Latin America. Since the main purpose of a fire protection system is to save lives and property, it is important to design the piping network system for reliable performance. To ensure that fire protection systems work as designed, it is critical to take into account the corrosion resistance of pipes.
Engineers use the Corrosion Resistance Ratio (CRR) as a measure to determine how the pipe resists corrosion by evaluating the relationship between pipe wall thickness and corrosion susceptibility. Corroded pipe can lead to drilling that causes costly leaks, a system failure, and in the worst case, system failure can put people in danger.
Corrosion is a massive problem for threaded pipes. While it is possible to drain water systems, there will always be a minuscule amount present, even in dry systems. When fire protection systems are in use, oxygen will always be present in the pipe in the form of compressed air. It is inevitable that corrosion will occur, with the mixture of metal, water and oxygen, creates the perfect storm for it.
A common practice is to increase the thickness of the pipe in a system to increase corrosion resistance for this method of pipe joining, but this can greatly increase the cost of materials and installation. Although threading is an established method, there is a way to increase corrosion resistance that also saves money and mitigates the risk of system failure: switching to grooving by lamination and slotted couplings.
The Innovative Groove System | IGS replaces threaded connections with slotted mechanical joints. IGS improves hydraulic performance and CRR while using a Schedule (Sch.) 10 thickness tube, improves system durability with mechanical joints, and creates a longer service life than threaded pipe.
Three reasons to switch from a threaded fire protection system to a slotted one:
The Most Trusted Approach to Security
Lamination grooving is a more reliable solution for small diameter pipes. Unlike cutting grooves and threads, it does not remove metal, so the thickness of the pipe wall is not compromised. The lamination grooved tube in 1 inch in diameter allows the use of Sch. 10 tubes in a complete system while increasing the CRR.
2. Innovation and reduced costs.
The ability to use Lamination-grooved Sch. 10 pipes instead of Sch. 40 pipes threaded in 1 inch in diameter drastically reduces material and handling costs and increases corrosion resistance. Benefits include:
Improve the hydraulic characteristics of the system by increasing the inner diameter of the pipe
Simplify the order
Ease of installation and workmanship
The difference in weight is considerable. A suppression system built with Sch. 10 steel pipes grooved by rolling could be up to 17% lighter than a system built with Sch. 40 pipes, which not only facilitates installation, but significantly reduces material costs and increases corrosion resistance.
3. Compressed project schedules
Increase corrosion resistance by changing the pipe joining method to mechanical connections and experience the speed of the Victaulic RG2100 lamination grooving tool. With up to a 55% less increase in efficiency for pipe preparation compared to a threading tool, project schedules are quantifiably condensed. Currently accepted and used in pipes larger than 1 inch due to ease of installation, slotted mechanical connections now make sense in 1-inch diameter pipes. The same reliability and ease of installation confidence that Victaulic customers expect from their slotted solutions is commercially available for 1-inch pipes, creating a quick and trouble-free solution, providing repeatable and consistent grooves in less than four seconds to increase corrosion resistance.
