Safe drinking water is essential for sustainable human life. Do you lie awake at night wondering if the water you are drinking is safe? Do you dream about the type of water lines used to transport water to your home or business?
If you are a design engineer or an official responsible for providing clean, safe water to hundreds, thousands, or even millions of residents, then you are most likely the type of person who dedicates a major portion of your time thinking about water quality.
Thankfully, there are entities and standards in place to ensure that products used in water transportation systems are of the utmost quality. In this blog, we’ll discuss the who, what, why, and how products designed to transport safe drinking water are monitored and tested during the manufacturing process at McWane Ductile to meet quality standards.
McWane Ductile has assembled a team of professionals to assist our clients and the industry in formulating quality and cost-effective projects to serve customers with their water and wastewater needs.
This team consists of Registered Professional Engineers, National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) Certified Technicians and ENVISION Sustainability Professionals with experience in managing utility operations, working in the consulting engineering industry, actual manufacturing experience in the pipe industry and decades of field exposure while providing resources and assistance with successful project completion.
A question often asked in our business is “Why did the Ductile iron pipe manufacturers all seem to get there start or have roots in Birmingham, Alabama?” If you look back at the history of Birmingham, it is easy to understand why these companies chose this area to establish their businesses. The resources, infrastructure, and manpower all came together to drive the City’s growth and make Birmingham one of the most productive industrial cities in the South.
Visitors who tour a McWane Ductile facility are often surprised by how much work goes into making Ductile iron pipe. The pipe starts out as scrap metal from old cars and demolished buildings that is melted down and given a new lease on life. Up to 95% of our product is made from recycled material.
Once this metal is in its molten state a crane carries it to centrifugal casting machines where it is spun into a pipe. Next it heads to the annealing oven, an important step in transforming the iron into ductile.
As a municipality, contractor, or an engineering firm, you may have found yourself with a question at your desk or on a jobsite that you simply cannot answer. Sure, we’ve all been there and we all usually find that answer by leaning on our network of resources who specialize in an area of expertise.
So, what happens when you have that technical question while drawing up a set of plans or while at a jobsite? Who are you going to call?
Well, here at McWane Ductile, we want you to know that we’re here to assist you with your water works projects and provide solutions in OUR area of expertise, Ductile Iron Pipe (DI pipe).
As a general or mechanical contractor, you want to know the piping materials for your job are fabricated to meet or exceed project specifications and delivered in a timely manner. McWane Ductile-Ohio has a dedicated Treatment Plant Division providing specialized Design-Build services to support your project from concept to final buildout. Our team provides pre- and post-bid services to ensure your projects are completed on time and on budget.
For generations, McWane Ductile has been an industry leader in the manufacture of water distribution and infrastructure products. The history of McWane Ductile, a family owned company, has beginnings dating back as early as 1871, when Charles Phillip McWane entered the foundry business in Lynchburg, Virginia, with his sons Harry and James Ransom (JR).
Touring a McWane Ductile Iron Pipe plant is a unique and memorable experience. You get the opportunity to see firsthand how we take just a few simple raw materials and convert them into the strongest, most reliable, most time-tested pipe material on the market today.
Accountability through traceability. That’s the cornerstone of Quality Assurance in any manufacturing process.
Often referred to by the abbreviation QA, if you don’t have firm control of this, you don’t have a product worth using. Quality products where lifetime warranties and reliability begin.
McWane Ductile is dedicated to continuous improvements in both product quality and personnel safety throughout all aspects of the process, in our foundry as well as the end-users’ systems.
Having managed water and wastewater systems for most of my career, I have engaged with interest in the operations of specific water systems. Many times, those conversations have lead into areas beyond the engineering criteria for daily operations and into areas such as customer satisfaction. The great majority of these systems meet all required regulatory quality standards each day. Then why do customers become dissatisfied with the utility? One notable answer: SERVICE.
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Looking for answers to your DI pipe questions? Find decades of Ductile iron expertise with installation guides, videos, tip sheets, training resources, and more in our Learning Center.
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McWane Ductile is proud to be a part of the McWane family of companies.
