How the internet makes selecting expansion joints so much easier.

Author: Rob Coffee, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Proco Products Inc.

Talking to a customer looking for an expansion joint is always important – identifying parameters of what is needed, determining the size and overall length, the temperature of the application, the application itself, the material moving through the expansion joint, the pressure of the system, including potential vacuums or surge conditions (read Considerations When Shopping for Expansion Joints) – but the internet has made the selection process so much easier! And here’s why…

Submittals, which are technical specs that engineers typically require to verify that the correct components are designed into a pumping system, can now be downloaded from the Proco Products website.

Having submittal forms that you can download – based on style of the expansion joint and pipe size – is a great way to help the design engineer or end user define the product and see exactly what they would be getting (potentially). A person can be in the planning stages of a project, whether it be the design of a new pumping system or a planned outage, and they can use this new functionality on the Proco website to define the products they might need in their system.

The submittals are interactive PDFs, with dropdown boxes to specify material selection criteria, i.e. different elastomers, overall length, quantities, flange drilling specs, and other details. There are also fields where project notes, project name, drawing numbers, and additional details can be typed in and saved with the submittal form.

Another cool feature on these interactive submittals is that there is immediate access to 3D CAD files. You can click directly from the PDF file to the TraceParts website to download the 3D Model of the specific expansion joint selected. The engineer creating the submittal can drop the 3D model into their system simulation for evaluation and confirmation of correct specification.

Clicking on the CAD configurator brings up the SolidWorks model on the TraceParts platform, which allows you to download the part in different file formats. There are up to thirty different file formats that the CAD drawing can be loaded in, so it’s a great system when you’re looking for drawings.

Proco Products uses modern technology to make the whole process easier for people. We’ve got the whole internet at our fingertips, so check out just how easy it is make your selection and system design process much more efficient. Visit procoproducts.com to try it out!

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