plus materials,” Lynch said. “With Transair the repair was about 20 minutes, even at 25 feet above floor level.”

Transair also costs less than copper, said Lynch. The Transair cost savings over a pressed copper system were $24,100, just under 10 percent, and would be more if compared with a brazed system. The cost savings were a big selling point for Nypro.

“Long-time, experienced facility managers have ways of doing things that work for them and are hesitant to move in a different direction. It’s just human nature,” Lynch said. “We believe that the Transair system, once assembled, is as good as any other. We knew we could give Nypro the same quality they expected for a lower price.”

Transair’s smooth interior and full-bore design ensure optimal and constant airflow. Once installed, Transair is guaranteed to resist corrosion, which prolongs the life of both the piping and the facility’s equipment.

“I’ve known about Transair for a while and knew their specifications and claims,” Lynch said. “They delivered on these claims.”

Two compressors (150 horsepower and 350 horsepower) supply the CDA, and a branch for a future 350-horsepower compressor was added. Piping was sized and installed based on the specific pressure delivery needs throughout the facility.

Over sixty percent of the system ranges from 3″ to 6″ in diameter, and the rest from 1/2″ to 1 1/2″.

Quick Turnaround

With Parker’s extensive distributor network, the project’s supplier, F. W. Webb of Boston, was able to get Lynch materials quickly, sometimes with a one-day turnaround.

“Timing was everything for them,” said F. W. Webb’s Inside Sales/Customer Service Representative Mike Costa. “Webb has a good reputation of going out of our way to keep a customer happy. We paid the extra freight charges and did what we could do to get materials out to Lynch when they needed them.”

F. W. Webb pulled from nearby distribution centers that keep a large quantity of material in stock, helping the company meet same-day orders, Costa said. Webb’s intercompany trucking services helped get materials from one place to another quickly, sometimes with two orders in one day. “That’s a value-added thing for Webb that a lot of companies don’t do,” Costa noted.

The project was completed in October 2014, meeting the deadline. From planning to completion, the entire project took nine months, with design work continuing through part of the build-out.

“Transair was very helpful in walking us through their product and getting things off on the right foot,” Lynch said. “As contractors, we don’t like surprises. For this project, Transair’s support eliminated surprises, making us and the owner very happy.”

For more information, visit www.parker.com.

MCAA thanks Parker Hannifin for being a supporter of MCAA 2015.

Easy Installation, Excellent Safety Profile Make TracPipe’s CounterStrike Ideal Choice for BMC

BMC Shaves 30 Days Off Schedule with OmegaFlex’s Flexible Piping

For the gas piping in the new Candlestick Heights apartment complex in San Francisco, CA, Broadway Mechanical-Contractors, Inc. (BMC), chose TracPipe CounterStrike® because it is easier to install than traditional black iron pipe, saving BMC time and money. The fact that TracPipe CounterStrike, OmegaFlex’s premier corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST), provides vastly superior safety performance in earthquakes made the product the ideal choice for the job.

According to Robert Isom, BMC’s director of procurement, “CounterStrike not only provided a substantial cost savings but allowed us to finish this project 30 days faster than it would have taken if we had used black iron.” CSST tubing was widely adopted following the 1995 Kobe, Japan, 7.2-magnitude earthquake, which killed over 5,500 people and destroyed over 300,000 homes. According to Tokyo Gas Company, there were over 11,000 reports of damaged indoor, low-pressure, steel gas pipes compared to just eight for CSST. Now, CSST is used almost exclusively in new construction in Japan.

OmegaFlex’s product safety track record in earthquakes and other natural disasters made it ideally suited for use in the Candlestick Heights construction. The 198-unit complex is located adjacent to San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, the site of the 1989 “World Series Earthquake,” which shook the stadium with a 6.9-magnitude quake and halted play for 10 days.

“[OmegaFlex’s TracPipe] CounterStrike not only provided a substantial cost savings but allowed us to finish this project 30 days faster than it would have taken if we had used black iron.”

— Robert Isom, Director of Procurement, BMC

OmegaFlex’s TracPipe CounterStrike gas piping is manufactured in the United States and is listed by Factory Mutual for seismic resistance. In contrast, most rigid pipe is imported with little or no quality control and is not tested or listed to any national gas piping standards.

