The Challenge
Our customer was upgrading their building services infrastructure to enable them to work on a new project. The project had a tight deadline for completion and downtime needed to be kept to a minimum. The existing application had been on site for some time and the customer was looking to learn more about the benefits of tubing vs pipe. Whenever we take on a project, one of our guiding principles is to really understand in detail the challenges the customer is experiencing. This is key to being able to offer the best possible solutions to meet their exacting needs. This particular project had many potential safety hazards and high risk aspects:
- High pressure service lines
- Testing pressures of over 400 bar
- System installation at height
- Welding skills gaps
- Tight deadlines
- Plant shut-downs
Our Solution
We provided an initial theoretical design and once this had been validated, we were able to propose a potential tubing alternative to the piping system involving:
- Modified valves to ensure no system contamination from polymers
- Reduction in tubing size from the pipe size because of the reduced pressure drop
- Safer and simpler installation in a complex environment
- Ease of future maintenance compared to welded system
As part of the project scope, Swagelok Manchester provided training on Small Bore Solutions to key stakeholders. Satisfied that switching to a tubing solution would provide them with a technically compliant solution, the customer changed their specification from pipe to tubing for this particular application.
We worked closely with the system designer and our factory to provide all of the documentation and product support required, ensuring the correct products were selected for this critical application. By utilising our global network, we were able to bring forward the deliveries by over two months to support the customer’s tight deadline.
Our Custom Solutions department set out a project delivery plan that highlighted the amount of resource required, delivery dates, zone packaging, documentation requirements and regular review meetings. We were then able to create subassemblies to further minimise installation time by saving over 300 hours of labour and reduce the risk of on-site leaks.
Our solution meant the customer’s operational shut down was kept to a minimum contributing towards a saving of over £100k and 1500 labour hours. How much could we save you?
