The Alfried-Krupp Hospital is an academic hospital of the university of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. The hospital has over 1.300 employees and houses 573 patients. There are also three training centers and 86 apartments on the premises. In 2015, work started on refurbishing the hospital’s cooling system.

Since the heat exchangers are located on the roof and visible to visitors, the hospital owner decided to install stainless steel pipe, rather than PVC pipe, which is used in the rest of the system. Not only did using thin wall stainless steel pipe result in a system that is easier on the eye, it also enhanced the material handling on site considerably due to its lower weight.

However, installing thin wall stainless steel pipe also brought some challenges with it for contractor, Iwanowski GmbH. The project had a very tight deadline, but a qualified welder wasn’t available, and there was concern about overheating the pipe when welding. This could result in surpassing the already very tight project deadline. The solution to these challenges was the StrengThin™ 100 system. This system, designed for joining 2mm wall stainless steel pipe up to 16 bar, includes the Style E497 Installation Ready™ Coupling and a range of fittings and valves. The Installation-Ready™ design allows immediate installation without the need to dissemble the coupling. It also provides a uniform quality of the joints without the need for fire.

Installing StrengThin™ 100 couplings and fittings was so easy and fast that the decision was made to change the pipe material from PVC to stainless steel for the second phase of the project.

External Links:

Steel Pipe Connection in the Alfred-Krupp Hospital, Kälte Klima Aktuell