In 2012, the University of California, San Diego’s Englekirk Structural Engineering Center simulated some of the largest recorded earthquakes on a hospital structure piped with CSST and traditional black iron pipe. The results were very clear: CSST withstood the tests without any failures, while the black iron pipe fractured. Ultimately, OmegaFlex’s TracPipe CounterStrike provides these safety features at less cost than black iron pipe because of the ease of installation.

Over the past 20 years, over 750 million feet of CSST have been made and installed in the United States. While Candlestick Heights marks OmegaFlex’s first San Francisco CSST installation, it certainly won’t be the last, because TracPipe CounterStrike’s superior safety record and cost-effective installation make it a natural fit for the Bay Area.

For more information, visit www.omegaflexcorp.com.

John E. Green Company Earns High Marks for Campus A/C Retrofit Using Aquatherm’s Blue Pipe and Heat Fusion

To install a central air conditioning system in a high school campus’ main residence building during the short summer break, John E. Green Company called on Aquatherm for an easy-to-install, in-ground piping solution that allowed them to meet the rush deadline. The Aquatherm piping also proved to be an environmentally friendly solution for the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy (U of D), addressing concerns about the potential problems of burying pipe.

The highly respected U of D was founded in inner-city Detroit in 1877. Most of the campus was built in 1930 and renovated in the mid-1990s. The 50,000-square-foot residence building originally housed the school’s priests but now serves as counseling, meeting, and administration space. A boiler house located 120’ from the residence building originally contained a coal-fired boiler that served radiators in the school. In recent decades, the boiler house was upgraded with modern equipment, including water source heat pumps, and configured for future expansion.

Summer Rush Job

John E. Green found Aquatherm Blue Pipe to be “a great fit” for upgrading the piping at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy because it was easier and faster to install than steel or welded pipe, allowing them to save time on this rush job.

The project’s design was fairly straightforward. Three new Daikin two-ton water source heat pumps were installed in the residence building and tied in with existing valves in the boiler house. This arrangement would supply the main residence building with heat pump water and provide extra capacity for up to 20 new heat pumps in the residence building that will be adjoined to a new Science Wing addition scheduled for construction in 2014.

However, the 4” supply and return lines running roughly 120’ between the boiler house and the residence building had to be buried. Neither Bob Williams, director of plant operations at U of D, nor Mark Bobrowski, senior mechanical engineer for preconstruction services with John E. Green, was enthusiastic about traditional pipe options for this application because of insulation and lifecycle concerns.

Bobrowski (a U of D alumnus) said Aquatherm’s polypropylene-random (PP-R) pipe system “seemed like a great fit” for this job. “You wouldn’t put normal plastic pipe in the ground for this application—and I don’t like putting pipe in the ground at all—but with this product I’m not worried about it.”

One of the reasons Bobrowski and Williams were comfortable direct-burying Aquatherm Blue Pipe® was the heat fusion connection method, which heats pipe and fitting on a 400–500° F iron during the connection. This approach bonds the pipe at the molecular level without chemicals or mechanical connections and eliminates systematic weaknesses.

Once the trench was dug, the building penetrations completed, the proper fusion welding equipment rented, and the Aquatherm training course completed, the crew fused 4” Aquatherm Blue Pipe. “We just basically threw it in the ground—I watched the guys do the installation and it was pretty slick,” said Williams. “The guys … were brand new to the system themselves, but once they got a few fusion connections done, it went pretty good and quick, and I think we took several hours out of the job, because the installation went so well,” he added.

Savings on Multiple Levels

Quick installation was important because the 6’-wide, 5’-deep trench was exposed for part of the project. The team budgeted for an excavator operator to remain onsite for eight or nine days, but the work only took six days. “If we had put steel or welded pipe in, it would have taken a lot longer. It went fast, faster than we were expecting,” Bobrowski noted.

Using Aquatherm instead of steel pipe delivered insulation savings. “Since it’s heat pump water, it’s not too hot or too cold and the [Aquatherm] pipe has some insulating value so we didn’t need to insulate it in the ground,” Bobrowski explained.

A Good Green Choice

Williams liked that PP-R is environmentally friendly. “We always look to use green products, but … that isn’t our main concern because when you ‘do green’ oftentimes it costs you a lot of ‘green’ and we can’t kill a project because of that. But we always look at ways of doing things green, and obviously Aquatherm is a green product.”

As the new four-story Science Wing will be a showcase of cutting-edge, environmentally friendly products, U of D is considering Aquatherm for the domestic water supply and HVAC pipe systems in that building. Aquatherm pipe’s 10-year multimillion-dollar warranty and the fact that PP-R is not targeted by scrap thieves are other benefits that might impact the decision.

