Innovative technology for Regensburg University Hospital
The prestigious University Hospital in Regensburg, Germany, has a reputation for excellent performance: It is regarded as a leading employer in Bavaria with a very innovative corporate culture, and its standards in teaching and research are of international repute.
In future, the intensive care unit in building C 1 of the hospital is to be heated and cooled via a heating and ventilation system. To this end, the heating and cooling units were reconnected to the corresponding plant registers at the beginning of 2016. The pipes used were of black and grey-painted steel. The planners had to overcome two obstacles: The work had to be carried out in narrow spaces with difficult access, and without interrupting the operation of the intensive care unit with its extreme demands on reliability. The work needed to be done quickly and without any compromises in terms of safety.
Therefore the requirement for 'cold pressing' of the pipes was already included in the call for tenders. Not surprisingly, the decision was taken to use Megapress – the world's first system for press connecting thick-walled steel pipes.
Considerable savings in assembly
Megapress shortens the assembly time compared with conventional welding by up to 60 percent. This was confirmed by the fitters from the firm that was commissioned to do the work. Also, the heating pipes in the hospital were frozen prior to the work so as to avoid the time-consuming draining and refilling work. This meant that Megapress scored a second goal: Not only was the assembly fast because there were no problems associated with heat generation, but also there was no need to maintain safe clearance to the frozen pipe section, as would have been the case with welding. Megapress also completely bypasses the fire hazard and associated precautions that need to be taken with conventional welding.