Thanks to Victaulic’s grooved mechanical pipe-joining technology, Heffron Company overcame constraints of scale, space, and time to meet the demand for a cutting-edge 260,000-square-foot life sciences facility in Maryland. With patient safety and global medicine supply chains depending on rapid completion and a reliable system, Heffron Company took on the ambitious project and its aggressive nine-month schedule.
Heffron Company was tasked with installing the complex HVAC systems throughout the facility, including 16” and down-chilled water and condenser water lines. In addition, Heffron needed to accommodate significant spatial constraints while coordinating with the other trades.
“This is a marquee project for Heffron due to the nature of the schedule and teamwork required to have a successful project,” said Jon Weinberg, senior project manager at Heffron. “Because of the complexity and size of the systems, we had to find a solution that would dramatically accelerate our installation process without compromising quality. The schedule simply didn’t allow for conventional approaches.”
Engineering the Impossible Schedule
The sheer magnitude of the facility project presented Heffron with a daunting task: install more than three-and-a-half miles of pipe and nearly 5,000 fittings in less than nine months. Traditional welding methods presented significant concerns for meeting the short timeline. Welding would have required spending significantly more time per fitting, getting hot work permits, setting up a fire watch protocol, and completing extensive inspection procedures, ultimately extending the installation time and creating coordination challenges with other trades working in the same spaces.
Heffron partnered with Victaulic to compress the schedule, making the strategic decision to implement a QuickVic™ system with Installation-Ready™ 107V Rigid and 177N Flexible Couplings, QuickVic grooved fittings, and grooved butterfly valves and specialties. Opting to use a Victaulic grooved system eliminated time-consuming welding processes while the Installation-Ready technology further streamlined the installation workflow, creating significant efficiency gains while also increasing installation confidence.
“The [Style 107V] product from Victaulic was a game-changer for this project,” emphasized Don Webster, a 30-year Heffron veteran and lead superintendent on the project. “It enabled us to get a lot of production in a short amount of time.”
Victaulic’s Installation-Ready technology arrives pre-assembled with no loose parts, meaning contractors only need to stab couplings on pipe ends and tighten bolts to secure them. This simplified installation approach was critical to keeping Heffron’s project on schedule. The flame-free joining method also eliminated the need for burn permits, fire watch, and welding screens, further compressing installation and commissioning processes in areas where multiple trades were working simultaneously.
Shrinking the Expansion Loop Footprint
As Heffron and Victaulic began working together, they identified significant spatial challenges that threatened to turn into major issues if left unaddressed. “We had some tight areas within the ceiling that we recognized early on would be a challenge using the basis of design, which was to have expansion loops throughout the floors,” explained Weinberg.
With multiple trades competing for limited ceiling space, traditional expansion loops would have created serious coordination issues. Traditional welded expansion loops require substantial physical space, creating a critical space allocation problem in ceiling areas already crowded with ductwork, electrical conduits, and mechanical systems.
The Victaulic Piping Movement Design (PMD) group took a holistic approach to solving the layout challenge, examining the entire system rather than just individual components. After reviewing the original specifications and analyzing the natural layout of the pipe, the PMD team provided tailored recommendations for off-the-shelf solutions that completely eliminated the need for expansion loops in multiple locations through the strategic placement of flexible couplings. This concept not only reduced the system’s overall footprint but also yielded significant cost and material savings.
In areas where expansion loops were still necessary, the PMD team recommended using grooved expansion loops, reducing the footprint of the design by as much as 80 percent compared with traditional welded designs. This comprehensive approach to system optimization exemplifies how the PMD group designs solutions specifically tailored to each project’s unique requirements and specifications. It also reduced material requirements and installation complexity compared with traditional methods, allowing Heffron to allocate resources more efficiently throughout this large-scale project.
For a deeper dive into this approach, read Victaulic’s white paper, Using Grooved Mechanical Joining Systems to Accommodate Thermal Piping Movement: https://assets.victaulic.com/assets/uploads/literature/White%20Paper/WP-02.pdf
Quality Control at a Glance
For a critical life sciences facility, system reliability and quality control are non-negotiable. The grooved mechanical pipe-joining system provided significant advantages through its inherent repeatability and visual verification capabilities.
The Style 107V coupling’s shift-limiting slant pad design draws pipe ends into alignment as housings are tightened together. When properly assembled, the pads visibly “lock up,” allowing contractors to see whether a joint is correctly installed. This visual inspection ensured consistent quality across thousands of connections.
This short video shows how to use Victaulic’s 107V coupling and confirm it is correctly installed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utVB34W1pDY
Unlike welded systems that require specialized inspection techniques, the visual verification process allowed supervisors to quickly confirm proper installation across large areas. Using this feature, Heffron Company streamlined the quality control process while maintaining the exacting standards required for a critical life sciences facility.
Success by Design
Construction on the facility was completed on time, with every project milestone met successfully. Heffron Company met every milestone of its scope, an accomplishment that would have been extremely challenging to achieve with traditional methods, given the project’s tight timeline and spatial constraints.
“Early involvement was actually in abundance,” said Weinberg. “Victaulic helped us analyze expansion requirements and identify where we could eliminate loops entirely. They made routine site visits to ensure we had everything needed and stayed involved throughout implementation. Their team helped prevent supply chain disruptions and quickly resolved any installation questions that arose.”
Through this strategic partnership with Victaulic, Heffron significantly reduced the expansion loop footprint, expedited installation times, and realized substantial cost savings compared with traditional methods. The grooved coupling technology’s visual verification feature ensured consistent quality across thousands of connections, while the dynamic movement capabilities of the grooved system efficiently accommodated thermal expansion in tight spaces.
For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.
