Facility Piping Design Services
Facility piping is more than a network of interconnected pipes, valves, and fittings used to transport materials. It is the facility’s circulatory system, transporting materials – water, chemicals, gases, or other substances – where needed, quickly and safely. Piping engineering and design should create a system that optimizes flow, minimizes maintenance, and maximizes longevity.
HECO Engineers design team understands that even the best piping and mechanical layout is only half of the challenge when design facility piping for equipment and process units. Our team demands tight collaboration with all our engineering disciplines to ensure a project’s success.
The Role of Facility Piping Systems
They act as a vast network of interconnected and independent systems for specific process pipes, valves, and fittings that transport essential fluids and gases throughout the entire facility. These systems include:
- Transporting substances: The primary function of piping systems is to move liquids, gases, and even some slurries (mixtures of liquids and solids) around a facility. This can include anything from water and steam in a commercial building to hazardous chemicals and fuels in a manufacturing plant.
- Supporting various processes: These systems are critical for various industrial processes. They deliver raw materials, cool down equipment, remove waste products, and transport end products. Without them, most factories and refineries wouldn’t be able to function.
- Ensuring safety and regulations: Piping systems are designed and built to comply with strict safety regulations. The materials used, the installation methods, and the testing procedures are all crucial to prevent leaks, explosions, and contamination.
Achieving Facility Piping Success
Pipes are more hands-off in nature, eliminating manual handling, which saves time, reduces labor costs, and lowers risk. HECO Engineers focuses on system design that leads to efficiency, cost savings, and reduced risk.
The best strategy to save money on your facility’s piping system is to:
- Perform regular Maintenance: Check the system regularly to help prevent minor issues from becoming major problems.
- Design Efficiently: Create the optimal piping system to reduce the amount of piping needed and make maintenance easier.
- Consider Sustainability: Environmentally friendly materials not only benefit the local ecosystem and the cost savings benefit.
- Efficiency: Design facilities systems holistically to reduce long term costs, and increase system long term performance from the goals and vision of the building owner.
- System Redundancy: Building redundancy to prevent unforeseen downtime for high risk processes that impact critical facilty productivity.
Energy Efficiency as the Bottom Line
Energy efficiency is about optimizing the entire facility piping system for peak performance. HECO Engineers takes a comprehensive approach that considers all aspects of the piping system, from the materials used to the layout and design.
- Pipe material and size impact temperature and pressure during transportation. For example, using uninsulated pipes can cause heat loss, costing you money to keep the fluid at optimal temperature.
- Pipe layout and design affect how far something must travel and bend. For example, if the design is not optimized to remove bottlenecks, unnecessary pressure drops as the fluid bends and turns, increasing the cost of transportation.
- Pipe system maintenance and monitoring help prevent minor issues, like leaks or blockages, leading to costly inefficiencies to major system repairs or failures.
Fortifying Safety and Compliance
The facility’s piping system is designed for safety and accident prevention during construction and throughout its life cycle. HECO Engineers’ are intended to safeguard occupants and minimize legal risks.
- Regulatory Standards: Adherence to safety regulations and codes such as ASME B31.3, API standards, and others is paramount12. These ensure the protection of personnel, the environment, and the integrity of the system.
- System Constructability: Mechanical engineers play a crucial role in design for safety and accident prevention during project construction and throughout a facility’s life cycle. This involves specifying safer technology and methods, minimizing the impact of, or possibly even eliminating the potential for, certain types of accidents and injuries.
- Biofilm Build-Up: The growth of biofilm, caused by microorganism accumulation and growth on wetted surfaces, can damage industrial piping systems, increase maintenance and cleaning costs for system sterilization, and even put the immune system at high risk. Addressing biofilm resistance issues in industrial piping is crucial.
- High-Pressure Ratings: High-pressure piping can withstand maximum working pressure greater than 10 bar or 1.0 MPa4. Some organizations mention that the class of high-pressure is over class 300, equal to a pressure nominal of 50 bar4. Ensuring the piping system can handle these pressures is essential for safety and compliance.
- System Maintainability: By implementing inspection protocols, documenting maintenance activities, and ensuring adherence to safety regulations, mechanical engineers can increase the safety of the piping system. Start your project with a thorough mechanical engineering site assessment and investigation.
- Compliance Labeling: Consistent and effective compliance labeling, in accordance with OSHA and other industry regulations, is essential to prevent workplace injuries, costly downtime, workers’ compensation claims, and fines.
- Emergency Preparedness: Mechanical engineers should ensure that workplaces are ready for potential disasters with effective planning and preparation.
- MEP Systems: Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) systems form the backbone of any industrial facility. These systems including our process piping design, commercial HVAC design and fire protection systems are responsible for providing a safe, comfortable, and efficient working environment for employees while ensuring the smooth operation of critical processes.
HECO Engineers: Your Facilities Piping Solution
Our commitment goes beyond just paperwork. It’s about turning your vision for that high-rise building, community park, or industrial facility into reality. HECO Engineers takes a proactive stance by predicting challenges, collaborating with stakeholders, and finding creative solutions for facility piping.
- Project Management Solutions: We believe that each project is unique. Our project managers excel at developing custom solutions to meet your project’s feasibility, financing, and coordination with professionalism and care.
- Construction Project Experience: With a portfolio that includes both residential and commercial projects, our construction managers have the knowledge and experience to guide your project through each deadline.
- Sustainability and Quality Commitment: At HECO Engineers, sustainability is more than just a buzzword to us. It is a commitment to building structures that are both environmentally friendly and long-lasting.
- Coordination and Communication: We make sure everyone is on the same page every step of the way, from contractors to tenants.
- Advanced Technology and Tools: We are always at the forefront of technological innovation so your project benefits from the efficiency and precision that technology provides.
Connect With HECO Engineers
Facility piping systems are a crucial part of your commercial or industrial facility. HECO Engineers is committed to incorporating advanced and future trends, including modular construction techniques, advanced materials and coatings, digitalization and IoT integration, sustainability and green solutions, and robotics and automation.
As a trusted Treasure Valley leader, HECO Engineers is dedicated to mechanical engineering solutions,, sustainability, system performance, and client satisfaction. We are more than an engineering firm; we are a trusted partner who is committed to making your project a success. Contact us today so we can collaborate and create facility piping systems that are efficient, and sustainable – for today, tomorrow, and the generations to come.
FAQ’s
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When you are ready to move your project forward or have questions you can contact us at (208) 642-3304 , use the web chat, or by visiting our “Contact Us” page. We are open 8-5 PM MST, Monday – Friday and we look forward to discussing your project in more detail.
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