The Importance of Pipe Support
Why is pipe support needed?
Pipe support is essential for several reasons. It helps prevent excessive stress and strain on the pipes. Pipe support also helps maintain the alignment and position of the piping. Finally, it helps with thermal expansion, which is important in a HVAC system.
Excessive stress on the pipes can lead to leaks, cracks, or even catastrophic failures. Alignment and position of the piping prevents sagging and misalignment.
Properly supported piping reduces the risk of damage or failure, ensuring safe and efficient system operation.
Often HVAC systems will be mounted on rooftops and the refrigerant piping will drop down the side of the building and into one or more floors below. This is called “vertical pipe riser”.
Traditional vertical pipe risers play an important role in supporting the refrigeration lines. Proper support is crucial to ensure the piping is stable and secure.
In standard vertical riser configurations, steel clamps with rubber inserts are used to support and carry the weight of copper piping. When exposed to UV rays, the soft rubber inserts deteriorate causing the copper piping to come in direct contact with the steel clamps. Due to the different metal compositions of copper and steel, galvanic corrosion may occur. This leads to copper corrosion causing refrigerant leaks and equipment failure.
Thermal expansion loops are not only large and unsightly, but also in many applications, space is limited making it difficult integrate them into a design.
LineBrace, Inaba Denko America’s newest pipe support is the professional solution. This clamp system supports the weight of vertical lineset risers in VRF/VRV AC systems and reduces the thermal expansion load on the lowest elbow by 50%. LineBrace is easy to install and free from galvanic corrosion risks.
Designed to be used in vertical piping the LineBrace clamp, placed in the central fixed point acts as a fulcrum to direct thermal expansion upwards and downwards, support the weight of the lineset and reducing load on elbow at the lowest floor, thereby reducing the risk of the lower ell buckling or kinking. Traditional steel and rubber clamping methods do not perform the same way and do not address thermal expansion.
LineBrace comes in many different sizes to accommodate most pipe sizes. The stainless clamp, contains a dielectric insulator that separate the stainless, from the base. The clamp is then attached to a powder coated base, which is mounted on a rail system or wall
In conclusion, Inaba Denko’s LineBrace pipe support is the solution you need for your next vertical design.
To learn more about LineBrace, check out our product catalog!. Contact us today to learn how to obtain this vertical pipe support solution.
