OVERHEAD PROCESS PIPING IN CHEMICAL LABORATORIES* F. C. VILBRANOT. UNIVERSITY oa Nonm CAROLINA, CHAPELHILL,No~TrrCAROLINA
Complete overhead process piping in a chemical laboratory, which is believed to be unique in so far as college chemistry buildings are concerned, has been installed in Venable Laboratories, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C., according to the design of the author. By process piping is meant the water, steam, gas, air, chemical gases,
FIG. 1.-A close-up view of the arrangement of the vertical-in-line, overthetrough piping, showing the metal pipe supports, five process lines, viz., water, steam, gas, air, and electricityand the special drilled-in fittings.
and electrical power piping that is brought to the students' desks. The FIG.2.-A control corner in one of the general chemistry laboratories. The various methods by which such piping risers from the main feed lines supported can be brought to the student are: by the cross members of the bay, the rontrol valves. the distribution t o the (1) At the front of the desk below the set of desks a i d t o each desk are well front ledge; (2) a t the rear of the illustrated. The dead end of this desk duplicated throughout the building, desk through the desk-top; (3) a t alley, illustrates the cleanliness resultine from the side of the student through the removal of pipes from the floor. The hanging of radiators and radiator piping desk- to^: .. (4) . . at the rear of the above the student service lines is also desk from pipes supported above the well illustrated. desk level. The last type is generally accepted as the best for general laboratories because it embodies the following points, viz.: (a) Out of the way, but readily accessible; ( b )
* Paper delivered before the Division of Chemical Education a t the 74th Meeting of the American Chemical Society a t Detroit, Mich., September 7, 1927.
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service to two sides of a desk with a minimum amount of piping; (6) multiple services with no loss of desk space; (d) no additional equipment to take care of liquid leakage. Piping through the desks or arrangement underneath the troughs back of the desks involves an increased cost of laboratory furniture, loss in cupboard space, inaccessibility for repairing, and inconvenience due to leakage onto floors. Elimination of such systems of piping is not as common as one would be led to expect, especially with its many disadvantages. Sectional desks, removable units, repair panels, and such types of special laboratory furniture involve added expense with no real remedy for the problem. The arrangement of the pipes above the desk, above the trough,and along the entire length in the center of the desk seems to have all the essential
FIG. 3.-A general view of a general chemistry laboratory. Desk distribution and arrangement of the laboratory equipment are illustrated. Note the main feed lines passing across the room in the far corner of the room near the ceiling.
qualities of good piping service to the students. The feed lines to these service pipes are variously located, usually coming up from the floor or troughs in the floor. Such systems involve special floor construction and hidden piping, in many instances requiring tearing up of flooring to get a t the piping. Repairs of this type are costly and inconvenient, usually left until the inconvenience occasioned by misuse or leakage necessitates major repairs. One hundred per cent visible piping is new; the placement of such piping entirely above the desk level and without special pipe hangers is unique. Such a system of piping was possible and was installed in our laboratories. The piping starts from a central location, r~singto the seventeen-foot
level in the saw-tooth structure housing the general laboratories. From this point the main feed lines supported on the cross-members of the bays of the saw-tooth roofs branch off to different parts of the building. In one corner of each room risers are dropped down the wall to the level of the specific piping for the desks. From this point the laboratory feed lines pass along the wall, the desk service lines branching off a t the wall-end of each set of desks. Air, gas, steam, water, hydrogen sulfide, and electricity are thus distributed to each student. No pipe hangers, with the exception of lugs in the metal pipe standards on the desks, were used. The metal pipe standards and lugs were of special construction purchased
FIG. 4.-The
master control system in a corner oi the quantitative laboratory.
through the Walrus Manufacturing Company of Decatur, Illinois. Some views of the laboratories in Venable Hall give illustrations of the overhead piping installations. The blocks on all the metal uprights shown in the views were placed there in anticipation of the installation of the D-V fume elimination system.' The above system does away with all piping near the floor with no hidden places to throw trash. The service cocks a t the desks, being a t the lowest points in each piping system, serve as drip-cocks. All leaks are readily visible. Extra unions were placed in the lines t o enable easy repair and removal of any section. Each desk service line is readily removed. by release of the pipe lugs and turning out the pipe. Described in THISJOURNAL. 5,589-94 (May, 1928).
