Pipe Spacers, commonly referred to as casing spacers, help center various types of piping while keeping it in place. They have the appearance of a ring with four corner pieces added for stability. Without these tools, the pipe integrity could easily be compromised, due to movement, friction, and damage by external pressures and elements.
Advantages of Pipe Spacers
There are numerous advantages to pipe spacers, including:
No Sand/Filler Materials
Situating sewer pipes can be expensive and time consuming for you and your team, especially if you use sand (or a similar material) to keep the pipes in place, which requires an extreme amount of effort and precision. Pipe spacers, on the other hand, can be situated without bulky or costly materials.
Electric Buffer
Pipe spacers act as an electric buffer as well. Currents can often travel through mediums into the ground, but the buffers act to diffuse hazardous electricity before it comes in contact with the piping.
No Special Tools Needed
Pipe maintenance can be complicated, especially if specific (or expensive) tools are required for the job. However, pipe spacers can be installed quickly, often with only a single bolt. This saves you from purchasing an entire toolset for a one-time job.
Types of Pipe Spacers
Pipe spacers come in a variety of materials, sizes, and qualities. Understanding the proper variety for your needs is essential to doing a job properly. Below is an explanation of the various types of pipe spacers available.
Steel (Metallic)
These types of pipe spacers are formed with either stainless steel or carbon steel. The immediate advantage to these models is their innate strength - it’s strong composition coupled with its rigidity makes for a strong pipe spacer.
Polyethylene (Non-metallic)
While polyethylene pipe spacers cannot hope to rival the durability of their stainless steel counterparts, they are specially designed to maintain a high structural integrity due to their inject-based density. Polyethylene pipe spacers also have the advantage of repelling moisture, which in turn fends off electric currents. These can be installed with just a screwdriver.
Non-metallic versus Metallic
Given the variety of applications for piping spacers, one must also consider the job for which they will be used. The two major types are those listed above, metallic and nonmetallic. While both of these surely have their pros and cons, one of the more practical pieces of advice is to make sure the actual size is available for purchase (this will be discussed below, but make sure that you look to see if pipe spacers are available in your size and material when making such a purchase).
Although not true all the time, non-metallic pipe spacers tend to be equipped for small diameters and shorter pipe lengths, due to their more malleable composition but overall weaker structure. The metallic variety, on the other hand, tend to be far better at creating support for larger pipes with larger diameters. Be sure to consider these factors when making your purchase, knowing which attributes are most important for your needs.
Size of Piping Spacers
There are two elements to factor in when considering size: diameter and insertion length.
Diameter
Diameter is the distance from one length of the pipe to another. This can be found with a ruler, or by taking the radius and doubling it. Diameters can range in size from as small as .75 inches all the way to 120 inches, or 10 feet in diameter for industrial sizes.
Insertion length
Insertion length likewise has a range of possible sizes. Some insertion lengths are set to fit a length of under 100 feet, while others can stretch all the way to over five thousand feet.
Make sure you know the facts. Pipe spacers can effectively save you time, effort, and money, but knowing the right one for the right job can make all the difference.