Victaulic, a leading producer of mechanical pipe joining solutions, says it has received tremendous feedback to three of its innovations – Installation-Ready technology, VicFlex and Innovative Groove System (IGS) – which are just the ticket for the challenges faced by the Gulf region.

Speaking to Gulf Construction, Jared Breidinger, Victaulic’s division manager, says customers no longer have to take apart or disassemble in any way couplings and fittings that offered on its patented Installation-Ready platforms.

“Ultimately, customers are finding that these are easier to handle – and much faster to install.  These innovations are of very high reliability standards and separate us from our competitors,” he says.

VicFlex, meanwhile, is Victaulic’s range of flexible drops for fire protection systems, which are much faster to install than regular solutions like hard pipe, and are more flexible, eliminating sprinkler-positioning problems due to ceiling sag or shift.

Next up are products in the Innovative Groove System (IGS) range, which offer the ability to eliminate threaded joints on fire protection systems.

Breidinger says Victaulic has seen significant interest in this product, as an alternative to threading. “We know both from our expertise and from multiple customers that a threaded joint is the weakest link in your system with a high risk of corrosion. So we’re able to provide an overall better solution for threading with IGS and that even with a higher pressure rating.”

Victaulic works with all major engineering companies and contractors in the region, such as Al Futtaim Engineering Systems, with whom it is particularly active at the moment. Bilt Middle East and Al Shafar United are other key partners in the UAE.

In terms of projects, the most significant one Victaulic is working on now (from a pre-fabrication point of view) is Jumeirah Gate in JBR on the waterfront in Dubai, Breidinger says.

Speaking of the construction sector in the region, Breidinger says the biggest challenge the industry faces are the project schedules. “Everything tends to be fast-tracked. The time for installation, and ultimately the final delivery and handover of any given project is quite tight, so the contractors aren’t really given a lot of time to play with.”

A secondary challenge, he says, would be the availability of skilled labour in the market, and the management of that labour force. “Whilst finding people with the right experience and technical expertise has improved across the region, it remains a relative challenge. Oftentimes, we see the consistency of quality installations impacted as a result,” says Breidinger.

“So, when you take those two factors, and weigh them against the solutions Victaulic can offer, we give customers the ability to put piping systems together faster and easier with proven reliability.

“We can help prefabricating pipe spools and sections of the system and can deliver these to the site when required for installation. This considerably reduces the time spent onsite, and also takes away some of the uncertainties of installing the whole system on site,” he points out.

Victaulic also prides itself on training programmes and jobsite inspections, which allow customers to confidently hand over a quality installation to their clients.  

“Everything we do, we have developed because we’re trying to help our clients manage their schedules, their labour and costs, so that ultimately, they can deliver a job on time in a reliable way and within budget,” says Breidinger.

Commenting on trends in the region, he says, the biggest trend that’s starting to carry over from the rest of the world is prefabrication.

“Just in the last three months, this has come up in our conversations on an almost daily basis, and it’s from the clients, developers, or from the contractors themselves,” he remarks.

Breidinger says the company has been trying to promote this for the last year and a half, “but I believe the market is now readier and in fact is being pushed to utilise off-site prefabrication,” he adds.

Victaulic has been able to fine-tune this offering, and as a result is now able to consistently meet the needs of customers in the region. “We can now proudly say that we have a lot of opportunity to partner with clients and offer a solution that strips away some of the burden of building everything on a job site,” says Breidinger.

“And with a stringent QC/QA (quality control/quality assurance) procedure, contractors have outsourced much of the fabrication process onto specialist companies like ours, which means quality and control is up to a higher standard.  This equates to potentially a higher standard of quality at a lower risk, which means an overall better deliverable at a lower cost that is also achieved in much less time,” he adds.

“The reality is when you’re doing anything in a controlled environment – like an off-site fabrication shop, as we do – you tend to get a higher quality result. It’s a safer, faster and easier process in a controlled environment – and the chances of everything being carried out correctly is significantly higher,” he concludes.

Victaulic, originally known as the Victory Pipe Joint Company, designed and patented the first mechanical bolted coupling. The company has been around since 1919 and currently has a global presence with 15 major manufacturing facilities and 28 branches.