Specifiers working on commercial and high-rise projects face a familiar challenge: sourcing a water supply solution that performs consistently from the plant room to the riser and on to the final apartment outlet, without switching between barely compatible products along the way. Polypipe Building Services addresses this with two purpose-built product systems, MecFlow Fusion and MecFlow Press.
Together, the two systems are designed to cover the full journey of a building’s water supply, from basement and plant room through risers and runouts to individual apartments. Each is engineered for a specific stage of that journey, but both share a common design philosophy – robustness without unnecessary complexity on site, and both replace the corrosion, scale build-up and weight of traditional pipework with material formulations engineered to remove these risks at source.
MecFlow Fusion is designed to meet the demanding conditions of plantroom, riser, header and runout installations. Available from 20mm to 315mm, it uses a PP-RCT composition reinforced with microfibre mesh for added mechanical strength, along with an antimicrobial additive. Unlike steel, its corrosion-free material formulation inhibits the magnetite build-up that clogs valves and coats heat exchangers on heating systems, and its lower thermal conductivity reduces the heat loss rigid metal pipework allows along the run. MecFlow Fusion was specifically developed for boosted cold water, low temperature hot water, chilled water and heating applications, and is tested to achieve a fire classification rating of B-s1, d0.
Joints are created by socket, saddle and butt welding together with electrofusion couplers, all producing homogenous joints certified to BS EN ISO 15874 with WRAS approval. The system is also available through the Polypipe Advantage service, offering bespoke design, tailored prefabrication, delivery and technical support to streamline installation.
At the other end of the system, MecFlow Press is designed for branch, runout and apartment-level installations where flexibility and ease of handling are key considerations. This multi-layer composite pipe, available from 16mm to 50mm, comprises inner and outer layers of polyethylene around a flexible core of butt-welded aluminium. It is fully oxygen-tight, offers low thermal expansion and delivers strong flow rates for potable, hot and cold plumbing and heating applications, while its lighter weight compared with traditional materials eases handling and reduces structural loading on risers.
MecFlow Press uses press-fit jointing via flow-optimised fittings, each featuring a stainless-steel sleeve with a tool guide for precise pressing and extra-wide visual inspection windows to ensure correct pipe insertion. MecFlow Press fittings also incorporate a ‘leak-before-press’ test function to confirm that joints are correctly pressed before full pressurisation. The system is certified to BS EN ISO 21003 and carries WRAS approval.
Alongside technical support, the range is backed by Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), giving specifiers a clear view of the environmental credentials behind each component. Consistency of water supply performance throughout the whole building is critical for today’s commercial construction projects, MecFlow Supply Systems from Polypipe Building Services deliver a single to solution and point of accountability from source to outlet.