PPIC is Going with the Flow
What lies beneath? Bucks. Big bucks.
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, April, 2001 (THE MISSISSAUGA NEWS)
Instead of looking up for inspiration, Mississauga's Brian Mergelas looked down.
The result? One of the fastest growing companies in Canada over the past four years.
Dr. Mergelas, fresh off a Ph.D. in Physics from Queen's University, founded the Pressure Pipe Inspection Company (PPIC) in his Mississauga basement in 1997.
Over the last four years, the company has increased revenues by nearly 8,000 percent leapfrogging from one to 40 staff members. It has also grown from inspecting a couple miles of pipe to over 400 - from North America to some of the most remote regions on the earth.
Both the employment figures and miles inspected are expected to grow exponentially over the next few years, and that means even more profits for the private company, led by Dr. Mergelas, its president and managing director.
To celebrate the company's growth, PPIC recently held an open house at its new and expanded headquarters at 4700 Dixie Road. "We knew we were on to something right from the beginning." said Dr. Mergelas at the open house, as he led the press and City officials on a walking tour of the firm's high-tech facilities. What PPIC was on to was the fact that more than 18,000 total miles of concrete pressure pipe is in use by nearly every major water utility in North America. The pipes used by these utilities are huge and range in diameter from 40 cm (16 inches) to 7 m (252 inches). At an estimated replacement cost of between $2 million and $15 million per mile, this infrastructure is valued at over $40 billion (US). These pipes are used mostly for pressurized water supply and distribution lines and for cooling systems in power plants. A rupture of one of these lines represents millions of dollars in repair costs and lost service - as well as damage to properties and agricultural areas.
PPIC is the only company in the world using the patented remote field eddy current/transformer coupling technique for the nondestructive evaluation of prestressed concrete cylinder pipe.
Dr. Mergelas would like to see the move to total remote devices in the future, and his company is working towards that goal. He also suspects that large pipe construction might mean that inspection devices would be permanently placed in pipe in the future.
PPIC is at the cutting edge in this new environment, and Dr. Mergelas said inspections are a great risk management tool for huge infrastructure projects.
The water industry has been challenged for years to find a way to test concrete pressure pipe, since this kind of pipe has a life expectancy of between 50 and 100 years.
It's estimated that at least half the exiting lines will be replaced in the next 20 years. Some need replacement, some don't; PPIC is a public utility's eyes and ears.
PPIC not only saves customers time and money, but it takes the worry out of what lies beneath. And what lies beneath isn't pretty. PPIC's RFEC/TC has shown its undisputed ability to detect wire breaks caused by corroding in the pipe matrix. It has also proven its ability to detect breakage in the prestressing wires caused by the onset of hydrogen embitterment.
PPIC operates a full-scale calibration/test facility north of the Toronto area where it performs field-tests of new tool designs, in addition to performing tool calibrations for various pipe diameters.
Dr. Mergelas expects to employ about 80 people by this time next year, and already the company has signed huge multi-million dollar contracts to do work for municipalities.
This unique private-public partnership is something Dr. Mergelas is extremely proud of, and commercial work has focused on systems with pipes large and small.
PPIC is a leader in the nondestructive evaluation of prestressed pressure pipe, due largely to its ability to locate and quantify the amount of damage in a large diameter concrete water pipeline.
The company also has a sterling record for locating distressed pipes and also identifying sections of pipe that are in good condition - thereby saving clients millions in unnecessary pipe replacement costs.
PPIC inspectors are highly trained and field smart; they spend numerous hours traveling to sites all over the globe, and testing the pipe.
Much of this information is filtered back to Mississauga headquarters.
Dr. Mergelas is thrilled by the growth of PPIC, and from humble beginnings, he foresees a great future in forming joint ventures and partnerships with huge public-sector utilities.
"We're just proud and pleased to keep our head office in Mississauga," he said.
About PPIC
A world leader in large diameter water and wastewater pipeline condition assessment, the Pressure Pipe Inspection Company (PPIC) offers forward looking solutions to help customers address aging infrastructure challenges in a reliable and cost effective manner. Our innovative services pinpoint damaged sections of a pipeline to help optimize infrastructure investments, stop leaks, reduce risk and ensure compliance. PPIC has inspected over 6,000 miles of critical pipeline assets over the past decade. For more information, visit www.ppic.com.
For more information, contact:
Michael Stadnyckyj
the Pressure Pipe Inspection Company
+1 905-624-1040 x 301
mstad@ppic.com