Pipes

Amcast Industrial Corporation COFLEXIP SA DALMINE SPA Inmins Limited

Jakl Karvina Kic Pont-a-mousson Sa Shaw Group, Inc.,

Teihyu Corporation TROUVAY & CAUVIN Tubos Reunidos SA Victaulic Plc

Guide to Pipes

Find the right parts for your industrial piping needs
By Christine Emmick

Industrial piping systems require specialty equipment and a knowledgeable supplier. When transporting a fluid from one part of the factory to another, you not only need the right sizes of pipes to transport the material, you also need the right material of pipes and fittings for your type of liquid or gas.

Your design team may want to establish a relationship with an industrial piping system supplier during the design phase of the project. Here are the steps you need to take to find the right design phase suppler:

1. Narrow your selection of suppliers by pipe specs required for your project.
2. Make a short list of the suppliers that have the industrial pipes your project needs and contact those companies.
3. Base your final design phase supplier by the company's customer service and willingness to provide product samples and meet your special design requirements.
   

Action Steps

The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Develop a list of companies that specialize in supplying the pipe machinery the project requires Many designs require certain diameters of pipe, in either metric or English measurements, while others require certain materials transport the fluids, such as stainless steel piping or copper piping systems. No matter what your specifications, there is a piping supplier for your needs; you just need to find them.

I recommend:  ThomasNet and GlobalSpec, two of the leading online engineering catalogs, give your design team quick access to many of the nations top manufacturers and suppliers of pipe and fittings. Many of these companies will make custom parts when your design calls for it as well. You'll need to register to use GlobalSpec, but the results are worth the quick registration process.

Narrow your list of piping distributors The next step in finding the right industrial piping suppler is to narrow down your possibilities to a short list of manufacturers or suppliers. You can accomplish this by selecting a facility close to your project location, or by selecting a manufacturer that makes a specialty or custom designed piping products well suited for your intended application.

I recommend:  Inplex, a custom designer and manufacturer of plastic industrial piping, specializes in doing the impossible for the automotive, toy, food and appliance industries, among others. Acid Piping Technology, on the other hand, is a company that carries a wide variety of MONDI, alloy and rubber lined piping products and fittings in stock and ready to order.

Get great customer service so your piping project gets off the ground smoothly A manufacturer or distributor that takes the time and cost to send your design team product samples and spec sheets is worth its weight in gold. The ease of which you can gain access to the sales and customer support and the training that these people have are valuable resources for the design team as well.

I recommend:  Two piping suppliers which have superior customer service are 2M Company and Engineered Piping Products. 2M Company, a distributor of PVC, brass, galvanized and copper pipe, has a comprehensive online catalog and friendly and available staff. Engineered Piping Products has a 24-hour emergency call in service to make quick work of pipe repairs.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• If your project is a new, ground-up project, keep pipe materials open for suggestion. For instance, food grade plastic industrial piping is now replacing some stainless and other materials in food processing equipment.