What Does Asahi/America’s Partnership with McElroy Mean for Customers?

Why is this partnership important to Asahi/America and our customers?

Did you know that Asahi/America recently formed a partnership with McElroy Manufacturing Inc. to provide industry-leading fusion equipment? As of September 1, 2023, Asahi/America now offers McElroy-manufactured butt and socket fusion equipment that is available for rental or purchase. Asahi/America’s current McElroy tool fleet is able to butt or socket weld single wall and double wall pipe diameters ranging from 20 – 110mm (1/2” – 4”) for socket and 20 – 630mm (1/2” – 24”) for butt fusion in thermoplastic materials such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE and PE100RC), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), and ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene (ECTFE). The new tool offering is available for shop or field use, as rental units or purchased tools.​​​

​McElroy’s support in assisting Asahi/America with in-house and customer needs in the field has proven to be invaluable. McElroy scheduled several trips to meet with installers of Asahi/America’s thermoplastic pipe systems. These visits have been well received by our end users, who have even commented things such as, “This is great for a tool manufacturer to show up on-site and answer any tool questions we have; we have not seen that from other tool manufacturers.”

McElroy has been looking into the industries Asahi/America serves and looking for ways to improve tools and even create new versions. McElroy recently visited with Asahi/America’s fabrication team to look at new tools for shop use, which they have not offered to other distributors in the past.

McElroy’s DataLogger® is a new addition to Asahi/America’s welding fleet and has a proven advantage over other tool manufacturers to record and monitor the entire weld process. The DataLogger® can be used from the manual Polygon LT®, which welds 20 – 110mm, up to the hydraulic QuickFit® Productivity Package, which can weld 250 – 630mm pipe and fittings. McElroy worked with Asahi/America to create a database of our weld parameters, which can be accessed using any McElroy DataLogger®. Since the parameters are stored with our familiar Asahi/America product names, choosing the correct weld parameters is much easier than previously pulling up parameters via PDF or other application. Using the DataLogger® and the stored weld data at the McElroy Vault® allows installers and others, when given access by the installing contractor, remote access to diagnose recent weld data. Authorized viewers can see the weld specifications/parameters used, the weld pressure and time graph, and photos of welds (if taken) from a remote location.

Learning Management System (LMS)

​​Asahi/America has been working closely with McElroy to create an online learning management system (LMS) using their established and successful LMS platform. Currently, Asahi/America offers the following courses: “Introduction to Asahi/America,” “Introduction to Thermoplastics,” and “IR Fusion Using an SP Series Welding Machine”. Future Asahi/America-branded training sessions will include “Thermoplastic Manual Butt Fusion,” “Thermoplastic Hydraulic Butt Fusion,” “Thermoplastic Socket Fusion,” and “Thermoplastic Welding using the “McElroy DataLogger® with Asahi/America Parameters.” Other courses will include “High Purity – Infrared Weld Quality Inspection,” “Butt and Socket Fusion Weld Inspection,” “Pressure Testing using the DataLogger®,” “Double Contained Piping Simultaneous Welding (same materials – inner and outer),” “Staggered Fusion for Dissimilar Materials in Double Contained Pipe Systems,” “Double Contained Piping System welding when using Cable Leak Detection,” “Electrofusion Welding,” “Hot Air Welding” (for Asahi/America’s Pro-Vent® thermoplastic duct system).​

These modules and coupled with certified Asahi/America on-site training can help welders/installers to meet the project needs at a basic level for successfully installing Asahi/America’s piping systems. Our standard training will familiarize installers with the piping, the required welding parameters, the tools they are using, and weld inspection.​​

For more stringent qualification needs, Asahi/America can train the welders/installers to be qualified at a higher level that meets ASME B31.3 Section A328.2.5 “Bonder Qualification Test Criteria.” This level will require destructive weld testing at a third party laboratory qualified to conduct these weld sample tests for the customer. The most common would be a hydrostatic test per A328.2.5.2 (c). Asahi/America can assist with the test pressure required for this test using our published mean long-term hydrostatic strength (SH) and the mean short-term burst stress (SS) for our materials.

EDITOR’S NOTICE: Please note, the information in this article is for educational purposes only and does not supersede any Asahi/America technical information or product specifications. Please consult Asahi/America’s technical department at 1-800-343-3618 or [email protected] on all product applications in regards to material selection based on the pressure, temperature, environmental factors, chemical, media, application, and more.