For more than 30 years, DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations have provided invaluable mechanical maintenance of the piping system in Dublin Port – a service which quite literally keeps the wheels of industry moving in Ireland. We dropped into the Port and had a chat with director Lee Maloney to find out more.
As well as maintaining the piping system in Dublin Port, DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations provide mechanical maintenance to petrochemical and power generation facilities in addition to cutting-edge pipe fabrication and general engineering services.
DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations Ltd. specialises in all mechanical aspects of the oil and gas, power, food and water industries. Complementing their maintenance expertise, they construct large mechanical systems to a high degree of tolerance as per our customer’s specification. These systems have been installed all over Ireland by a team of highly-qualified tradesmen.
Since the late ‘eighties, the company has been delivering specialist, dedicated services to the commercial, industrial and public sectors. Their experienced management team is dedicated to consistently providing an excellent service, with projects completed efficiently and cost-effectively, always on time and within budget.
DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations deliver top-quality fabrication services and installation, modification and maintenance of mechanical service piping systems, on schedule, throughout Ireland. They’ve had a strong presence at Dublin Port for more than three decades, delivering a wide range of solutions to key client Dublin Port Company and major oil companies, from mechanical maintenance to emergency shutdowns and contracting / mechanical engineering works.
In addition to carrying out installation works as a complete site-based operation, they are able to provide off-site fabrication works either to service site works or as standalone fabrication projects.
“We’re based in Dublin Port on a day-to-day basis and have a workshop there, with our main manufacturing facility located in Baldoyle,” reveals Lee Maloney, director, the son of company founder David Maloney. “With the Port’s core business being shipping, all of our work has to be organised around shipping. So, as well as being highly skilled, we have to be highly organised with the keenest attention to detail given to tides and shipping schedules.
“On the petrochemical side of things, a very high level of Health & Safety is required as you are working with Class I. Class II and Class III explosive products. We’ve been maintaining the pipelines and terminals for the oil companies in Dublin Port since ’88 and we have to make sure that the product is always flowing while ships are never delayed.”
Operating to the very highest standards, DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations are members of the CIF, RECI and CIRI as well as being fully accredited to ISO 9001 quality management, ISO 14001 environmental management and OHSAS 18001 Health & Safety management standards.
At the time of writing, the company had 22 tradesmen working in Dublin Port, but this number can go up to 40 depending on the workload at any given time. “We place a major emphasis on training, given the nature of the environment we are working in,” Lee continues. “We train our apprentices accordingly, regularly upskill our tradesmen in all aspects of safety and educate them in relation to the Port requirements and all safety requirements in this area. All of our core workers have been with us for more than 15 years.”
Founder David Maloney’s contributions at Dublin Port predate the genesis of DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations. “My father came here in the ‘70s to work on the Common Oil pipelines and then started his own company in the ‘80s and began to work for the oil companies directly,” Lee reflects. “We also work in Galway, Belfast and Cork Ports, predominantly for the oil companies, as well as in a number of power stations.
“But our core business is focussed in Dublin Port and we have developed out business and systems to make sure that schedules are not disrupted. The majority of fuel coming into Ireland comes in via Dublin Port through the pipelines we maintain, along with the associated structures, and you have to make sure that everything is running as it should be at all times.
“We have highly-skilled personnel on call 24/7 to rectify any problems that might arise and that’s vital to Dublin Port going forward as the Port is very close to full capacity and thus everything has to be robust and reliable and working at its maximum all the time.”
DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations offer a wide variety of planned maintenance programmes customised to meet the client’s individual needs and requirements. These service programmes not only help keep equipment running at peak efficiency but also provide detailed service records allowing the client to track maintenance, repairs and replacements.
With a DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations planned maintenance programme in place, customers have the peace of mind that comes with dependable, quality service and the prevention of breakdowns which affect productivity and comfort. The benefits to the client of this service include increased energy savings; lower operating costs; prolonged equipment life; reduced downtime; increased productivity; and better budgetary control.
The fact that DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations have the ability to fabricate pipes enables them to provide a very efficient one-stop-shop solution. “We’re big into pipe fabrication and the welding of pipes and secondary steel for supporting pipe,” says Lee. “We specialise in the off-site fabrication of piping and we do this as efficiently and precisely as possible to reduce the downtime of systems for Dublin Port and the oil companies. This involves planning to a very high level of detail in order to keep the shutdown of systems to an absolute minimum.
“We fabricate all our steel and platforms off site and install around when ships come in, which is no easy task. You have to organise your work for downtimes and plan the installations around shipping schedules. This requires a high level of organisation and our Project Management is highly focussed from both a production point of view and a Health & Safety point of view to get everything completed in a cost-effective, safe and efficient manner.”
Although the work is far from easy, Lee, who joined the company in 2002 and learned the ropes from his father, embraces the challenges that each day can bring: “No two days are the same, that’s for sure,” he concludes. “For the oil companies and for Dublin Port, if oil isn’t flowing or ships aren’t offloading, then somebody is losing money. You have to deliver every day … if you don’t, somebody else will.
“You have to plan everything meticulously, keep things on schedule, get the work done with a huge emphasis on Health & Safety. If you don’t maintain the highest standards of safety, then you won’t be working in Dublin Port for long.”
DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations Ltd.,
Jetty Road,
Dublin Port,
Dublin 1,
D01 E9P0.
Tel: 01 8556774
Fax: 01 8560601
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.dmmechanical.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, May/June 2020, Vol 6 No 3
DM Mechanical & Pipe Installations Ltd.
