Commercial Architecture June 2019 - 44

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PROJECT

| hvac

Plastic Piping For Plastics Maker
Aquatherm plastic piping fits a process piping system for plastics manufacturer.

uring the winter of 2017-2018, a com-

so we had fewer joints to deal with," he added.

bination of a heavy snowpack and

Once the project began, installation of the

high winds caused a portion of the

Aquatherm pipe attracted a great deal of attention

roof to collapse at the headquarters of Illinois

from the IVP Plastics personnel.

Valley Plastics (IVP), Washington, IL. Fortu-

"The engineers were watching us put this in, and it

nately, no one was injured and the damage was

really intrigued them, being a plastics company, that

somewhat mitigated by the presence of a crane

we were putting this thermoplastic piping in their

rail running the length of the ceiling.

building," Frieden said. "The engineers liked the

This bit of adversity wrought by Mother

heat-fusion process, and they all came out of their

Nature served to introduce IVP to polypropyl-

offices and took a peek. Some were familiar with

ene pipe from Aquatherm, Lindon, UT, and

solvent-weld types of plastic, but once they saw the

who better than a plastics manufacturing com-

benefits of the heat-fusion welding process, they had

pany to benefit from the advantages offered by

total confidence in the durability of the product.

Aquatherm piping?

They can understand when it's properly heat fused

IVP Plastics is a provider of customized plas-

there will be no leakage problems."

tic parts for the agricultural, heavy-equipment,

Camp agreed and noted one other benefit of the

and automotive industries. The company's ser-

new piping system: it just flat-out looks good.

vices include consultation, design, prototyping,

"Most of it is buried, but there are sections where

and material management, and its manufactur-

it runs up a wall or transitions from one trench to

ing capabilities range from thermoplastic mold-

another, and it's got that nice pop of blue," he said.

ing, injection molding, insert molding, and in-

"When we bring a guest or customer through they're

mold labeling, to sonic welding.

pretty impressed with it."

About two weeks after the roof collapse,

Frieden added that the Aquatherm product was

while a general contractor was still shoring up

much easier to heat fuse and place in the trenches

the building, Jeff Frieden, president of Warner

than metal pipe would have been. "I think any time

Mechanical LLC, Edwards, IL, had an opportunity to visit the damaged facility.
"We sat down with the IVP Plastics team, the

you're in a process where you would typically turn to
An underfloor trench system with above-floor fittings using Aquatherm piping gives IVP Plastics
the versatility they need for manufacturing processes. Photo: Jeff Frieden

general contractor, and the insurance company,

welded piping, you should look at the time savings
and durability of Aquatherm pipe," he said. "For this
customer, using [the plastic piping] enabled us to

and the bottom line was that time was of the

clean-up water. Columbia also supplied the necessary

essence," Frieden said. "Another contractor had put

fittings, flanges, fusion outlets, and transitions.

reduce the time it took to complete the system and
allow the owner to start production. I also really think it's

together a temporary chiller system to keep them in

The system designed by Warner Mechanical, with

a great choice any time you're in a buried or constrained

production, but the long-term solution was to take the

support from Keith Engineering Design Inc., also of Peo-

space," he concluded. "It's easier to work with than metal

building down."

ria, called for most of the pipe to be located in trenches

pipe and it offers a big advantage in peace of mind. You

Once the decision was made to replace the damaged

under the equipment in the concrete floor of IVP's new

know you can walk away from it when the job's complete

building with a new one, Warner Mechanical was hired

manufacturing facility. Fittings emerging from the trench

and not worry about leaks." CA

to design the process-piping system for the 16 machines

covers allow the machines to be easily hooked up when-

that would be moving into the new building. The old

ever the process line is reconfigured. The company's

process-cooling system had used 6-in. PVC pipe running

Budzar chiller provides 40 F cooling water to the

overhead at the ceiling, and the company said it preferred

machines, with return water flowing through the

a system that would place the pipe in mechanical trench-

Aquatherm pipe at as much as 100 F.

es behind each run of machines.

"We decided to do things differently at the new facil-

Want more information from Aquatherm
(aquatherm.com)? Circle 2 on the Reader
Service Card.

Frieden knew Aquatherm piping would be a good

ity," explained Joe Camp, engineering manager, IVP.

choice for such an application, and IVP management

"We wanted to put the process plumbing in the floor and

agreed. Frieden turned to Warner Mechanical's partner,

it was Jeff's recommendation to use the Aquatherm pipe

Columbia Pipe and Supply Co., Peoria, IL. Columbia

for that. It will be nice to not have pipes sweating and

* Columbia Pipe and Supply, columbiapipe.com

supplied 1,575 ft. of 4-in., 247 ft. of 3-in., and 156 ft. of

dripping, which was a problem when we had the PVC

* Keith Engineering Design, kedmep.com

1 1/2-in. Aquatherm SDR-11 MF Blue Pipe for the pro-

overhead. Another nice feature of the Aquatherm pipe

* IVP Plastics, ivpplastics.com

cess-chiller piping, and 507 ft. of 1-in. Green Pipe for

was that we could get longer continuous lengths of pipe,

JUNE 2019

COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T UREM AG A ZINE.COM

Sources listed below are linked at
commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/
1906aquatherm.

http://www.aquatherm.com http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/ http://www.columbiapipe.com http://www.kedmep.com http://www.ivpplastics.com

Commercial Architecture June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Architecture June 2019