Hot tapping on chilled water pipework for Staffordshire College
Client: Kier Construction, on behalf of South Staffordshire College
About: South Staffordshire College were undergoing renovation which were overseen by Kier Construction Group.
The problem:
Staffordshire College required a new branch on their chilled water in order to supply a heat exchanger.
Turning off and draining the chilled water system was impractical due to inadequate drain points.
Therefore Kier Construction sub-contracted Ormond Pipework Services to perform a live tapping intervention.
Our solution:
Our hot tapping process started with shaping a 4” saddle to fit the 5” mild steel pipe.
The profiled saddle was then welded onto the 5” chilled water main in position.
A full-bore gate valve was then fitted and a pressure test was undertaken.
Upon the successful pressure test, we bolted the under-pressure drill to the gate valve.
We began to drill the live steel pipework and created a 4” hole for the new branch.
Once the drilling was complete a safety blank was fitted to the new valve.
The key advantage to our method was the avoidance of downtime on the chilled water system therefore saving on time and cost.
Tasks involved:
Hot tapping / under pressure drilling on chilled water, mild steel pipework
Positional welding
