Southern Ionics is a family-owned and operated business specializing in chemical manufacturing and delivery that serves a variety of industries, from pharmaceuticals to paper mills to water treatment. They’d never used Viega products before and tried out Viega MegaPress couplings to complete leak repairs. When their plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana needed to join almost 1,000 feet of pipe, maintenance manager Shane Frazier turned to Viega for a solution.
“Previously, all of our pipes have been welded,” said Frazier. “To join that much pipe with welding would have taken weeks. Using Viega, we were able to run almost 1,000 feet of pipe and complete the project in 4.5 days. Each connection only took 5-10 minutes to complete.” Southern Ionics used 4” MegaPress 316 fittings for this project.
“Safety is a top priority at Southern Ionics, and because this project was a water line, we felt it would be a good project to start with for using Viega,” said Frazier. “Once we saw how quickly we were able to complete the work and that we’ve had no issues, leaks, or problems with the connections, we’ve since used Viega to swap out a pipeline for aluminum sulfate and also drilled a new well for the plant that we had to pipe in. It looks nice and neat, and it’s easy to work with.”
Frazier said that Viega is now almost all they use in their Lake Charles plant, using MegaPress fittings for all their applications. He said the investment in Viega fittings and technology may be more upfront, but you quickly realize huge savings when you can complete work in a much shorter period and with no leaks or problems. Frazier said, “The cost savings on labor alone was well worth the investment. Viega fittings are the way to go.”
