February 22, 2012

Trenchless 2011 – DCD Was There

Trenchless Technology’s Projects of the Year included a Runner-Up award for the Vancouver Central City Transmission project.

The project was completed just 20 miles from our production plant, and a 500-ton Maxi-DUB swivel was used to complete the pullback under the ocean inlet to the downtown core. Congratulations to all the 2011 winners!

Looking forward, DCD Design will be introducing some new Maxi-DUB models in the coming months. You asked, we answered. For a 1200lb Maxi-DUB swivel, it just takes a little longer to get the job done!

Tags: 00508, DUB, hydro, maxi, michels, project, swivel, vancouver, vcct
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December 28, 2011

More New Products for the New Year!

DCD Design keeps an ongoing list of product ideas in our design office. These are those phone calls that come in and “oh, no we don’t have anything like that… No, no one else? Hmm…”

Once enough of those calls, those ideas, gather in the file, it becomes self-fulfilling. The market is there; we just have to create the product!

So for this Christmas season, here’s a couple ideas we’re working on for 2012:

“The Snakecharmer” Duct Rod End Fitting

This threaded fitting will expand the Duct Rod Accessories to provide a snake lasso for the fiberglass rodder, for those jobs where you really do need to get into that duct today.

“The Wrestler” Tuf-Lugger Accessory

If you need to go up against something big ‘n ugly in the ring, you need something Tuf on your side. Roll out the Tuf-Lugger cable puller, mount on “The Wrestler”, and haul that bull out of play. Not even Mickey Rourke could compete with this!

Disclaimer: Sorry, no. We’re always developing new products, but these ones may be beyond us all! And the photos have been making the rounds – credit goes to those with the telephoto lens.

Tags: 40000, cable, duct, pulling, tuf-lugger
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December 13, 2011

New Products – Just in time for Christmas!

Hot off the presses: New Innerduct Pulling Eyes and Tube-Lube Spray Applicator!

The Golden Carrots have a littlest sibling, suitable for ½” nominal piping (0.40 – 0.71” inside diameters). Our engineering students, Joey and Yuya, developed the Solidworks model and they’ve just come back from plating, looking like solid gold. The carrots, not the students. Part number 00604-050 is now in stock, and will make a great stocking stuffer!

We’ve also built a new spray applicator for our cable pulling lubricant, Tube-Lube 326. End users had a few suggestions to make the tanks stronger and more functional, so we sourced a 3-1/2 gallon steel tank, added a pressure gauge and calibrated the spray nozzle to deliver enough Tube-Lube to the cable jacket to ensure a smooth, low-friction installation. The Manual Spray Applicator (p/n 35100-003) is available in festive red, and ready to load into Santa’s sleigh now.

Tags: 00604, 35100, carrot, innerduct, pulling, pulling eye, Tube-Lube
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September 30, 2011

And They’re Off!

Ryan and Neal will meet John in Louisville on Sunday, and they’ll probably go straight from the airport to the ICUEE show floor to get set up!

The trailer has a brand-new graphic wrap, and it’s loaded up with DCD’s Cable Installation and Horizontal Directional Drilling tools for customers to heft, handle and see how they work.

We’ll have our new Tube-Lube applicator and our Golden Carrots at Booth # 1149. We may have a pocket swivel mounted into a Melfred Borzall reamer, though we won’t have our new 2500lb Maritime Quadrant – that was a custom job for a client that shipped direct last week. Apparently, you’ll be able to see that in action in 8-12 months on the Science Channel!

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June 24, 2011

The Golden Carrot!

Bugs would be thrilled: DCD Design will be introducing our new Gold-Plated Carrots this summer!

Well, not really gold plated. We’re changing the 00604, 605, & 615 Innerduct Pulling Eyes from Nickel-Chrome plating to a Zinc Bronze Dichromate finish. Our distributors and customers will being seeing the new carrots in the next few weeks.

The dichromate finish will offer better corrosion protection to the carrots as they wear – the zinc will provide cathodic protection to the base metal, as well as a barrier layer.

Otherwise, these are the same carrots that DCD have produced for years. We realized: there hasn’t been a revision to these drawings in 11 years – since they were introduced – until this change. When you get a carrot, get back to us and let us know your experience with them.

Tags: carrot, conduit, duct, innerduct, pulling
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February 18, 2011

Do Something New

It’s one of those pieces of personal development advice: “Always be willing to try something new.” I think it’s part of the job description at DCD Design.

New this week: helicopters, wind turbines, Facebook, remote cameras, QR tags, Guam, The Turbo Entabulator… Makes sense? ‘Course not; never does at first!

We’ve been tapping into some new avenues- most of which aren’t ready to share, but soon. Soon!

