The Pipeline, Issue 01: From an idea in 2002 to the next chapter
THE PIPELINE
Knowledge. Tools. Community. Opportunities.
Issue 01 | From an idea in 2002 to the next chapter · 29 October 2026
Welcome
Welcome to the first edition of The Pipeline, the new newsletter from PipingDesigners.com.
When I started PipingDesigners in 2002, the Internet was still in its infancy. I had an idea: this new medium offered an ideal opportunity to bring piping designers together, share knowledge and build a community around our profession.
That idea remains at the heart of everything we are doing today.
Know a piping designer who’d find this useful? Forward it on, or share pipingdesigners.com/newsletter/ with your colleagues.
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A personal vision, a new direction
PipingDesigners started as my own project, driven by a simple belief: piping designers have a great deal to learn from one another, and the Internet could help us share that knowledge beyond the boundaries of individual companies and projects.
Since then, the online world has changed enormously. The opportunities to connect, learn, collaborate and build useful tools have grown beyond what was possible when the original site began.
So it is time for PipingDesigners to take its next step. The new PipingDesigners.com is more than a website refresh. It is the foundation for a broader platform serving the piping design and engineering community.
Our direction is built around four pillars:
- Knowledge — practical articles, technical guidance and shared experience.
- Tools — useful resources to support everyday piping design work.
- Community — a place to ask questions, exchange ideas and learn from others.
- Jobs — a dedicated platform connecting piping professionals with career opportunities.
I want PipingDesigners to become a place people return to regularly, not just when they need to look something up. A place where experienced professionals can share what they know, newer designers can develop their skills, and the whole community can benefit.
This newsletter is one part of that ambition. Each edition of The Pipeline will bring together useful content, tools, discussions and opportunities from across our world of piping design.
There is plenty still to build, and the community has an important role in shaping what comes next. Let’s get started.
FULL BORE
What does a piping designer really need to know?
A good piping designer needs more than the ability to operate a design software package.
The work calls for an understanding of piping systems, layout, equipment, materials, access, maintenance and constructability — alongside the judgement to make good design decisions and recognise potential problems.
Software skills matter, but they are only part of the picture. Developing as a piping designer means building technical knowledge, learning from experience and understanding how design decisions affect the wider project.
Our first featured article, by James O Pennock, looks at the knowledge and skills behind the role of a piping designer, and the foundations that help professionals develop throughout their careers.
Read: What does a Piping Designer need to know?
This is the beginning of a wider programme of technical content. We want to build a useful library of articles and guides that supports designers at different stages of their careers.
What would you like us to cover next? Send us your suggestions and help shape future editions.
ELBOW ROOM
Get to know Pipe Rack Designer
One of the aims of the new PipingDesigners platform is to bring useful tools closer to the people who need them.
This edition, we’re highlighting Pipe Rack Designer, a preliminary layout tool available on PipingDesigners.com.
Pipe racks are a familiar part of process plant design, and rack layout is an important part of the wider piping design task. Rather than simply telling you that a tool exists, we want this section to help readers discover what’s available and explore how it can fit into their work.
New to it? The Pipe Rack Designer companion article explains how it works.
We’ll use Elbow Room to showcase other tools and useful techniques in future editions. If there is a particular design task, calculation or repetitive activity you would like us to explore, let us know.
PIPE UP!
The forum is open — join the conversation
Knowledge sharing was one of the reasons I started PipingDesigners in the first place. The forum is a natural extension of that original idea.
It provides a place for piping designers and engineers to ask questions, discuss technical challenges, exchange experience and learn from the approaches others have taken.
But a forum is only as useful as the conversations that happen in it. You don’t have to write a technical paper to contribute. Sometimes a practical question or a short explanation of how you approached a problem is exactly what another designer needs.
Visit the forum and join the discussion
Let’s start with a question
What’s one thing you wish you had known when you first started working in piping design?
Share your thoughts in the forum. Your answers could help other designers and give us ideas for future articles and discussions.
BRANCH CONNECTIONS
Help build the community
Piping designers work across different industries, countries, companies and project environments. Although our projects may differ, many of the challenges we face are shared. I’d like PipingDesigners to help bring that experience together.
You might have an article idea, a practical lesson worth sharing, a question for other designers or a suggestion for improving the platform. We’d like to hear it.
Want to contribute? Email info@pipingdesigners.com.
The long-term value of PipingDesigners won’t come from the website alone. It will come from the knowledge, experience and participation of the people who make up the community.
THE NEXT LINE
A dedicated home for piping design jobs
Career opportunities are an important part of a professional community. We’ve launched jobs.pipingdesigners.com, a dedicated jobs platform focused on piping design and engineering.
If you’re looking for your next role, explore the latest opportunities. If you’re an employer or recruiter looking for piping talent, you can advertise a vacancy free under our launch offer.
Our aim is to make it easier for employers to reach a specialist audience of piping design and engineering professionals.
Explore jobs and advertise a vacancy
Know someone recruiting piping designers, or looking for their next role? Please pass the link on.
MARKET PULSE
The PipingDesigners Market Pulse — October 2026
A monthly round-up for piping, process and BIM professionals in Ireland, the UK and the US, from PipingDesigners.com (PipingDesigners Limited).
Labels: VERIFIED FACTSOURCE CLAIMINTERPRETATION— “source claim” means what the company or group says; “interpretation” is our reading.
