ELGEF Plus Reference Cases

Close to our headquarters in Schaffhausen, SH POWER’s installation team is working on a project to renew water transport pipelines. Shortly before the start of construction, the team noticed that their existing butt fusion machine was not correctly equipped for the project with the protective-jacketed pipe. Due to a tight schedule, a quick solution had to be identified. 

Brazil wants to guarantee reliable access to clean drinking water for its entire population by 2030. This goal is in accordance with the sustainable development guidelines set forth by the United Nations. In order to achieve this, Brazilian utility company Sabesp has invested about CHF 972 million into the water network of São Paulo, the most densely populated municipality in the country. Currently, the company is modernizing 700 kilometers of its network with modern polyethylene solutions by GF Piping Systems for a long-term, safe, and efficient water supply.

The 250 km long supply network of the public utility Amstetten supplies drinking water to the region’s 25,000 inhabitants. As part of a five-year network expansion project, a new 2.2 km transport line with a diameter of 400 mm is being routed through the city between a well water system and the central reservoir. As the project progresses, the line will also have to pass under railway tracks in a later section. Consequently, a long service life, resistance and fl exibility are the essential requirements for this new transport line.

While water networks have to be renovated regularly in order to guarantee the safe and reliable transport of drinking water, utilities are faced with a major challenge: Maintenance work often requires large trenches to be opened which is not only expensive but also has a negative impact on the surrounding communities. Because of this, France’s largest water utility has elected to install a complete trenchless solution with GF Piping Systems in the region of Lyon.

Due to growing population figures in cities, the demand for water in cities is constantly on the rise. To meet this higher demand, water utility companies must retrofi t large diameter transport lines in densely populated inner-city areas, which often poses major challenges. Trenchless installation techniques combined with Ultrasonic NDT o ers minimized risks at reduced construction costs.

The value of high quality products and outstanding services are especially noticeable in emergency situations. A massive sinkhole caused by a leaking DN600 ductile cast iron pipe swallowed thirty parked cars in downtown Florence. In addition to the disastrous damages, the water company had to immediately restore the water supply for thousands of residents. The challenging task – installing a bypass – could be quickly solved with GF Piping Systems products.

Providing large cities with drinking water is never an easy task. Outdated systems can cause problems such as leakages or contaminations. To secure a reliable, economical and sustainable water supply in the future, the Waterworks Lublin (Poland) decided to renew a part of their old steel piping system. The new PE transport line – jointed by ELGEF Plus fittings – now serves clean drinking water for 150 000 inhabitants in Lublin.

Due to the combined stresses of corrosion, high pressure and constantly evolving networks, water utilities have to regularly renovate their piping systems. In order to make these renovations as e cient as possible, they must rely on technical solutions that speed up the laying process and reduce maintenance requirements. For a large utility company in northern Spain, these solutions are polyethylene pipes and fi ttings as well as trenchless tools by GF Piping Systems.

Buried water supply networks in urban areas need to be ultra-reliable to ensure security of supply, and to keep maintenance and repair costs to a minimum. Operating a reliable water supply system while complying with stringent environmental objectives can represent a headache for utilities. Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY (Finland) chose GF Piping Systems’ ELGEF Plus fi ttings to renovate the capital’s water supply system.

To secure reliable and cost-efficient food production, Agristo requires a 100% safe and steady gas supply for its new plant in Flemish Belgium. Consequently, the contractor was asked to provide measures to minimize the risks of supply shut-downs. To guarantee the best jointing quality of the gas main d355 mm, the installation process was done with GF Piping Systems products, tools and specialized solutions.

When renewing an old steel transport line in Zurich‘s intermediate pressure network, those responsible for the gas supply from Energie 360° encountered a narrow pipeline in the city area and the high groundwater level along the River Limmat. Customized pipe segments, in which ELGEF Plus electrofusion couplers play a key role, are creating a time-efficient and economic solution.

