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TR FLEX PIPE: The Truth About Availability and Pressure Ratings
11/14/2024 In Products TechnicalMisleading information has recently circulated regarding the availability of TR Flex® restrained joint pipe and fittings, creating a flurry of questions and uncertainty for engineers and utilities about its service performance and integrity. How can an engineer design a project without knowing the facts? After reviewing the information in this #IronStrong Blog, one can better understand future expectations.
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Why Are Young Professionals Important to Waterworks?
11/30/2023The question will come up to everyone sometime in their young lives. What do you want to do when you grow up? What a loaded question! Everyone wants job security, and it's one of the great things about the waterworks industry. This industry will never go away, becoming more critical every year. Whether you work for a Manufacturer, Distributor, Contractor, Engineer, or Municipality, there are thousands of jobs and endless possibilities for current and future work. And with an aging generation in the waterworks industry, the near future for young professionals is more promising than ever.
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Ask the Ditch Doctor - Does Internal Pressure Always Govern Ductile Iron Pipeline Design?
03/04/2022 In Ditch Doctor Installation TechnicalHave you ever been so taken aback by the structure of a question that your first thought is, “say what? Did they really just ask me that?” In the vernacular-sensitive world of utility pipelines, it happens more often than you might think.
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Do You Have an Iron Deficiency? Considering Health Effects in Pipe Material Selection
08/13/2020 In Environmental & Safety ProductsWe in the United States are most fortunate, for the most part, to have access to safe, clean drinking water. Even when traveling, we are not hesitant to draw water from a hotel faucet to brush our teeth or even fill a glass to drink. This privilege is no accident.
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Why Would High Temperatures Affect Piping Material Selection?
03/25/2025 In Products TechnicalHave you ever considered how high temperatures impact your choice of piping material for a water system? It might not be something that comes to mind immediately, but it’s an important factor. Water treatment specialists pay close attention to water temperatures because they influence how the water reacts to treatment chemicals. Additionally, water and ground temperatures can significantly affect the performance of certain piping materials, particularly polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
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Crossing the Shawsheen River - A Customer Spotlight
05/04/2023 In ProductsThe Town of Andover, located in the northeastern corridor of Massachusetts, provides water service to over 10,000 customers in a network of approximately 257 miles of water mains, the oldest dating back to 1886. This #IronStrong blog tells how the Andover Water Division solved a significant water loss issue due to a breach in one of their important mains feeding a commercial/industrial area.
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Why Is Using the Right Design Criteria Important in Calculating Restraint Requirements?
11/19/2021 In Installation TechnicalWhen I first started my engineering career, I was placed in charge of coordinating the relocation of water transmission and distribution pipelines to accommodate the construction of an interstate highway through a city of approximately 180,000 residents. Many times, these projects required pre-poured thrust block restraints due to the amended connections between new and old waterlines in a short timeframe so as not to leave customers inordinately out of water for long periods of time.
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How Does Ductile Iron Pipe Go to Market? Understanding the Bidding Process
07/09/2021 In Our Company ProductsHow do you go to market? This isn’t a question we get often, but it comes up from time to time. Sometimes we're asked by a vendor we work with who is trying to understand McWane Ductile better. Sometimes a candidate asks the question during an interview or a new sales representative asks while we’re onboarding. Other times we have a hard-working team member at one of our manufacturing facilities trying to understand further what and where the product they make goes and how it gets there. In this blog, we will look at the different bidding processes we encounter on a day-to-day basis that allow us to take Ductile iron pipe to market.
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What is the McWane Ergo Cup?
01/31/2023 In Environmental & Safety Our CompanyErgonomics is an applied science concerned with designing and arranging objects people use so that people and things interact most efficiently and safely. Reducing the risk of injury through proactive programs is one of the many ways we strive to enhance the ergonomics of our product production. At McWane Ductile and McWane corporate-wide, health and safety are the top priorities, hence the Ergo Cup.
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Horizontal Directional Drilling With Ductile Iron Pipe
01/27/2020 In Installation TechnicalHave you ever heard the saying, “To the man who only has a hammer in the tool kit, every problem looks like a nail?" (Abraham Maslow) In the water utility industry, some folks may feel this way when faced with a pipeline installation that must circumvent natural or human-made obstacles, especially water crossings. So if going around or above isn't an option, what's left? How about below?
In today’s modern world, there are more tools available for installing water pipelines, such as open trench/cut, above-grade pier systems, and Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD). In this blog, we’ll discuss the benefits of using Ductile iron pipe (DI pipe) for HDD and provide some considerations and tips for your pipeline installation
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