Project & industry news
Supreme Court clears legal path for €1.6bn Ennis data-centre campus
VERIFIED FACTEnnis, Co. Clare, reported 13 October 2026. The Supreme Court refused leave to appeal planning approval for Art Data Centres’ 200MW, six-building campus, which includes a 110kV substation, an energy centre and heat-reuse facilities. SOURCE CLAIMThe developer says the grid connection is still outstanding and expects construction in 2027. (Data Centre Review)
Why it matters: This is a planning milestone, not a construction start. An energy centre with heat reuse would carry mechanical and cooling piping scope, but no packages have been announced.
Astellas to add a second aseptic filling line in Tralee
VERIFIED FACTTralee, Co. Kerry, 14 September 2026. SOURCE CLAIMAstellas says the expansion will double drug-product capacity at its Kerry Technology Park facility and create engineering, production and quality roles by 2029. (RTÉ)
Why it matters: Aseptic lines bring clean-utility and hygienic-piping tie-in work. No design or construction contracts have been named.
Pure DC starts piling for the final Brent Cross building
SOURCE CLAIMLondon, 3 September 2026. Pure DC says contractor Glencar has started piling for the 70MW LON01B2 building, which it describes as closed-loop and liquid-cooled. Completion is scheduled for Q2 2029. (Pure DC)
Why it matters: This is real site activity. Glencar’s scope is the shell and core. The liquid-cooling fit-out comes later, and no mechanical contractor has been named.
Carrier picks Fort Worth for a $600m+ chiller plant
VERIFIED FACTFort Worth, Texas, 22 October 2026. Carrier plans to invest more than $600 million over three years in a facility of over 1 million sq ft that will build air- and water-cooled chillers, including for data centres. SOURCE CLAIMCarrier says operations will start in 2027, with 1,500 jobs. (Carrier)
INTERPRETATIONWhy it matters (our interpretation): The chiller supply chain is scaling up to meet data-centre demand, which points to continued chilled-water plant design work.
Bayer plans $2.2bn pharma site in New Albany, Ohio
VERIFIED FACTOhio, 2 October 2026. Bayer announced a modular campus combining drug-substance and drug-product manufacturing. SOURCE CLAIMIt expects about 600 permanent jobs and roughly 1,500 construction jobs, with the first module operational in 2031 and a second module planned for 2034. (Bayer)
Why it matters: This is an investment announcement with a long lead time. The process and utility design phases are still ahead.
Jobs market watch (sample checked 26 October 2026)
These are small, dated samples from public job boards. They are not market totals or trends.
VERIFIED FACTIreland: Indeed listed six “Piping Engineer” results nationally, including duplicates. Stress roles stand out: Jacobs in Dublin (AutoPIPE, Caesar II, NozzlePro, Navisworks), and Tate Europe and Dornan in Cork (Caesar II). Design roles asked for ASME B31.1/B31.3. None of the sampled listings stated a salary.
VERIFIED FACTUK: CV-Library’s “piping designer” search returns mostly unrelated results. The relevant roles included a Senior Piping Designer in Ellesmere Port (£40,000–£55,000), a Senior Piping Engineer (£45,000–£60,000) and Hinkley Point C piping completion leads (£59,000, or £350–£475 a day). Building-services pipefitting is a separate market from process-plant design.
VERIFIED FACTUS: Houston came up repeatedly. An AtkinsRéalis lead/senior pharmaceutical piping designer role states $60–$75/hour and asks for Plant 3D or SP3D, Navisworks and WFI/clean-steam experience. A Quanta data-centre role prefers Revit MEP but accepts Plant 3D, CADWorx or SP3D/E3D, a clear example of process and MEP skills overlapping.
Browse roles, or post a vacancy free under our launch offer, at jobs.pipingdesigners.com.
Want to keep track of opportunities? Sign up for Job Alerts.
Looking ahead
- VERIFIED FACTASME BPE-2026 takes effect on 1 November 2026. ASME’s front matter gives an issue date of 1 May 2026, with the standard effective six months later (ASME). INTERPRETATIONBiopharma teams may want to confirm which edition their project specifications invoke.
- VERIFIED FACTEnnis still needs its grid connection. Watch: whether it’s secured in time for a 2027 start.
Sources: Data Centre Review (13 Oct), RTÉ (14 Sep), Pure DC (3 Sep), Carrier (22 Oct), Bayer (2 Oct), ASME BPE-2026 front matter, Indeed Ireland, CV-Library, AtkinsRéalis and Quanta job ads, all accessed 26 October 2026. Links are given with each item.
Editorial content is independent. This section contains no sponsored content. Checklists and calculators are aids, are not approved for engineering design, and must be checked against the applicable codes and your company’s procedures.
What would you like to see next?
This first edition marks the beginning of The Pipeline, but the bigger ambition is to continue building PipingDesigners into a genuinely useful resource for our profession. I’d like to know what matters most to you:
- Which technical subjects should we cover?
- What tools would make your working life easier?
- What questions or discussions should the forum be tackling?
- What would make you return to PipingDesigners more often?
Just reply to this email or write to info@pipingdesigners.com.
When I started this project in 2002, the idea was to use the Internet to share knowledge and bring piping designers together. That idea hasn’t changed. The opportunity to deliver it has simply grown.
Thank you for being part of the journey. If you find this edition useful, please share it with a colleague.
Until next time,
Anton Dooley
PipingDesigners Limited
The Pipeline is published by PipingDesigners.com, a trading name of PipingDesigners Limited (CRO 828687), 6 Highfield Crescent, Swords, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Contact: info@pipingdesigners.com