BRUGG Pipes is a global company that offers rigid and flexible pipe systems for use in the fields of local and long-distance heating, cooling, cold water, fuel stations and tank facilities. It has manufacturing sites in locations including Poland, Switzerland, Nordhausen (Thuringia, Germany) and Wunstorf (Lower Saxony, Germany). The Wunstorf site manufactures and distributes versatile pipe systems for the safe and efficient transport of liquids, gases and heat. An additional production hall was required at the site to keep pace with demand.
Combined expertise from North Rhine-Westphalia
RRR Stahl- und Gewerbebau GmbH took charge of construction management on the project. The steel-construction specialist, which has its own manufacturing facility in Lage in the Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia, is an expert in turnkey commercial construction with a focus on industrial halls and multi-storey car parks. The new hall is 135m long, 30m wide and 15m high and was constructed between April and October 2024. The project involved laying a range of sensitive lines including PVC pipes for water, steel pipes for chemicals and electrical cables in the concrete foundation. Special supply channels ensure proper protection for these lines while also enabling ease of access for repair and maintenance tasks. The channels are installed in a concrete foundation and the lines run through the channel body. Lines can be replaced or new ones added with equal ease.
RRR construction manager Andreas Schlik opted for the Cargo supply channel from Richard Brink, a company from Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock in Eastern Westphalia: “The main challenge was finding channels that could withstand high stresses – they can have industrial trucks and forklifts weighing up to 10 tonnes driving over them.” Made of hot-dip galvanised steel, or alternatively stainless steel, the metal products manufacturer’s solution is perfect for this job. With the channel’s two-part construction, the separation slot along the longitudinal central axis of the supply channel acts as an integrated expansion joint for the surrounding concrete foundation. The height-adjustable feet mean that the channel can also be perfectly adapted to the foundation and the planned height of the concrete floor. The material, which is 3mm thick, is manufactured in standard lengths of 3,000mm with the company’s own grating covers and end pieces. The standard dimensions comprise a visible width of 460mm, an internal width of 320mm and supporting bases of 40mm each for the gratings. The total height is 210mm with an internal height of 157mm, and Richard Brink can also custom-manufacture any dimensions on request.
Precision craftsmanship from factory to installation
The Cargo was installed by GeislerBau GmbH from Neustadt am Rübenberge, which specialises in masonry and concrete work along with turnkey construction projects. The company was particularly impressed by the ease of installation thanks to the precision manufacturing with consistently high processing quality. Similarly, the intelligently designed complete system with its integrated expansion joint was a valuable addition to the construction of the extensive floor space.
A number of steps are essential for smooth assembly of the supply channels. First, the channel bodies are supplied pre-installed and placed on the clean layer of the hall slab before being connected at the front edges. Once the channels have been properly levelled and fixed in place using the height-adjustable feet, which also include additional threaded rods for fine-tuning, they are screwed to the substrate through the elongated holes in the supporting bases of the feet. This prevents displacement of the units during the next stage when the concrete is poured and completely surrounds the channel. When the concrete starts to harden, the factory-fitted spacers, which also act as mounting handles, are removed along with the nuts and bolts used for reinforcement in the channel body. This enables the concrete to shrink during the hardening process while also automatically forming an expansion joint beneath the channel. If concrete is applied to an area in multiple stages, an optional separating plate can be affixed beneath the channel to keep the concrete where it needs to be.
Richard Brink provided supply channels for a grating width of 400mm and the standard height of 210mm for the project in Wunstorf. A total of eight channel routes with lengths between over 18m and just under 20m were laid through the hall for precise positioning of the required lines at their exact deployment locations. Made-to-measure supply channels were supplied to fit the site conditions with a combination of standard versions at a length of 3,000mm and additional elements in special lengths. All project stakeholders were more than satisfied with the outcome of the operation: “The channels manufactured by Richard Brink form one of the many foundations for seamless production processes in the future once the hall is up and running in the new year,” commented Stephan Ulner, Global Head of Production of BRUGG Rohrsysteme GmbH.
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