The Australian Pipeliner (TAP): Can you tell us about the history of Boddingtons in Australia?

Campbell MacKintosh (CM): Boddingtons is celebrating ten years operating in Australia this year. We started the company operating as a small distribution business bringing containers of product in from our parent company in the UK. We moved to our current location in Melbourne in 2001, investing in production equipment to manufacture the full range of underground marker tapes and meshes. The company has grown substantially in the last three or four years of which a large part is due to our sales growth to the pipeline industry.

TAP: How widely has the pipeline industry adopted the warning tapes and meshes in Australia?

CM: The major product used as a detection tape was aluminium foil tape product. Detectable tape using wire was introduced to the market about 20 years ago. What we have found in our ten years of supplying our WAVELAY® and DETECTAMESH® detectable products in Australia is that the use of the warning tapes is quickly becoming mandatory for all types of underground pipe and cable applications. The communications and optic fibre cable operators were the first to adopt the product followed by the water industry about 10 years ago.

Now most sectors within the pipeline industry are using the product including the gas industry. The gas industry has traditionally used a marker tape or mesh laid in a trench with a copper wire buried beside it. Now we are finding the majority of major gas companies are moving towards using tape and mesh products inclusive with the wire product.

TAP: What are the key benefits of the warning tapes and the warning meshes?

CM: The first benefit of using a detectable tape or mesh is that you can find it quickly and easily using a handheld electronic locating or detection unit. The second benefit is that WAVELAY and DETECTAMESH act as a warning to someone who digging down near an underground pipe or cable. As the product is laid approximately 300 mm above the pipe or cable the person digging will strike or hook into the tape or mesh before they hit the pipe or cable.

TAP: What standards are you covered under for these products?

CM: The main standard for underground warning tapes in Australia is AS2648.1:1995. This standard specifies the type and strength of polyethylene that must be used in the warning tape as well as the colours that are to be used for the individual underground services. This standard currently only covers non-detectable marker tapes but will be enhanced in the next few years to include detectable tapes as well. Boddingtons will have a member on the standards review committee.

In addition, Boddingtons WAVELAY detectable marker tape has been tested and approved for use by the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) for all water authorities in Australia.

TAP: Warning tapes and meshes are very important, is there anything else you sort of advice owners as part of protecting assets?

CM: We do recommend the use of marker posts with an appropriate warning sign to indicate that there is a pipeline or cable beneath the ground. The use of marker posts is appropriate not only in built-up city areas but also in less populated country areas as well.

TAP: How important is the fact that you manufacture in Australia?

CM: We think that this has been the main key success factor in allowing us to become a major supplier to the pipeline industry. Our philosophy has been to manufacture our WAVELAY and DETECTAMESH products for stock so we have product available for immediate despatch to our customers.

Pipeline marker tapes are often a last-minute purchasing item for contractors. There have many occasions where we have had a customer ring us in desperate need of a same day or next day delivery as they have laid the pipe or cable but forgotten to source the marker tape. Many of our customers rely on us having our products available ex-stock. They also know that our people will try their very best to have the product delivered to them as quickly as possible no matter the location of the job.

We are also able to offer our customers fast turn around on the manufacture of custom made products with special colours or text messages. We would not be able to offer this service if we did not manufacture in Australia.

TAP: What sort of information do people put on the custom text?

CM: This varies from a special warning message to a companies logo to a telephone number to dial before you dig. At Boddingtons we can generally provide our customers a range of options to customise the warning tapes or meshes to suit our customers needs. Most importantly we can offer short turnaround times on these orders.

TAP: What does the future hold for Boddingtons?

CM: In the pipeline industry we have introduced a new range of extruded plastic mesh products for protection. These products include PROTECTAMESH™ and ROCKSHIELD™.

PROTECTAMESH is an lighter and cheaper alternative product to traditional concrete and heavy plastic covers laid over underground cables and pipes. The mesh is brightly coloured and has excellent impact properties. It is also very easy to transport and install on site. We will soon be able to supply PROTECTAMESH with a top tape laminated to the surface of the mesh. We are excited about the potential of this product.

Our ROCKSHIELD mesh is used for wrapping around steel pipes to protect the coating systems applied to prevent the rusting of the pipe when it is underground. This product provides added protection to the steel pipes surface where the ground where the pipe is being buried is rocky. Scratches to the surface of the pipe may lead to corrosion problems.

In the last few years we have been steadily growing our sales into the Asian region. We have supplied utility and contracting companies in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. Our parent company in the UK exports products to the Middle East, Europe, North and South America. So Boddingtons has become very much an international supplier in the worldwide market.

In Australia we have supplied product to Asian operated businesses of a number of Australian owned contractors such as McConnell Dowell and Leightons.

Our aim is triple our sales into the Asian region in the next three years.

TAP: So how would you sum up what the products offer?

CM: The use of Boddingtons products gives the pipeline owner peace of mind as it reduces the risk of third party intervention. An underground pipeline or cable is a pipeline operators most valuable asset. The installation of detectable marker tapes or protection mesh will give the pipeline owner additional peace of mind that their asset is protected. It like taking out an additional insurance policy.

We often get telephone calls from people asking why they should use our products? We say that given the relative cost is so low, why wouldn’t you use this product?