With one successful job complete, John E. Green plans to use Aquatherm on other jobs. “I put this product in the ground and I’m not going to have to worry about it deteriorating or leaking. We even looked into whether we would be able to drive heavy equipment over it and that checked out okay too. I’m not a fan of putting pipe underground, but this was a good option,” concluded Bobrowski.

For more information, visit www.aquatherm.com.

Auburn Mechanical Finds Aquatherm a Perfect Fit for Jail’s Tough Pipes

To fix a decades-old leaky piping system in Seattle’s King County Jail, Auburn Mechanical used Aquatherm’s polypropylene-random (PP-R) pipe systems to combat the aggressive water degrading the existing pipes. Aquatherm’s products not only provided an ideal solution but also cut installation time and cost when compared with copper piping.

The King County Jail houses over 1,000 inmates and employs over 350 people in downtown Seattle. With three towers, each with 20’-high floors, the 385,274-square-foot facility is equivalent to a 17-story building. Built in the mid-1980s, the jail used copper for the distribution system, with 4” and 6” galvanized steel mains distributing water in the sixth floor mechanical rooms. After roughly 11 years, however, the building’s domestic water piping system began leaking.

Stephen Swinburne, architect and project manager for King County’s Facilities Management Division, said the county had been “band-aiding and selectively fixing leaking sections of pipe since the early 1990s.” In 2004, it was clear that a repipe was necessary, but the bids came in too high, and the project was shelved.

‘Hostile’ Water Takes its Toll

In 2009, pipe samples revealed that the hot water recirculating system was in the worst condition, followed by the hot water and cold water, respectively. The county embarked on a massive renovation project that included $3.6 million for repiping. Engineering tests found that the failures in the copper piping stemmed from aggressive water, high water velocity, and potential installation problems. So the ideal pipe system would be rust-, scale-, and corrosion-proof—and easy to install. Relatively new to North America, German-manufactured Aquatherm has been used in plumbing and HVAC applications in more than 70 countries for nearly four decades. Aquatherm’s heat fusion process involves no flames and is virtually leak-proof. The pipe and desired fitting are simply inserted onto an Aquatherm welding device and heated for a specified time (typically only seconds for the smaller sizes), then joined together. At the time of installation, copper prices were at all-time highs, so the PP-R pipe system cost less than soldered or press-fit copper.

The county selected Aquatherm for the project and Auburn Mechanical of Auburn, WA, to install the piping. Founded in 1975, Auburn provides a full range of preconstruction, mechanical, and building services. The firm was well suited to handle the live change-over job where the majority of water lines had to remain active and security was paramount.

Getting Up to Speed on the Job

Auburn’s field foreman, Brent Delvecchio, oversaw the Aquatherm installation, which began in June 2011. Delvecchio specializes in high-rise mechanical installations (typically using galvanized steel and copper), and he knew working with Aquatherm would be a learning experience.

Delvecchio and his staff completed the initial half-day Aquatherm factory-certified training, which is a prerequisite to offering the company’s 10-year, multimillion dollar insurance policy covering product liability, labor, personal injury, and property damage. The Auburn staff then gradually became adept with the fusion process, installing 6” and 8” Aquatherm Greenpipe® cold water mains and 4” hot water mains with 3” risers to all water closets and 1-1/2” to 3/4” branches for supply lines running to the individual cells.

“[Installation] has sped up over the time that we’ve been working with it. You’ve got to learn to work with it. It’s a lot like gas pipe (HDPE), and you can’t work yourself into a corner. You’ve got to plan ahead and learn the tricks,” Delvecchio said.

One such trick for connections in tight spaces is leaving the fitting on the welding iron longer than the pipe, which allows the fitting and pipe to be handled separately. The Auburn staff created some onsite Aquatherm-specific prefabrication stations, which also increased installation speed.

Facing Challenging Conditions

With all work occurring between 7 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., the Auburn staff had to adjust to working in a jail— and always had to be within sight of a jail officer escort. In the confined spaces, there were instances where making the heat fusion connections was challenging. “Working in the jail is like crawling into an attic and going down a long corridor, since the floors are 20’ slab-to-slab, and then you have to cut the ceiling out. You’re completely blocked, and it’s a totally tight space,” said Delvecchio.

