Picture This:
A jobsite where an HDPE piping system is being installed, exposed to ever-changing and sometimes unpredictable weather conditions.
Now, imagine this:
A favorite relative has asked you to assemble their latest purchase—a massive entertainment center with “some assembly required.”
Understandable if your first thought is that the former task should be left to experts. And you wouldn’t be wrong.
ISCO’s expertise in handling HDPE piping projects—big or small—is extensive, but that’s a Blog For Another Day (B-FAD).
The latter task, while it doesn’t require highly specialized equipment, does demand a level of construction know-how to navigate the assembly instructions, regardless of which of the 33 different languages you are fluent in. Am I right?
Now Consider This:
All the materials needed to build the massive entertainment center are in their raw state. No wood or particle board has been cut, no laminate has been glued, and no hardware has been mounted or installed.
This is what “ALL assembly required” truly means.
On the other end of the spectrum, imagine if everything were modular, pre-constructed, and the task was simply to link the pieces with easy-to-use fasteners?
I know what I would prefer.
Back to the HDPE Jobsite:
Imagine now that all your HDPE pipe, fittings, elbows, tees, wyes and fusion equipment arrive on the jobsite, requiring complete on-site fusion, in and around complex bends, turns and angles. While ISCO is more than capable and ready to help you navigate such a piping project (B-FAD), there’s a more efficient solution: spooling.
Spooling in the HDPE piping world is simply the pre-assembly/fusion of HDPE pipe segments and fittings in a controlled shop environment rather than on the jobsite.
HDPE Pipe Spooling Application:
HDPE pipe spooling is most beneficial in applications where precision, efficiency, and safety are paramount. This includes large-scale infrastructure projects such as water treatment plants, industrial piping systems, mining operations, and municipal water and sewage systems.
The controlled environment of a fabrication shop ensures the highest quality welds and fittings, reducing the risk of leaks and failures. Additionally, spooling is advantageous in projects located in harsh or remote environments, where on-site assembly would be challenging and time-consuming. By pre-fabricating pipe segments, spooling minimizes field labor, enhances safety, and significantly cuts down installation time, ultimately saving both time and money for complex piping projects.
The entertainment center analogy helps illustrate why pipe spooling offers immense advantages.
Precision and Quality.
In one of ISCO’s 30-plus climate-controlled locations, assembling HDPE pipe to elbows, wyes and tees is infinitely easier and more precise than battling the elements on-site. Although field assembly is possible and has been done countless times, working with modular pieces, various turns and angles in the ditch…well you get where I’m going here.
Eliminating environmental challenges enhances quality and precision. Additionally, the use of specialized or modified equipment for complex fusions—like vertical welds, mitered inserts, sidewall fusion, extrusion welding (B-FAD)—ensures the highest quality results.
Safety:
Indoor assembly avoids weather-related hazards, such as lightning and high winds, that can create dangerous working conditions. A fully equipped shop provides advantages that no field setting can match, including eliminating the need for risky vertical welds on-site.
If you’re putting together an entertainment center, I’m sure you would appreciate not having to break out any type of saw in your man-cave to create the perfect cut.
Time is Money
Spooling saves time. In the shop, constructing a spool piece might take hours, while the same fusion joinery could take a field technician 30 hours under even the most ideal conditions. This nearly doubles the time required, adding stress and potential project delays.
With the pictured spool piece, there were 10 total welds to create this unique piping solution.
In the shop, constructing this spool piece took 16 hours to construct.
A field technician that has perfect weather conditions, no supply struggles with materials, and the proper equipment in place would take 30 hours to make that same build.
I’m no math major, but that is nearly twice the time.
That saves time – a LOT of time. And that saves money. I have never met anyone that hates saving money.
The Bottom Line
- Spooling enhances quality of work in a controlled, easier to manage and maintain environment.
- Spool fabrication in one of ISCO’s facilities minimizes safety risks, production and project delays, while being closer to high-quality testing and quality control resources.
- Prefabricated spools reduce labor, material and production costs compared to on-site fabrication.
There is a chance that the final HDPE piping spool solution and the entertainment center carry the exact same quality whether they are ALL assembly required or modular in nature.
A CHANCE.
But it will take more time and cost more money.
Don’t be a fool.
Spool.