Cold tapping on chilled water at Vision Labs, Birmingham
Client: Vision Labs, on behalf of Cool Logic
About: Vision Labs are a specialist manufacturer of medical optics and lenses. Cool Logic are a refrigeration and air conditioning contractor, who use Ormond Pipework Services Ltd as a sub-contractor for specialist under pressure drilling interventions.
The problem: Vision Labs required a new flow and return on their chilled water to supply a heat exchanger.
Production facilities require ambient temperatures and as the facility wanted to avoid costly downtime, turning off the chilled water system was not an option.
Therefore Cool Logic brought in Ormond Pipework Services to conduct a live tapping procedure on the chilled water pipework.
Our solution: Hot tapping (live tapping, under pressure drilling) is the process of drilling into live pipe systems in order to form a new branch connection.
Our commercial pipework engineers fitted two 2.5”x1.5” live tapping mechanical clamps.
Using clamps and therefore avoiding hot works, this method of under pressure drilling is known as “cold tapping.”
After a successful pressure test, we attached our cold tapping equipment and started drilling into the live pipework.
Once the cold tapping was complete, safety plugs were placed into the valves.
Tasks involved:
Hot tapping (cold tapping) / under pressure drilling on chilled water
Live tapping on stainless steel pipe
