Fluid management solutions provider, Durapipe is marking 70 years of providing the water and chemical industry with durable, reliable, quality piping products.
Durapipe, part of the Aliaxis UK portfolio, provides solutions across building services and industrial applications.
The construction landscape has undergone tremendous transformation but Durapipe has kept pace by harnessing innovation and technology.
Here five colleagues, who have clocked up more than 150 years between them with Durapipe, give an insight into its history.
How has the industry changed?
Robert: I think the biggest shift for the industry has been automation, which has changed massively. Another, that I've obviously been heavily involved in, is in health and safety standards, which are now a lot stronger.
James: Looking back to the early days of Durapipe, there was almost a plastic revolution, where plastic was the answer to everything. But it is a different world now and rather than saying, use it everywhere, it is more a case of, this application is perfect. So we have become more specialists rather than generalists with our plastic systems, and I think that is a change I’ve seen.
Dawn Jackson: I do think customer services has changed enormously; it’s more supply and demand now, but we have a fantastic technical team we can go to for answers.
Rob: Today, it's far more customer-focussed during the development process to launch a new product. CAD and simulation software have transformed the way products are designed and evaluated before they are even a physical component, allowing us to see how different designs and materials could perform. Rapid prototyping also gives us the opportunity to put ideas into the customers hands quicker, which means so much more than just a 2D drawing.
Dawn Pearce: The industry has become much more focused on sustainable and ethical practices, is more inclusive and health and safety orientated, including mental health, which is so important these days.
What has been the most significant shift in the Durapipe offering to meet changing industry needs?
James: One area where we saw tremendous innovation was PLX, a multi-layer dual contained pipe system, made to carry fuel. It went on to change the industry. If you go back 25 years, there was no plastic pipework in this sector.
This dual contained system pretty much changed the UK forecourt, but also the worldwide forecourt network on the back of it. It has genuinely changed the health and safety of the environment of a forecourt. If the internal pipework leaks, the fuel stays inside the secondary pipework and does not leak into the surrounding area.
Which Durapipe product is your favourite?
James: My favourite would be PLX, which is now a global product shipped all over the world. It’s definitely a success story.
Dawn Jackson: My favourite product range is ABS. When I first started, I was very conscious of customers asking me what it stood for …. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene. I repeated it over and over in my head to ensure I got it right.
Robert: Vulcathene - it’s a product that we acquired and I was heavily involved in learning how it worked, how you assemble it, testing it, getting it certified, so to do all that work for such a great product is rewarding. Even though I work for Aliaxis UK, I say to people, if you cut me in half like a stick of rock, you’d see Durapipe going through the middle.
It seems the love and loyalty for this enduring brand shown by its long-standing employees is matched by its customers after so many successful decades.