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.