Here’s one for now: our 2000MCM Power-Grips are pulling cable off the deep-end at some off-shore wind installations in the UK. We’re going to develop this in concert with our UK contacts who took the plunge, and put the whole story together in the near future. Patience, grasshopper.

(In the meantime, the Power-Grips are on special until the end of the month – hint, hint!)

Another discovery is The Turbo Entabulator, a lost technology (or was it a cover-up?) from Rockwell Industries. This one has to shared.

Tags: 00925, 24000, 24100, cable, electric, offshore, power-grip, wind
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January 11, 2011

Projectiles, Darts, Blowers and Parachutes – Line Blowing for the New Year

Our Line Blowing Equipment promotion has started the year with a bang! Pretty much everything in the Line Blowing section of the catalog is on special through January.

Mix and match to build a tool kit that works for you. All projectiles are available individually or as kits, in a variety of sizes and weights: from durable Line Darts to our unique Ultralight Birds and Parachutes.

Start with a high-pressure Control Valve that uses twist-lock fittings to mount to a standard air hose, and mounts to threaded Innerduct Seals for a secure, air-tight seal. Larger ducts can use the advanced Duct Seal Body with quick-change polyurethane Seal Kits.

In response to a customer’s request in 2010, we created a new adapter to fit 3″ & 6″ Seal-Off Cones to the Control Valve as well. Ask for the 58000-100 Valve Adapter.

Or use our Power Blower: a portable unit with parallel, twin motors to provide the maximum pressure available in this class of line blowers: up to 30% higher than the competition.

Greater pressure delivers greater distance – read this article to see how pressure will overcome friction in a duct.

Take advantage of this before month-end – plenty of regular subscribers already have! And if there’s a particular product you’d like to see in an upcoming promotion, speak up! We’re already developing February’s promotion; and no I’m not telling, it’s a surprise.

line-blowing-equipment
The Whole Line Blowing Collection

The New 58000-100 Adapter – assembled to a Valve and Cone

Tags: 58000, 58100, 58200, 58230, 58300, 58320, 58330, 58335, 58400, 58410, bird, blowing, cone, dart, duct, foam, inflatable, innerduct, line, line blower, line blowing, parachute, pneumatic, projectile, seal, ultralight, valve
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December 3, 2010

Supporting the Arts

Oh, this is great! Our 00505 Line Swivels are typically used for overhead line stringing or underground pulling operations. But Mel Ristau is a Colorado artist who has applied our Line Swivels to support his dynamic, illuminating artwork. I’ll let him explain:

Tags: 00505, art, line swivel, mel ristau, overhead, swivel
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November 23, 2010

Another Good Idea: Making Dewatering Easier

We took a call from a customer a few days ago. His 00650-150 puller wasn’t broken, but neither was it gripping like it used to. As it turns out, Gary Fors and Designed Groundwater Services were applying our Sealed Duct Puller in a manner we’d never considered before! I’ll let Gary explain:

“Yes, we use your pullers often and rely on them as a way to get the decommissioning of our dewatering wellpoints completed properly.

“In 2008, Washington State changed the law on “water well” decommissioning. Previously it was fine to just pour bentonite or hole plug down the wells. Then the law changed and we had to find a way to pull every wellpoint out of the ground from depths of up to 25 feet.

“This proved almost impossible with traditional methods like chokers or nylon straps because they either shattered the plastic or slipped off. So, we went to Ditch Witch NW and bought our first 1.5 inch puller and it worked great for consistent reliable pulling of our dewatering wellpoints.

“Ever since then we have pulled out thousands of wellpoints consistently and quickly. We are very happy with this product and will continue using it as a core tool of the decommissioning portion of our business.”

Thank You,
Gary H. Fors
Operations Manager
Designed Groundwater Services, LLC
www.designedgroundwater.com

Have you considered using a duct puller before? Call us for a distributor near you or look one up now. Have you discovered a new and novel use for DCD Design equipment? Let us know and we can feature your ingenuity on our site.

650 Puller in Seattle

Tags: 00650, dewatering, duct puller, ground water, pipe, sealed duct puller, well
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October 26, 2010

New Manufacturing Tools = Better DCD Products

Here’s a quick shot of our pin-marker in action – now that the blog links are repaired!

Earlier this year, we added a “pin peening” machine to our in-house manufacturing capabilities. We started with our 00505-series Line Swivels (for overhead or underground stringing) by permanently engraving them with part number, load ratings, and our own graphics.

Now we’ve finished the clamping jigs and started marking the brass identification tags for the DUB-Swivels and other DCD products. We can include graphics or serial numbers or any other detail we want. No more limits!

Tags: 00503, 00505, 00508, dub-swivel, engraving, line swivel, load rating, marking, peening, permanent
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