Pipes and pipe fittings are two of the plumbing industry’s core components. Pipes transport various liquids and gases from one part of a structure to another, while pipe fittings serve to control and direct the flow of these materials. Mid-West Instrument, a leading instrument manufacturer in the Midwest, offers broad experience with both products.
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Galvanized pipe is used for water supply lines, well pumps, and various irrigation applications. These pipes are highly resistant to corrosion, thanks to the fact that they are dipped in zinc during the manufacturing process. One industry you won’t often find a galvanized pipe in is home building–it was a common solution up until the s but has since dropped off and is rarely used in new home construction today.
Strong, durable black steel pipes are used to transport natural and propane gas from the street or a tank to a residence. Also known as Black Iron, Black Malleable, black pipe is also ideal for fire sprinkler systems because of its high heat resistance. One of the most popular varieties of black pipe is hub-and-spigot, which is popular in settings in the Midwest such as natural gas filtration and conveyance.
Polyethylene pipes are remarkably effective across a wide range of applications, including drainage, irrigation, water service, and underground gas transport. Polyethylene pipe is durable and provides long-term resistance to varied environmental conditions encountered in outdoor and underground environments.
Bushings are used to join pipes of different sizes, usually by reducing a larger fitting down to a smaller pipe. Bushings are usually threaded both inside and out and take up extraordinarily little space compared to a coupling or union, which accomplish the same goal.
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is a black plastic pipe fitting used in drainage, sewer, waste, and vents. ABS pipe/fittings, as well as PVC, have replaced much of the cast iron, lead, and steel pipes formerly used for DWV (drain, waste, and vent). It’s important to note that ABS and PVC plastic cannot be completely glued together using a solvent cement or primer.
Likely the most recognizable name on this list, PVC is a rigid, generally white plastic pipe. PVC is ubiquitous and proven effective in a variety of applications, including waste transport, ventilation systems, and underground cold-water supply. PVC is also commonly used for sprinkler and irrigation pipes, sewers, drains, and vent pipes, and fittings. In the plumbing business PVC is usually white, but other industries may use different-colored PVC. One good example is water conservation, where purple PVC pipes are used to differentiate reclaimed water systems from potable drinking water systems.
Mid-West Instrument
Since , Mid-West Instrument has been a leading global manufacturer of differential pressure gauges, transmitters, and switches. Our company is family owned and operated from our facility located in Sterling Heights, MI.
Our state of the art factory is equipped the latest CNC machine tool technology, test equipment, calibrations standards, and oxygen clean room. This allows us to maintain precise tolerances and product quality with the shortest lead times in the industry.
Contact our experienced professionals to learn which differential pressure instrument best fits your application.
Through the years, across the country, contractors, engineers, authorities, and customers routinely ask questions that seem basic yet truly speak to the fundamental versatility of Ductile iron pipe (DI pipe). Among the most popular questions are:
While visually "bumpy," the exterior of Ductile iron pipe, if you slide your hand along the surface, feels relatively smooth - like a golf ball – texture vs. feel. That's because the texture applied is entirely purposeful and proprietary to each DI pipe manufacturer.
Commonly referred to as the peen, this precise pattern of circular dimples is machined into the forged-steel mold in which the pipe is made and serves as the mechanism for the initial build of the iron pipe wall during the centrifugal casting process. Without this peen pattern in place, the molten liquid iron would mostly slosh about inside the spinning mold in a non-productive irregular fashion.
The metal known as copper readily oxidizes when exposed to moist ambient air forming an egg-shell-thin yet highly protective green patina on its surface. The best example of this over time is the Statue of Liberty, located in the New York Harbor for nearly 200 years. Her ⅛-inch thin original skin has not diminished over her significant time in the harsh marine conditions, mainly due to the naturally occurring patina.
The simple fact is - oxidation is not rust. Rust is a destructive form of metal disintegration over time. Oxidation happens and then remains stagnant and protective of the substrate to which it is attached unless ambient conditions become more corrosive than oxidation can resist.
While the green patina of copper offers a highly desired visual appeal, the same oxidation process upon the surface of a Ductile iron pipe results in varied shades-of-cinnamon splotchy appearance upon its entire surface. This annealing oxide layer on DI pipe and fittings, much like the patina on copper, is so thin it’s barely measurable yet serves to prevent deeper pitting or degradation of the metal in standard ambient conditions.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Can black iron pipe fittings be used outdoors?.
The problem is, unlike copper, it's not attractive to the eye, and therefore, all Ductile iron pipes are coated with an NSF-61 certified asphaltic-based paint known as sealcoat. Water-based sealcoats are common today and are much friendlier to the environments of the foundry and the external world.