“There have been four big water shutdowns on this job,” Delvecchio continued. “The flushometers on the toilets get stuck if you do a big shutdown, and even a 20-second shutdown would foul 80–150 flush valves, because the flakes in the galvanized steel would clog things up considerably. And you don’t want to go into 500 to 600 jail cells to fix all those stuck valves,” Delvecchio said.

Aquatherm Products Preferred

Swinburne said that despite the difficulty of fusing pipe in tight spaces, he is recommending Aquatherm for other county jobs on a case-by-case basis. “It has many benefits over copper and other alternatives,” he noted.

The construction team and county officials have been pleased with the project. Auburn Mechanical Principal Kim Johnson said, “My favorite thing about [Aquatherm] is that if you have a leak, it is not typically going to be a catastrophic leak. It will not completely blow apart because of the way it’s connected. That’s not the case with other types of pipe. We have had only three leaks on this whole project—and they have been because guys didn’t fuse it correctly, but for the most part that doesn’t happen.”

Asked about the pros and cons of Aquatherm, Delvecchio concluded, “It is far superior to other plastic products on the market for water distribution. This is going to revolutionize the commercial industry as we know it.”

For more information, visit www.aquatherm.com.

Trautman & Shreve Slash Labor Time and Costs with Uponor Radiant Heating and Cooling Systems

Novel Prefab Method Cuts Installation Time Down to Two Days

With an impossible deadline to meet, Trautman & Shreve needed an ultra-efficient tool to meet the twin performance criteria of energy efficiency and cost control for the new Research Support Facility (RSF) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO. So they prefabricated 42 miles of Uponor’s cross-linked polyethylene (PEX-a) tubing into customized “radiant mats” and installed them in just two days, dramatically cutting both labor time and costs.

The NREL is the nation’s only federal laboratory dedicated to the research, development, commercialization, and deployment of renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies. When it came time to build the $64-million, 220,000-square-foot RSF, NREL engineers looked to Uponor radiant heating and cooling to help meet their energy-neutral goals.

“In designing and building the new facility, our aim was to move the needle in how America uses energy to heat and cool buildings,” NREL Senior Engineer Paul Torcellini said. “It isn’t enough to be energy-efficient when commercially viable technology exists to make buildings energy-neutral.”

High-Performance Design

Housing 800 staff members in an open work environment, RSF boosted NREL’s campus square footage by 60 percent but increased campus energy use by only six percent. Achieving this outcome wasn’t accidental. Thorough planning with the following mission-critical goals helped guide the design process:

Design and build a safe work environment
Achieve a LEED® Platinum rating
Aim for ENERGY STAR “Plus” in terms of energy usage

Unique Radiant Installation

A crew at Trautman & Shreve prefabricated 42 miles of Uponor radiant tubing into mats (shown here) customized for each zone of the Research Support Facility at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, ultimately saving time and labor costs.

Tony Barela, project manager for Trautman & Shreve, said, “The job schedule was critical on this project,” Barela says. “We knew that the five days allocated to us were not enough time to build all the radiant heating and cooling zones. It was critical we find another way.”

Barela and superintendent Don Martinez worked with the local Uponor representatives to devise a prefabrication plan for the radiant zones. After mapping out all zones, Trautman & Shreve purchased Wirsbo hePEX™ tubing in standard 1,000- and 500-foot rolls, then, using three-foot plastic rails (with loops in six- to 10-inch spacings to hold the pipe together in an even width), they prefabricated their own radiant mats.

A crew of five people spent three months in the yard at Trautman & Shreve prefabricating each zone—laying out the tubing, tying it to the rails, and rolling up each mat for storage until the decks at RSF were ready for the tubing installation.

“Zones on this project ranged anywhere from 48 to 250 feet long and up to 24 feet wide,” Barela explained. “We customized each mat in whatever dimensions were needed.” For example, on the widest zone, four 6-foot mats were connected to complete that zone.

Once the RSF decks were ready, Trautman & Shreve used a crane to lift the large bundles of tubing. A crew unrolled the tubing, tied it down, and quickly made the necessary connections. The entire radiant tubing installation took only two days, enabling Trautman & Shreve to beat the deadline by three full days.

“Overall, we saved 28 days in the construction schedule,” Barela said, estimating the true day-savings was much more like 60 versus the time required in a conventional radiant installation. These savings, in turn, helped NREL meet its budgetary goals and tight construction schedule.

For more information, visit www.uponor-usa.com.

MCAA welcomes Uponor as a new member.