TPi January 2015

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48 Tube Products International January 2015
Copper tubes
Copper piping system for
hospital expansion project
During the installation of the plumbing
and mechanical system at the Nemours/
AI DuPont Children’s Hospital, the
shape of the new building created
some unforeseen challenges for the
contractor.
The semi-circular design of the new
$215mn, five-storey hospital building in
Wilmington, Delaware, USA, required a
large-diameter piping system that was
lightweight, malleable and easy to work
with. Black steel pipe – the material
originally specified for the project – did
not meet the criteria and was proving
to be difficult for the job. As a result,
Binsky & Snyder, Skanska USA and
AEI Engineers, as a group, decided
to contact the Copper Development
Association (CDA) for assistance.
“We got a call from the engineer on the
project asking about bending copper
tube in sizes up to 2½ and 3" so
that they could have it wrap around
two football-shaped additions,” said
Dale Powell, project manager and
piping application specialist for CDA.
“Following discussions with the engineer
and installing mechanical contractor,
it was determined that the amount of
bend required would be well within the
limits for copper tube and could easily
be accomplished by several local pipe
bending companies.”
On the advice and recommendation
of CDA, the hospital opted to use a
copper piping system instead of black
steel pipe. Copper tube of various sizes
is being installed for domestic hot and
cold water service, HVAC systems, and
for medical gas distribution. Copper’s
performance, durability, versatility,
reliability, resistance to corrosion, and
ease for bending and fabrication made it
the chosen option for this project.
According to Michael Duffy, project
manager for Binsky & Snyder, “Given
the radius of the building, the bending
required and the weight of the piping,
it was much easier for us to work with
copper than steel pipe.”
CDA has released a video case study to
highlight the new copper piping system
installation at the hospital.
Copper Development Association
Inc – USA
The project design team
worked at an off-site
warehouse to pre-fabricate
the plumbing modules
Copper tubes were installed for domestic
hot and cold water service, HVAC systems
and medical gas distribution
PlasmaANNEALER for small copper tubes
Plasmait has introduced a new
PlasmaANNEALER for precision, thin-
walled and small diameter, tubes. The
annealer can be used for tubes made
of copper, titanium, alloy, stainless steel
and nickel alloy.
Plasma improves annealing speeds on
small diameter and small cross-section
tubes and improves surface quality of
the finished tubes. Plasma annealing
can be performed in-line with tube
welding or drawing substituting multiple
lines of a traditional tube furnace.
The annealer features compact design,
high energy conversion efficiency, very
low gas consumption and gives the
operator the ability to target mechanical
properties with a great degree of
accuracy. Rapid heating and reduced
time of recrystallisation results in fine
grain size with uniform crystal structure.
This in turn improves material formability,
and its susceptibility to bending and
further drawing.
Plasmait – Germany