Correctly Using Tube Liners
“I started using the tubes from vacuum trucks to invert lining material. However, I’ve blown an end fitting off the hose. Lucky no one got hurt but wondered if you guys know what went wrong?”
Glad you reached out for help. While for some inversion CIPP shots this method is a quick down and dirty way to get liner into ground – it is not a universal inversion unit like the Quik Shot™ or other systems designed and built for inverting CIPP lateral liners.
The hoses you were using were designed to vacuum sewage from sewer manholes and catch basins and designed for vacuum applications, not pressure applications. By using it for pressurized inversion of liners, you are operating it outside of the design parameters it was built for.
When you use the tube, you are connecting it to a compressor using an air hose. Depending on the size of the air hose, delivering air volume to the tube as well as the pressure influences the ability to turn the tube for inverting it. A compressor and/or air hose too small will determine whether you can invert the tube or not.
So, here’s where your inverting tube jumped the tracks. The natural tendency is to add pressure. Adding pressure or force usually gets things to move and that’s a good theory to a point. But the facts are that there is a limit to this force. Those limits are not being able to execute the inversion or breaking equipment upon trying. I don’t know if you got your job completed, but the reason your end blew off the hose was that there was more pressure than the hose was designed to hold.
We quit building and marketing the hose systems years ago after an observer got hurt when an end blew off one of our customer’s hoses – striking the observer in the face. Between the hose manufacturer, the contractor, and Pipe Lining Supply – our combined insurance carrier paid out over $1,000,000 to settle a subsequent legal case regarding the use of hoses and were advised by our insurance carrier not to produce any equipment that wasn’t designed and tested for a specific use.
There are many manufacturers of lining equipment including Pipe Lining Supply and we’d advise you to look to one of the systems available to use for inverting pipe.
For more information call us at 888-354-6464, 714-630-6311 or email us at info@pipeliningsupply.com
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