The term "sealcoat" comes from the function of this specialized thin film of paint once served: to maintain enough residual moisture in the initial set of the thin concrete mortar lining of the pipe ensuring the lining to hydrate properly and strongly. Modern foundry techniques and processes now make this "sealing paint" optional on the pipe's interior – customers' choice – as high-speed set modern linings do not require a sealcoat to hydrate correctly. To say it most simply, asphaltic sealcoat on DI pipes and fittings is mainly cosmetic, inside and out.
Yes, ferrous oxide deposition can occur on a bare iron surface transporting potable water. At one time, this deposition did appear on some, but not all, older iron pipes without a barrier lining. However, the primary purpose of cement mortar linings in cast iron and Ductile iron pipes and fittings is to PREVENT tuberculation, which it reliably does.
The cement is a physical barrier between the absorbed mineral content of potable water streams, particularly those with softer water chemistry, and the metal substrate below the lining. The water travels upon the cement lining and has no idea of or connection to the metal below. The thickness of the cement lining is irrelevant in this prevention process.
In fact, minor displacements or isolated exceptions in the lining still typically leave a superficial haze of cement fines or product attached to the metal, which is enough to preclude any considerable tuberculation from occurring. It is a super simple and proven truth that has demonstrated itself for many decades in modern iron pipes. Anyone still pushing the "tuberculation happens in cement-lined iron pipes” narrative is pedaling nonsense.
Conversely, this same standard Portland cement mortar lining serves no intended purpose in a sanitary sewer pipeline. Tuberculation is not a concern in such sewer flows. And if a sewer stream goes septic (pH < 4.5, cyclic or otherwise), the cement mortar lining will be sacrificed in relatively short order. It essentially turns into gypsum wallboard in the rain, a weak mush that gets washed away with the septic flows and/or is dissolved by the dilute sulfuric acid excrements of the bacterial activity common to sewers with a lower pH value.
There is no true functional difference between a Ductile iron pipe spigot having one stripe or two upon its circumference. Whether one stripe or two is involved their primary purposes are:
The number of stripes otherwise is merely an indication of who manufactured the pipe and what the gasket configuration is within the companion bell of that pipe joint. There currently are three separate domestic manufacturers of Ductile iron pipe in America. The single stripe is associated to a manufacturer that employs a Fastite™ gasket, while two stripes indicate the involvement of a Tyton™ gasket.
The primary difference between these named configurations is the shape of the as-cast gasket retainer bead within the bell, be it triangular in one case and semi-circular in the other two. It is also important to note that Tyton pipe hit the marketplace several years before the Fastite design, and the use of a single stripe in the latter simply avoids any copyright or patent concerns.
Industry literature has guided users to gauge or stop post-assembly joint deflection upon exposing the full 2nd (inner) stripe of the Tyton spigot. Yet, in practical truth, the best way to determine that you've reached the maximum recommended deflection limit for any size pipe of either configuration is to stop offsetting the pipe being deflected when its spigot begins to move the bell into which it's being inserted.
That is a reliable indicator of metal-on-metal contact within the joint. Given the innate strength and flexibility of Ductile iron, no damage will occur to the spigot, barrel, or bell unless intentional excessive force (such as from a hydraulic excavator) is used to take this deflection far past the initial inner-contact point.
The greatest enemy of a Mechanical Joint’s enduring watertight status is friction. Compression of the gasket within an MJ joint (such as on a fitting or other appurtenance connection) is created by torquing the nut and bolt fasteners to draw the gland into the joint, packing the gasket consistently around the inner circumference of the joint.
A dry or insufficiently lubricated MJ gasket will create significant friction between the metal surfaces of the pipe and the rubber gasket itself. This friction makes things "feel tight during wrenching," but the friction will dissipate in short order once wrenches cease, accounting for a loss of adequate torque in the joint and, most certainly, a leak when the pipe is later filled with water. "Loose" or “weeping” mechanical joints are the number one complaint that DI product support specialists deal with, and it’s typically found that the gaskets were assembled dry.
Here's a way to tell - fully lubricated MJ gaskets will NOT pick up any sealcoat when compressed. Dry gaskets get "specked" with sealcoat. That's not an opinion. Every DI joint holds its own visible truth. So, lubricate all surfaces of every mechanical joint gasket with the manufacturers' approved lubricant, torque properly, and you'll never again have to say, "the first thing I did was dig up and check all my mechanical joints."
The proper use and assembly of Ductile iron pipe and fittings are by no means rocket science or brain surgery. It is simple, so long as you pay attention to the proven simple axioms presented in this article. If you disagree with any statements or feel we have left something out, we would love to hear from you via or .
You have the questions; we have the answers. Reach out to your local McWane Ductile Representative, check us out on LinkedIn / Facebook / Twitter, or check out the Ditch Doctor section of Iron Strong Insights for more intriguing Q & A!
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