Caldervale Technology

Caldervale Technology manufactures a range of tooling and equipment for installing plastic pipe systems.

Our core products are electro-fusion control units, with other products including clamps and preparation tools for cleaning the pipes before joining. In total we have a range of over 200 products - but all with the focus of making plastic pipe systems safe & easy to install as well as safe & durable in use.

The company has grown a long way since its founding in 1983, but we still manufacture our products ourselves at 3 sites in the UK. This is part of our commitment to quality, ensuring we meet and exceed the requirements of ISO9001 and ISO14000.

Because the company is independent of any of the pipe manufacturers,we have become a trusted adviser - even being consulted by manufacturers themselves for new solutions to challenging problems.

Established in 1984 as Calder Technical Services Ltd, the company started producing tools for use in the construction of plastic pipelines for the distribution of gas and water using the relatively new polyethylene pipe material and the heat fusion process for joining the pipes together.

Heat fusion tools in the 1980's were fairly basic with heat being applied to the pipe ends being joined in a fairly unscientific way which allowed for shortcuts to be made in the application of the process. In fact the pipes themselves were made from a number of different materials with differing melting points, making the tools which applied the heat to some extent product specific.

Clearly the market demanded a joining process which allowed pipes manufactured from these different polyethylene raw materials to be joined together successfully, by a process which gave the installer greater control of the joining process, is relatively easy to use and yet at the same time reduces the chance of human error.

The introduction of the electrofusion process and its adoption by the U.K. gas industry gave Calder Technical Services the opportunity to enter a new market at an early stage and be a part of its development process by designing and offering tools and equipment which would assist in the adoption of the electrofusion process as the prefered method of permanently joining together polyethylene under pressure distribution systems.

One of the two founding directors takes up the story, “we decided to offer both electronically controlled fusion control units and also installation tools, we stood alone from other U.K. suppliers at that time in that we did this as an independent company unattached to any pipe or fitting manufacturer and also an organisation who could offer both tools and fusion control units from the same source.”

The first electrofusion control box model was introduced in mid 1986 and after rigorous testing at the now defuct British Gas engineering & research station in northern England against their standard PS/PL2 the control box, now called the SAM 2 was awarded approval for use on the British Gas gas transmission and distribution system.

The Calder Technical Services company although relatively small in size compared with other electrofusion equipment manufacturers always believed that offering a full range of products, and where the market allowed for originality, presenting unique and original products was the best way to grow the business successfully.

The director again takes up the story, “ the late 1980's were an exciting time for us, new products seemed to be coming out of development almost weekly, some of which are still industry standards today, for example SAM 2, superclamp and pillar clamp, sales of SAM 2 were leaping forward and the Calder Technical Services name or CTS as we were becoming known was becoming recognised universally.”

At about that time, the company, its indepedence and its range of products became attractive to other orgainisations and the next few years were spent as a sub unit of the multi disciplined Glynwed International group of companies.

The start of 1993 saw the original directors and a number of loyal employees leave the Glynwed organisation and start trading again as Caldervale Technology Ltd from premises In Horbury Bridge, Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Since 1993 development has been steady and consistant, adopting the same principles as those which were so succesful in the Calder company (which remained under the control of the Glynwed group.) of developing and introducing new products, maintaining quality and respect for our invironment in all areas of business.