Members of the United Association of Plumbers, Pipefitters, Steamfitters and Service Mechanics (UA) allegedly installed, cut, broke, and re-installed the following categories of asbestos-containing products across the asbestos era (roughly the 1930s through the early 1980s). Each category links to the corresponding manufacturer history and trust-fund eligibility documentation on AsbestosIndex (asbestos-products.com).
Asbestos pipe covering and insulation
The defining product category of the trade. Steam, hot-water, condensate, feedwater, and process piping across the American industrial base was allegedly insulated with asbestos pipe covering — molded calcium-silicate pipe sections, block insulation, air-cell corrugated paper wrap, and asbestos-cement pipe. UA members allegedly cut, re-cut, and disturbed this covering every time they installed a new line, tied in a branch, or repaired a leak. According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, the historic suppliers to this market allegedly included:
- Owens-Corning Kaylo — calcium-silicate pipe covering and block
- Johns-Manville Transite pipe and Johns-Manville asbestos pipe covering
- Aircell corrugated asbestos-paper pipe wrap
- Unibestos amosite pipe covering
- Nicolet asbestos-cement pipe
- Certainteed Transite asbestos-cement pipe
- Certainteed Fluid-Tite asbestos-cement sewer pipe
Pipe insulation on AsbestosIndex → · Transite pipe on AsbestosIndex →
Asbestos sheet gaskets and spiral-wound gaskets
Every flange in a steam, condensate, or process-piping system was allegedly sealed with an asbestos sheet gasket or asbestos spiral-wound gasket through the asbestos era. UA members allegedly cut sheet-gasket material to size at the jobsite with utility knives, gasket punches, and gasket cutters, and scraped old gaskets off flange faces with wire brushes during every turnaround and tie-in. Historic suppliers allegedly included:
| Product | Where used |
|---|---|
| Garlock Blue-Gard 3000 | General-service flange sheet gaskets |
| Flexitallic spiral-wound | High-pressure and high-temperature flanges |
| Crane Composition | Steam and process flange gaskets |
| McCord | Industrial and OEM gasket service |
| Fel-Pro industrial engine | Industrial engine and compressor gaskets |
| Farnam Companies | Industrial and OEM gasket service |
Sheet gaskets on AsbestosIndex → · Spiral-wound gaskets on AsbestosIndex →
Asbestos-packed valve stems and valve packing
Steam-service valve stems and process-service valve stems were allegedly sealed with braided asbestos valve packing across the asbestos era. UA members allegedly repacked leaking valves on continuous rotation — pulling the gland, extracting the old packing with a packing puller, and installing fresh braided asbestos rings from the shop stockroom. Historic suppliers of asbestos valve packing and asbestos-packed valves allegedly included:
- John Crane — braided asbestos valve packing
- A.W. Chesterton — braided asbestos packing and pump packing
- Duriron / Durco — asbestos-packed process valves and pumps
- Fisher Controls / Emerson — asbestos-packed control valves
- Masoneilan Camflex — asbestos-packed control valves
- Copes-Vulcan — asbestos-packed steam valves
- Copeland — asbestos-packed refrigeration compressors
- Kunkle — asbestos-packed safety valves
- Watts Regulator — asbestos-packed pressure-regulating valves
- Powell Valve — asbestos-packed steam valves and traps
- Grinnell — asbestos fire-sprinkler heads and asbestos-packed valves
- Mueller Steam Specialty — asbestos-packed steam specialties
Valve packing on AsbestosIndex → · Valves on AsbestosIndex →
Asbestos-fabric expansion joints
Ductwork and process piping subject to thermal cycling was allegedly connected with asbestos-fabric expansion joints across the era. UA members allegedly installed and replaced these joints during construction and turnaround work at:
- Detroit Stoker — reheat furnace ductwork expansion joints
- Foster Wheeler — feedwater heater lagging and expansion joints
- Chicago Bridge & Iron (CB&I) — FCC regenerator flue gas expansion joints
- ABB Lummus — catalytic cracker expansion joints
Expansion joints on AsbestosIndex →
Asbestos-fabric torch pads and welder-shop asbestos
Certified welders in the UA — code welders under ASME B31.1, B31.3, and Section IX — allegedly worked daily with asbestos-fabric torch pads and welding blankets during pipe cutting, root-pass tacking, and hot-work tie-in. Cutting an old asbestos-covered line to remove a spool for repair required draping the adjacent covering with an asbestos blanket to catch slag. The welder’s shop stockroom allegedly kept asbestos gloves, asbestos aprons, asbestos leg shields, and asbestos welding curtains across the era.
Cross-links — full product histories on AsbestosIndex
- Pipe insulation — full manufacturer history and trust-fund eligibility
- Transite pipe — Johns-Manville and Certainteed asbestos-cement pipe
- Sheet gaskets — Garlock, Crane Composition, McCord, Fel-Pro, Farnam
- Spiral-wound gaskets — Flexitallic and competing suppliers
- Valve packing — John Crane, A.W. Chesterton, and competing suppliers
- Valves — full asbestos-packed valve manufacturer tree
- Expansion joints — asbestos-fabric expansion joints
- Industrial boilers — whole-system reference
- Recovery boilers — pulp mill severe service
Manufacturer trust funds applicable to UA pipefitter claims
Many of the manufacturers that supplied the products above are now defunct, having filed for bankruptcy under the weight of asbestos litigation. Their bankruptcy estates funded asbestos trust funds — currently holding more than $30 billion — that pay claims to workers and families with documented exposure to their products. UA-relevant trusts allegedly include the Johns-Manville trust, the Owens-Corning / Fibreboard trust, the Garlock Sealing Technologies trust, and multiple valve, gasket, and pipe-insulation manufacturer trusts, among others.
See Trust Funds for the full list of applicable trusts.
Visit AsbestosIndex (the full product + manufacturer catalog) →
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