The advance of stainless steel

DH Stainless, stainless steel, pipes, pipework

With thin-wall stainless-steel pipework steadily catching on in the building-services industry, Dugald Craig of DH Stainless shares his thoughts on the issues and the benefits for the industry.

As the market is becoming increasingly aware, thin-wall stainless-steel pipework is rapidly gaining market share in the building-services industry as a replacement for carbon steel, copper and plastic pipework systems. The product has been an established process pipework pressure equipment (PED) approved product in the chemical, pharmaceutical, food and drinks industries for over 40 years. These days it is also the default piping product in the water-treatment industry.

However, when this pipework was first introduced over 20 years ago it was met with resistance by the main water-treatment contractors. In fact, the introduction and growth of stainless steel in the water industry was pushed through predominantly by the industry pipework fabricators, which became increasingly aware of the technical and competitive advantages that thin-wall stainless-steel piping products presented and utilised them to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

It is interesting that the introduction of thin-wall stainless-steel piping in the building-services industry is being more directly driven from the top down by main contactors. Obviously in the current economic climate they are extremely interested in any potential savings that are not detrimental to performance.

One main contractor has openly stated that 10 years ago the enthusiasm for ‘out-of-the-box thinking’ was minimal, even if savings were apparent. If it was not broke why fix it seems to have been the general attitude.

So perversely for us these austere times have meant we have been given a realistic opportunity to prove the technical superiority and competitive edge thin-wall offers the projects through competitive material prices, a corrosion-free product with no coatings required, faster welding times, lighter weights and support structure as well as faster installation and commissioning times. It would almost certainly have not been open for consideration in the recent past.

The biggest issue we find is that stainless-steel piping is less welcomed by some of the established more traditional building-services pipework contractors. Whilst this is the opposite of what happened in the water industry, it is easy to understand. The welding of stainless steel can often fall outside their current working practices and historical experience and can sometimes be seen as more of a threat than an opportunity to their current business model and established fabrication set-up.

Also the most common method of welding thin-wall stainless-steel piping products is TIG welding and argon purging. This is not the method of manufacture for some of fabricators — which generally only MIG weld, as they have always done.

The challenge for the traditional product fabricator is two-fold. The first is whether to embrace the new product or ignore it. The second is whether to pass the savings on to the client or attempt to retain a portion for themselves.

DH Stainless, stainless steel, pipes, pipework
The primary area of competitiveness for thin-wall stainless-steel pipework is above DN 50.

Undoubtedly investment would be required to be able to fully engage in a competitive-price situation with an experienced thin-wall fabricator having the optimum set up and weld times. As the traditional fabricators have been making their decisions, a number of stainless-steel specialist pipework contractors are now making big inroads into the building-services pipework sector by displaying and exploiting their knowledge of the product.

As in any market, it follows that now some of the current traditional building-services piping contractors are forced to embrace the opportunity presented to them and adapt their approach accordingly.

The reality is, of course, that thin-wall stainless-steel pipework is no panacea for all sizes and applications. Its primary area of competitiveness is above DN 50, particularly for large diameters and for 16 bar working pressure and below. As such, it is certain that carbon-steel and plastic pipework systems will retain a significant share within the building services sector and that the most successful piping fabricator sub-contractors will be those who understand the competitive edge that thin-wall stainless steel can offer their customers in certain areas.

These companies will have embraced the additional attractions stainless steel offers to consultants and main contractors with its high-tech image, lighter weights and bracketry — as well as the opportunity for significantly quicker installation and commissioning times.

I can envisage that in the future the most successful pipework contractors in the building-services sector will have efficient operations in the welding process and procedures for both stainless steel and carbon steel fabrication aspects to their business — including modular spooling where practical.

Dugald Craig is managing director of DH Stainless Ltd.

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