Not just for water pipes

When clinicians at Carmel Plaza Dental needed to line the practice’s compressed air system, they looked to Nu Flow for help.

Nu Flow manufactures and installs green technologies to rehabilitate the inner infrastructure of deteriorated or failing water piping systems. The company already had worked with the seven-treatment-room practice in San Diego to rehabilitate a 1/2” copper potable water system. If this problem would have been left untreated, pinhole leaks would have eventually appeared throughout the entire piping system, which would have led to significant water damage and mold growth in the practice.

Nu Flow fixed the problem, and the team members at Carmel Plaza Dental were happy with the outcome. That’s why they didn’t hesitate to call Nu Flow back for a second project that involved rehabilitating a compressed air system rather than water pipes.

The problem

The practice’s compressed air system began experiencing corrosion, which was caused by humidity in the air within the pipes. This led to a pinhole leak that forced the compressor to run more than usual to maintain adequate pressure. As with all mechanical systems, compressed air pipes and water lines have an expected useful life. Once they reach this point, regular repairs, or even replacement, are necessary.

The staff members at Carmel Plaza didn’t want to replace the pipes. Instead, they opted to try Nu Flow’s proprietary epoxy coating to upgrade the durability of those pipes and extend their useful life-the same technology that was used to fix the potable water system.

This is an effective, quick, non-invasive procedure that uses epoxy to coat the inside of pipe walls, while avoiding downtime to daily operations and destruction to interior walls and floors or exterior surfaces of structures or landscapes.

The solution

Nu Flow proved to Carmel Plaza Dental that its epoxy coating process is effective for water lines and used the same technology to renovate the practice’s leaking 1/2” copper compressed air systems. After repairing the pinhole leak, Nu Flow cleaned the inside of the entire piping system and applied an evenly coated layer of the epoxy to stop leaks and prevent corrosion. A pressure test at project completion verified the system was no longer losing pressure. The entire process was completed using existing connection points to the pipe system and thus did not require demolition of walls or opening access points in the floors and foundation of the building.

A common problem

Potable and compressed air pipe systems are common in commercial, industrial and residential buildings. Nu Flow’s epoxy coating technology is effective in small-diameter pipes as well as large-diameter water mains and fire suppression supply lines (up to 12” in diameter). Nu Flow can work with practices that are experiencing problems now or are interested in preventing the inevitable failure of their plumbing system.