Safe and reliable gas installation for an airship hangar
As big as a football field with just under 100,000 m³ of air volume – this extraordinary "garage" can be found in Mülheim an der Ruhr near Essen, Germany. It is home to an around 60 m long “blimp”. This is the name given to modern airships without an internal structural framework which are normally filled with helium. The company “WDL Luftschiffgesellschaft” essentially uses the airship to transport passengers on sightseeing flights and for advertising campaigns.
In order to allow work to be performed on the airship, a room temperature of 18°C is required in the hangar. Until recently, oil heating was used yet over the years this system had become outdated and extremely inefficient. That's why the decision was made to modernise the heating. Two 600 kW air heating systems, operated with liquid gas were opted for. Rheingas handled the entire installation of the gas equipment using two press connection systems from Viega.
Quicker, safer, more cost effective
As part of the conversion work in Mülheim an der Ruhr, the two outside gas tanks were connected from the pressure regulator to the adapter in the ground with the Profipress copper pipe system. A special lance which was insulated in the factory acts as the vertical connection to the PE pipe in the trench. Here the gas supply line is continued using the Geopress system which was developed for underground installation.
The same set-up, but in the opposite order, can be seen at the other end of the supply line where the pipeline emerges from the soil and is connected to the heat generator, i.e., firstly the Geopress adapter and then the Profipress copper pipe system.
For Rheingas, a national supplier of complete liquid gas solutions, opting for the press connection technology from Viega for indoor and outdoor installations represents a clear competitive advantage: Compared to soldering and PE welding, pressing is around 60% quicker and can be done outside even when the weather is bad.
