Lined Pipe in Connecticut

Connecticut builds jet engines, helicopters and submarines, and every one of those programs stands on a chain of plating, anodizing and chemical processing shops that run on acid. Add the pharmaceutical campus in Ridgefield, the surgical device plants in North Haven, the state's largest wastewater plant in Hartford and the petroleum terminals of New Haven Harbor, and you have a state that moves a great deal of corrosive fluid across a small amount of land. Marspec Technical Products fabricates PTFE-, PVDF- and polypropylene-lined pipe spools and supplies the lined fittings and valves for that kind of service, with spools shipping nationwide from Fairhope, Alabama.

Send us your line list, or call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online, and we will quote lined spools, fittings and valves as one package.

Where Connecticut uses lined pipe

Connecticut has about 4,600 manufacturers and about 154,000 manufacturing workers, with transportation equipment and fabricated metal products the two largest sectors. That mix makes metal finishing, not bulk chemicals, the state's biggest consumer of corrosion-resistant piping.

Aerospace metal finishing and the Naugatuck Valley

Jet engine work in East Hartford and Middletown, helicopter production in Stratford, submarine construction in Groton and the component shops of Windsor Locks, Bloomfield and Bristol all depend on surface treatment: anodizing, chromate and phosphate conversion, nickel and chrome plating, titanium and superalloy pickling, chemical milling and passivation. Many of the state's plating and metal treating shops are in the old brass towns of Waterbury, Naugatuck and Ansonia. The chemistry is hard on steel: chromic, sulfuric, nitric and hydrofluoric acid, hydrochloric pickle, caustic etch, and waste treatment loops of sodium hypochlorite, metabisulfite and lime. PTFE-lined spools with lined plug or ball valves handle ambient transfer of these acids and caustics at a fraction of the cost of alloy and take the hot and mixed services, including nitric-hydrofluoric titanium pickle. The hypochlorite in the waste treatment loop takes lined diaphragm valves. Polypropylene-lined pipe is available for the ambient lines where a specification calls for it, but it is not suitable for strong nitric or concentrated sulfuric acid, which stay in PTFE.

Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing

Ridgefield has a large pharmaceutical campus, New Haven has grown a biotech cluster around its medical school, and North Haven builds surgical staplers and sealants at volume. These plants purify water by reverse osmosis and deionization, clean with sodium hydroxide and phosphoric acid, recover solvents, and passivate stainless parts with nitric or citric acid. PTFE-lined pipe and PFA-lined valves carry the cleaning and process chemicals without leaching metal ions, and lined diaphragm valves give a drainable shutoff with no dead leg.

Wastewater, Long Island Sound and nitrogen

Connecticut's wastewater plants operate under a nitrogen credit exchange aimed at Long Island Sound, which has pushed most of them into biological nutrient removal with chemical support. The Hartford plant, the largest in the state at an 82 million gallon per day design flow, disinfects with 15 percent sodium hypochlorite, dechlorinates with sodium bisulfite before discharge to the Connecticut River, and scrubs headworks odor with hypochlorite and sodium hydroxide. Plants in New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk and Waterbury run similar chemistry plus ferric chloride and alum. Hypochlorite pits stainless and off-gasses, and bisulfite corrodes carbon steel, so PTFE-lined pipe with lined diaphragm valves, or ball valves with a vented ball (vent facing upstream), is the standard answer, with polypropylene available for the bisulfite lines where specified.

Power and the ports

The gas-fired plants in Bridgeport, Middletown and Oxford run condensate polishing and demineralizer regeneration on sulfuric acid and caustic. New Haven Harbor is the highest-volume commercial port on Long Island Sound and a petroleum distribution point for the region, Bridgeport handles bulk and breakbulk cargo, and the State Pier in New London stages offshore wind. Terminal additive, fuel treatment and tank-farm wastewater lines are routine lined pipe applications. Hydrocarbon fuel additives can build a static charge that pinholes a plain lining or ignites vapor, so bond and ground the spools and use anti-static PFA-AS valves; tell us if your specification calls for an anti-static liner.

Spools, fittings, valves and accessories for Connecticut

The spools and fittings below are fabricated at our Fairhope shop and shipped nationwide, along with the valves.

• Custom lined pipe spools, 1/2" through 12", with PTFE, PVDF or polypropylene liners in carbon steel or 304/316 stainless housings, up to 20 ft, built to your isometrics
• Lined fittings: elbows, tees, reducers, laterals, instrument tees and flanges, dimensionally conforming to ANSI B16.5
• Lined ball, plug, butterfly, diaphragm, check and sampling valves
• Lined strainers, expansion joints, spacers, spectacle blinds, sight glasses and solid PTFE pipe
• Clamp-on steam heaters, electric tracing and heat-transfer compound for lines that must not freeze or crystallize

Temperature maintenance matters more in Connecticut than in our home state. Fifty percent caustic begins to crystallize in the mid-50s F, concentrated sulfuric acid thickens, and an outdoor hypochlorite feed line at a shoreline plant can freeze in deep cold. For jacketed or traced service, we recommend specifying PTFE. We size tracing to the liner's temperature limit so the heat protects the line without exceeding it, and on hypochlorite we trace only to keep it from freezing and never overheat it, since heat speeds its decay.

Standards we build to

Our lined pipe and fittings comply with ASTM F1545, lined fittings are welded to ASME B31.3 by welders certified to ASME Section IX, and every lined pipe spool and fitting passes a minimum 10,000-volt spark test before shipment. We have spent more than half a century in plastic-lined piping. Liner temperature limits, liner thicknesses, flange dimensions and torque tables are on our Technical Details page.

From Hartford to the Shoreline

We serve Hartford, East Hartford, Middletown and the Connecticut River Valley; New Haven, Wallingford and North Haven; Bridgeport, Stratford, Stamford and Fairfield County; Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley; Groton, New London and Waterford; and Danbury, Ridgefield, Bristol and Windsor Locks. Call (251) 625-4949 or contact us online, and we will quote it.

FAQ: Lined Pipe in Connecticut

What lined pipe do you recommend for titanium pickling lines in a Connecticut aerospace shop?

A nitric-hydrofluoric pickle attacks stainless and most alloys. PTFE-lined pipe with PFA-lined plug or ball valves resists both acids and the fluoride-bearing rinse water downstream, and the carbon steel housing carries the pressure.

Can you supply lined pipe for the hypochlorite and bisulfite systems at Connecticut wastewater plants?

Yes. We supply PTFE-lined spools with lined diaphragm valves, or ball valves with a vented ball (vent facing upstream), for hypochlorite feed, bisulfite dechlorination and the hypochlorite-caustic odor scrubber loops used at plants like Hartford's, and polypropylene-lined spools for the bisulfite lines where a specification calls for them.

Will your lined fittings bolt to the flanges already in a Connecticut plant?

Yes. Our lined fittings conform dimensionally to ANSI B16.5, so they mate with existing Class 150 flanged equipment and valves without adapters.

Can you replace spools for a plating line that is down?

Custom spools built to field dimensions are a core part of our business. Send sizes, liner, end connections and a sketch, and we will quote fabrication and shipping from Fairhope.