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 close to 3,900 manufacturers and nearly 190,000 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. The state counts roughly 130 plating and metal treating businesses and ranks about twelfth nationally in revenue from them, many 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, in vented housings, with heavy-wall liners for HF, because HF and HCl permeate PTFE. Polypropylene-lined pipe is available for the ambient lines where a specification calls for it, except nitric acid, chromic acid and hypochlorite, which are oxidizers.

Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing

The pharmaceutical campus in Ridgefield is among the ten largest manufacturers in the state, 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 vented PTFE-lined pipe with lined ball valves is the standard answer, with polypropylene available for the bisulfite lines where specified.

Power and the ports

Millstone in Waterford, with two units and more than 2,000 megawatts, generates the equivalent of over half the electricity Connecticut consumes, and its condensate polishing and demineralizer regeneration consume sulfuric acid and caustic the same way the gas-fired plants in Bridgeport, Middletown and Oxford do. 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.

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 in January will not flow without help. We size tracing to the liner's temperature limit so the heat protects the line without exceeding it.

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 limits, vacuum ratings and dimensional data 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 PTFE-lined plug or ball valves resists both acids and the fluoride-bearing rinse water downstream, and the carbon steel housing carries the pressure; because HF permeates PTFE, we build those spools with heavy-wall liners and vented housings.

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

Yes. We supply vented PTFE-lined spools and lined ball valves 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.