When a project began to bring much-needed housing infrastructure to central England, the Tritan™ 560 was put to the test – and the machine passed with flying colors.
The market town of Hinckley, located in southwestern Leicestershire, England, is the third-largest settlement in the county. As of 2021, its population had grown by 11 percent since the last census took place in 2011. And with that growth continuing, it became clear the area needed to provide rapid expansion for housing. Developers knew there were several factors to consider, including the wastewater that would be generated by an influx of population.
In the UK, current infrastructure has been under enormous scrutiny in recent years due to existing water systems becoming overwhelmed by rapid population expansion. That, coupled with changing weather patterns, has led to numerous events where wastewater was discharged into local rivers, impacting local ecosystems and populations.
When plans began for a project that would develop additional housing in the area, developers realized they had to approach things in a unique way. To accommodate for the growing population’s additional wastewater needs, these housing developments would be linked to two large wastewater treatment works. Linking the wastewater treatment works to the latest housing development served two purposes. First, it allowed the existing infrastructure to absorb a periodic influx of wastewater. Second, it gave the developers some breathing room by giving the development time to expand existing infrastructure.
To begin, developers contracted with Murphy, an international engineering and construction company that operates in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and the United States.
The project was split into two phases. For the first phase, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of 560mm SDR11 through SDR17 polyethylene would need to be installed to begin linking the new housing to the wastewater works.
For such a long stretch of pipe, Murphy contacted Fusion Utilities UK, who decided this was a perfect time to try out their newest piece of McElroy’s world-leading pipe fusion equipment: the Tritan 560. This project marked the Tritan’s UK debut – and was one of the Tritan’s first appearances in the field worldwide.
“From the first time we saw the Tritan, we knew that its immediate benefit was on above-ground fusion installations,” said Gareth Coley, a Thermofuse pipefitter. “The ability to move to the welding point rather than pulling the pipe through the machine was of great interest.”
Thanks to the Tritan’s cutting-edge design, which allows operators to meet the pipe where it lays and grasp the pipe with its top-down jaws, the fusion crew were able to efficiently and safely make fuses and drive the machine to the site where the next fusion needed to take place.
“The clamping area being placed over the top of the pipe rather than under it made the process very efficient,” Coley said. “All the operators would do is release the clamps and drive forward to the next jointing position.”
Once the first phase was completed, fusion work began on the second phase, which consisted of 160m of 560mm of SDR11 pipe into a concrete ducting. To accomplish this, the machine itself was lowered into a pit that sat 10m below level ground.
“On this part of the project, the excavation and tunneling didn’t allow for a TracStar® to be placed into the pit,” Gareth said. “The depth of the pit also meant that an in-ditch system would not be able to work. The only machine that was able to butt fuse within the confined space was the Tritan, further.”
And while that’s great for the Tritan’s reputation, it brought another big benefit too – better crew safety, improved speed, and considerable financial savings to the project, said Paul Hurst, director of Thermofuse.
“The top clamping proved to be vital in the increase of productivity. The ability to adjust the welding height to match the height of the concrete duct significantly reduced the insertion time,” Gareth said. “The reduction in lifting and handling not only reduced the overall risk, but proved to be a significant saving in time, speeding up the project and allowing for more pipe to be welded during the day.”
In all, the Tritan 560 completed more than three hundred welds, all of which were recorded using the DataLogger® 7 and sent to the Vault™.
With the project now officially complete and Hinckley better prepared to meet its growing population’s needs, Fusion Utilities UK are thrilled at the Tritan’s ease of use and performance.