Closely spaced building parts encourage the spread of flames in case of fire and often lead to significantly increased damage or total loss. This is the reason why an industrial company from Germany decided to install, as a precautionary measure, a new fire protection system with an extinguishing water storage system. The idea of equipping the new facility with a larger capacity extinguishing water supply and connecting it to the existing system emerged in collaboration with GF Piping Systems during the planning phase. 

Sprinkler systems and firefighting pipes prevent a fire that has broken out from developing into a major blaze. Once a fire has broken out, every second counts. It can’t afford to suddenly be stuck for water. A cardboard manufacturer had its existing fi re-extinguishing piping system modernized to ensure a reliable supply of water for fi refighting. Three new connections were added to the sprinkler distributors. For the project, GF Piping Systems supplied piping components made from polyethylene as well as the tools required for the installation.

To meet the requirements of a sustainable energy policy, ewl is building a pipeline system for environmentally-friendly energy recovery from Lake Lucerne. Some of this natural lake energy is available to approx. 7000 households in Horw and Kriens as a heat source for heating or at a low temperature for cooling. This cuts CO2 emissions by approx. 10,000 tons per year. The main lines of the new pipeline system (with diameters of d400 mm to d560 mm) extend over a length of approx. 5 km. The limited space and the pipe routing through the heavily populated area created additional hurdles during construction.

In order to meet the growing demand for renewable energy to heat and cool office buildings, energy network provider Eniwa AG is offering a new, centrally controlled remote heating and cooling system in downtown Aarau. The innovative heating and cooling system is operated by renewable energy sources. HODEL SHLK AG, the pipeline construction company, has been commissioned to build the network. The 15  km long distribution network, with nominal diameters of up to d450 mm, is set to be expanded in the districts in stages until 2026.

During the construction of the 6-story office and commercial building for Stirnimann AG, the fresh air intake had to be relocated to the ground outside, due to the limited space available inside. The ventilation ducts for the fresh air intake and exhaust needed to comply with food hygiene regulations and therefore had to be hygienically fl awless and airtight. The tight bends and limited time available for the project only added to the challenges.

The Masoala rainforest is the largest of its kind in Europe and is cooled and heated using a particularly cooling and heating system. 50 geothermal probes with a depth of 250 meters provide the majority of the heat in combination with a heat pump. of the heat. A metal pipe system was previously used to transport this heat. Due to problems with corrosion and pitting, Zurich Zoo decided to install a polyethylene system. to install a system made of polyethylene. ELGEF Plus is used as the connection technology.

The company Max Schetter AG will build the low-temperature district heating network in the fi rst project stage with a length of 1.8 km. The excess energy from a production plant is transported to the customers with 8 – 28 °C hot water as the carrier medium. The HDPE pipelines with diameters ranging from 110 to 450 mm have to be permanently connected safely and reliably into the individual industrial buildings – with as little effort as possible.

The district cooling network is a far more ecological way of keeping a building cool than an air-conditioning system, since it can use the cold temperature of natural water bodies. And because the demand for ecological air conditioning continues to grow, Munich City Utilities (SWM) is further expanding the district cooling network downtown. Thanks to the long-standing collaboration, the reliable components from GF Piping Systems were chosen for the new district heating lines.

Climate change and sustainability have become deeply embedded in social consciousness. More and more people are forcing us to rethink how we treat our planet. While events often appear to be slow at national and international level, certain municipalities are taking matters into their own hands. The city of Soest in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, is running a pilot project with the intention of supplying some 600 residential units with cold local heat. The scheme is making use of products from GF Piping Systems.

The largest Romanian producer of fertilizers – Azomures – supplies farmers with mineral fertilizers for agricultural use. The production plant of Agrumures in Tirgu Mures decided to replace its old and very corroded DN 900 steel pipes for process cooling by d1000 mm polyethylene pipes. The pipeline transports the cooling water between the chemical processing site (50 °C) and the cooling tower. To compensate evaporated water, an intake line collects fresh water directly from the nearby river.