Northern Specialty Inc. of Missoula, Mont., has developed a thermal fusion process to fabricate fittings for high density polyethylene pipe in diameters of 14-63 inches.
The company was founded in 1992 as an HDPE pipe distributor. Five years later, Northern began making fittings.
Traditionally, only the ends of large pipe could be thermally butt-fused, said Neil Sheldon, general manager. “We found a way to scale up the fusion process, and that enables us to fuse large branch pipes to large main pipes — at virtually any angle,” he said.
BevelFusion has three steps. First, the branch section is cut and beveled to produce the required angle. Then the main pipe section is cut and beveled to match up. Finally, the two beveled pipes are fused using a process called “variable degree wedge heating.” The pipe sections are thermally fused at high temperatures.
Tel. (406) 721-5550, fax (406) 721-6119.