Dear Ditch Doctor
We recently installed a 15,000-ft 12-inch diameter Ductile iron pipeline with several 6-inch branches off two hydrants. The average depth of cover is 4 feet. The city engineer has expressed a concern that residual groundwater might have entered the pipeline during our installation activities.
Did you know the mattress industry is one of the oldest continuous industries in the world? The first mattresses were believed to have been manufactured in 37 BC in Persia. Today, more than 35 million mattresses are shipped world-wide to replace those that have been in service for an average of seven years. So, what does this have to do with Ductile iron pipe (DI pipe), you ask? This article will discuss how setting improper bedding in a pipe trench can cause sleepless nights for the water company and its crews due to pipe failures, seemingly always at night — as it is my experience that most large main breaks typically occur after dark!
This entry in the Iron Strong Blog compares the performance of Ductile iron pipe (DI pipe) to Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) pipe against cyclic pressure variations in piping systems. Cyclic loading, or more accurately, cyclic surges, is a phenomenon where pressures in a pipeline frequently vary due to changes in demand, operating conditions, storage tank levels, treatment plants, and pump starts and shutdowns. Surges can also occur during common field operations such as exercising or flushing fire hydrants or valves within the system, which can drastically change flow parameters, causing surges or water hammers.
When choosing an appropriate utility piping material for your water or wastewater project, there is so much more to consider than just the purchase price alone. This comparison between two popular piping materials – HDPE and Ductile iron pipe – demonstrates the need for more than just a cursory review or habitual choice. At McWane Ductile, we are always available to run through the matrix with you. Some installations or conditions do favor alternate materials, yet it’s hardly ever a cut-and-dried deal. Let’s take a closer look to find out why.
Forty miles north of Bangor, Maine, at the confluence of the Piscataquis, Pleasant and Sebec Rivers, is the town of Milo Maine, a charming enclave founded in 1802. The early history of Milo was dominated by iron works and railroads where it soon became home to the second largest railroad car and repair facility in the New England territory at that time.
Gaskets Are Great
Rubber gaskets are the reliable workhorse of any Ductile iron pipe (DI pipe) joint. They provide long-lasting flexibility and a watertight seal against internal pressures upwards of 1,000 psi.
What they don’t do, however, is bind the joint longitudinally against such forces. In fact, without assistance from other variables, a push-on or mechanical joint of any diameter would calmly separate lengthwise against pressures as low as 50 psi.
Can McWane Ductile provide bonded coatings? A good question recently posed and more frequently asked due to a greater recognition of potential corrosive environments. To correctly address this question, some other questions need to be answered first.
Accountability through traceability. That’s the cornerstone of Quality Assurance in any manufacturing process.
Often referred to by the abbreviation QA, if you don’t have firm control of this, you don’t have a product worth using. Quality products where lifetime warranties and reliability begin.
McWane Ductile is dedicated to continuous improvements in both product quality and personnel safety throughout all aspects of the process, in our foundry as well as the end-users’ systems.
On July 24, 2018 the ½ Day of Water event took place at the state-of-the-art training facility in West Palm Beach Florida. The utility’s sprawling and beautiful center has significant space for hands-on training, large dual-screen high-resolution digital presentations, individual and group computer skills and software training, and so much more. Nearly 40 Palm Beach County utility workers, ranging from field personnel to design engineers, plant operators, and department managers were in attendance.
In a continuous effort to make your job easier, we have developed an online submittal builder to quickly and neatly package your personalized presentation.
BUILD MY SUBMITTAL
Looking for answers to your DI pipe questions? Find decades of Ductile iron expertise with installation guides, videos, tip sheets, training resources, and more in our Learning Center.
GIVE ME ANSWERS
Stop struggling with those hard-to-figure field calculations and put ease and efficiency right at your fingertips with our Pocket Engineer for mobile and desktop devices.
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McWane Ductile is proud to be a part of the McWane family of companies.
