Piping Idea

bob_46

An idea for hydronic piping. I used to build experiments and pilot plants for research chemists. They would give me a pile of components, a flow diagram and specs as far as pressures and alloys and wall thickness. It was up to me to figure out how to arrange it and pipe it. So I kind of came up with a handy and versatile way to get started. I would build a rack out of back to back Unistrut that measures 15/8"X 31/4". Mount all the horizontal pipe on one side and all the vertical pipe on the other side. Whenever you change direction you use a swing connection to get to the other side. You ALWAYS change sides when you change direction that way you can completely cover each side with pipe and NEVER run into yourself. Because of the 31/4" depth you have room for pump flanges etc. You have access on both sides, your not restricted to use a wall and there is lots of room for this new squish pipe. I haven't seen this setup on The Wall.

SWEI

I like the concept. I'm thinking you could use standard strut, mounted vertically on the horizontal pipe side and vice versa. They'd only connect at the crossing points, but the assembly should stiffen up pretty well once the grid is fully bolted. The savings on strut would be about half, but eliminating all those expensive cross connectors would probably knock 50+% off the entire BOM.

bob_46

Swei, all I would use is 4 two hole and 6 three hole straight connectors plus 2 two hole 90º and 4 floor plates. This was my standard go to rack but you can change all the dimensions and configuration to fit . The fact that it's free standing is I think it's benefit.