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Our Midwest warehouse is now operating! This is due to feedback from you, our customers. Thank you, we always welcome feedback.
We’re now able to offer Ground shipping with delivery in 1-2 days to most of the Midwest for many of our most popular tools, including line stringing swivels, underground duct pullers, threaded innerduct “carrots” and DUB-Lite swivels for horizontal directional drilling / boring.
Give our 800# a call today to check stock and place your order! 1-888-794-8357.
Spent the morning at the foundry, inspecting the cast-alloy clevis ends of the 350 ton and 500 ton swivels, and discussing the method with the foundrymen there. Sand casting has a long history, contributing to the Industrial Revolution and the automotive industry in its formative years – both pivotal events!
DCD Design takes advantage of the efficiency of sand casting to put metal where it’s needed, in the chemistry desired, to gain the properties necessary for the Maxi-DUB swivels to excel in the difficult conditions encountered in directional bore holes.
Castings are poured, chilled, broken out and individually inspected to ensure a quality product, but each casting is unique. The mold is broken every time!
Castings of this size (over 800lb, in some cases) will typically show the pattern of the sand, and perhaps the impression of the chilling blocks and part line. Overall though, the massive castings are homogeneous after heat treatment and benefit from the grain structure imparted by the process.
Dendritic growth and phase transformation are technical terms for it, but imagine ice crystals forming in a complex geometry.
Then imagine a massive, solid piece of alloy steel crystallizing like a snowflake. With some perspective, the old ways are damned impressive!
We had a busy morning, tensile testing at the material lab: our semi-annual destructive tests of the 00505 Series Line Swivels once again confirmed their rated load capacities. Combined with the full material traceability inherent in our production routine, we can back up our Safe Working Loads.
Have you seen the Line Swivels recently? The batch number and our maker’s mark is now permanently engraved on each Line Swivel. We’re even capable of adding graphics!
Also new and notable is the 3/16″ Detectable Duct Rod! DCD Design pioneered detectable rod in 2003 with 5/16″ and 7/16″ diameter rods. Now we’ve brought in 3/16″ rod mounted onto the lightweight Reel Rod frame, for quick set-up on shorter runs.
To celebrate, we’re putting ALL the Duct Rodders on sale for the month of June! See our monthly newsletter for all the details, or check the DCD website.
The Mad Duckter is working on a few other things back in the lab, ready to be unleashed in the coming months. Keep an eye open – but remember, The Duckter is no quack!
A couple months back, we had Maxi-DUB swivel no. 250102 come in for overhaul. That swivel was 11 years old and we called it The Old Dog.
The Crossing Company of Nisku, Alberta did one better – we have another 250-ton HDD swivel in for service: no. 250101. Built in October of 1997, it’s a full year older than The Old Dog, and I don’t know what we’ll call this one now. “Rusty”, maybe!
Internally, the swivel’s in good shape. The Crossing Company have taken good care of this tool. A new bearing set, seals and a recut of the API thread, and it’ll be good as new and back in service for a fraction of the replacement cost.
In the 90′s, DCD Design pioneered the Maxi-DUB swivel design with two sizes, the 150-ton & 250-ton. Since then, others have duplicated our patented design while we have steadily added to the line, and now we range from 110-ton through 700-ton swivels (100 – 630 metric tonnes) to fit any big directional drilling rig.
PS. Can you read that nameplate? No, neither can I! But the serial number can be picked out, just barely. Besides that, we had trace marks on the swivel and documentation on file so we could confirm the serial number while servicing the swivel.
Last week’s presentation of Tube-Lube 326 to the attendants of the Western Underground Committee’s January meeting went really well, with the support of the WUC Executive, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Pacific Utilities. A thirty minute PowerPoint presentation was followed up with a walk outside to have a look at SDG&E’s cable pulling trailer.
Two main points emerged from conversations through the afternoon and into the evening’s “Table Talk” session:
1) An environmentally responsible lubricant option generates a lot of interest! A cable pulling lubricant that’s water-based and chemically inert protects your workers on the site, the natural environment surrounding the site, and the installed cable throughout its lifespan.
2) A water-based lubricant doesn’t require a thick surface coating on the cable to do its job. Less thickness per square inch means you’re using less, and a 5-gallon bucket can go two to three times as far as a thicker lubricant. You save money by getting more miles per gallon.
Tube-Lube can also be applied with built-in nozzle sprayers, so the installation crew is doubly protected: besides a nearly blank MSDS sheet, the crew can stand back from the cable under tension and adjust the application from the other end of a twenty-foot hose extension – outside the vault entirely!
Fortunately the weather in Tucson cooperated – we were between the weather systems that deluged on the Southwest through last week. And I took the scenic route down the Pinal Parkway, and one detour up Redington Road into the Santa Catalina range. Saguaro, tumbleweeds, and dust storms!
We’re halfway through the first day of ICUEE, and the morning has flown by! Lots of interest in Tube-Lube, duct rodders and Power-Grips. We’ve been explaining why the 505 series line swivels are unique – our bearings are built for tension. The Neale Model B cable lasher, beautifully refurbished by John Innes, is getting a lot of interest from passers-by.
The limited edition Team Duckt rubber duckies have been hugely popular – so much that we’re going to have to ration them. For now, we’re trading a badge scan for our duckts. Once we run out of duckts, don’t worry: we still have a prize draw for all scanned entries. Come by Booth 201 in Louisville, KY, to meet the crew, see the demo trailer and scan to win!
Drop me a line if you’re reading and you can drop by! If there’s something particular you’re looking for, let us know so a product expert can be on-hand to answer your questions.
DCD Design has a range of Cable Installation products, for both underground ductwork and overhead lines. One recent example, quite literally in our backyard, involved a set of powerlines being installed to new towers over a railway, marina and access road by Pacific Electrical Installations.
DCD line swivels were used to connect the heavy-duty pulling grips on the conductor to the synthetic winch line. Read the full story here, and thanks to PEI Powerline Specialists for the site visit!
The Horizontal Directional Drilling Division of The Mears Group is one of the largest HDD contractors in the world. They’ve also got some great content on their website – check of their Media section for the Frontiers of Construction clip, featuring a DCD Maxi-DUB swivel being used for a river crossing.
Just past the halfway mark of the video, when they’re maneuvering the leading end of the pipe towards the drill string, you can see the swivel as they make the final connections to begin the pullback. That’s where DCD Design’s HDD swivels fit in: the drill string turns, the pipe does not.
An extra bonus: that river crossing is about 10 miles from DCD’s plant near Vancouver, Canada!
Copyright 2011. DCDDesign. All rights reserved.
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