Pipe Fabrication Contractors, Mechanical Contractors & Process Equipment Teams
For Pipe Fabrication Contractors, Mechanical Contractors & Process Equipment Teams
We capture the actual as-built geometry of your tie-in points, nozzle orientations, and existing pipe runs — at 0.025mm (0.001") accuracy — before your fabrication shop cuts the first piece of pipe. Carry-in equipment, battery-powered, operational in your facility in 20 minutes. Ryan Schimmel is a licensed Professional Engineer in Tennessee with hands-on mechanical and fabrication background — not a survey crew reading coordinates off a screen.
We are not an AEC survey firm. We don't do plant-wide point cloud surveys, LiDAR topographic mapping, or BIM deliverables for facility management. If you need to model an entire process plant or pipe rack system into a BIM platform, a survey firm with a long-range terrestrial LiDAR scanner is the right tool. What we do: precision metrology of specific connections, spools, and equipment — the geometry a fabricator needs to cut steel correctly, delivered by an engineer who understands what that geometry means mechanically.
Service Listings
Tie-In Point Geometry Scan — Replacement Spool Fabrication
Existing flanges, nozzles, and pipe termination points scanned to capture actual position, elevation, and orientation before off-site spool fabrication. What the fabricator receives is not what the 20-year-old isometric says — it's what the connection actually measures today. Flange face positions, pipe centerline elevations, and the spatial relationship between both ends of the spool run are captured at 0.025mm (0.001") accuracy. The spool arrives on site and bolts up. Used for corroded line replacement, process modification tie-ins, and any brownfield connection where the as-built drawing is suspected of not matching reality.
From $950
Est. — contact for quote
Stainless Process Piping Fit-Up Scan
Food, beverage, pharmaceutical, dairy, and chemical stainless piping tie-in geometry captured before spool fabrication. Stainless pipe spools are unforgiving — you cannot bend a 6-inch stainless pipe to fit if the measurement was off by half an inch. A spool that arrives and doesn't fit means field cutting and welding inside a sanitary zone, extended shutdown, and a re-sanitation cycle before production resumes. We capture the tie-in geometry in the plant, deliver the actual measured dimensions to the fabricator, and the spool arrives and installs cleanly. No scanning spray on product-contact surfaces. Battery-powered equipment operates without disrupting the production environment.
From $1,100
Est. — contact for quote
Equipment Nozzle Orientation Verification Scan
Vessel, heat exchanger, pump, compressor, and skid nozzle positions and orientations scanned against the equipment drawing before connecting piping is designed or fabricated. Nozzle orientation errors — a flange face 5 degrees off from the drawing, a nozzle elevation that doesn't match the datasheet — compound through the entire connected spool run and arrive as an unfixable field problem at installation. Catching them before the piping design is finalized costs nothing relative to the alternative. We scan the installed equipment, produce a dimensioned report of actual vs. drawing nozzle positions, and the piping designer works from reality.
From $850
Est. — contact for quote
Congested Run Clash Detection Scan
Existing pipe rack, equipment, structural steel, cable trays, conduit, and HVAC geometry captured so a new pipe run can be routed and clash-checked in CAD before any fabrication begins. Established facilities accumulate decades of undocumented additions — what the drawing shows as open space is often occupied by something added without a drawing revision. We scan the run environment, deliver the as-built obstruction geometry, and the piping designer routes the new line through what's actually there. Used for process expansion piping, utility line additions, and any new run threading through a congested mechanical space.
From $1,400
Est. — contact for quote
Single Spool Replacement — As-Built Isometric Capture
A corroded, damaged, or service-life-expired spool scanned in place to produce a verified as-built isometric for fabrication of an identical replacement. The installed spool reflects field modifications, settling, and repairs that the original isometric doesn't capture. We scan the existing spool, extract the actual centerline geometry, and deliver a dimensioned isometric with measured values at every bend, offset, and termination — what the replacement fabricator needs to cut a matching piece.
From $1,200
Est. — contact for quote
Prefabricated Spool Dimensional Verification
Fabricated spool scanned and verified against the design isometric before it ships to site. Termination point positions, flange face orientations, and offset geometry are all compared against the design. A flange rotated 5 degrees from the design, a termination point 8mm off in elevation, a run length that accumulated error through successive bends — all caught at the shop and corrected before the spool ships. Particularly valuable for critical service lines, high-pressure connections, and any spool destined for a tight installation window where field modification is not an option.
From $750
Est. per spool
How This Differs from a Survey Firm
AEC / LiDAR Survey Firm
Long-range terrestrial scanner — optimized for capturing entire facilities, pipe racks, and building interiors at once
Deliverable is a full-facility point cloud requiring Revit, Navisworks, or plant design software to process
Accuracy typically ±2–6mm for facility-scale capture — appropriate for routing and clearance, not connection geometry
Survey crew with total station workflow — designed to model the whole plant, not verify a specific connection
Mobilization and data processing timeline measured in weeks for a deliverable a fabrication shop can use
No mechanical engineering judgment about what the geometry means for the fabrication or installation
Schimmel Engineering
Handheld metrology scanner — captures specific connections, equipment nozzles, and spool runs at 0.025mm (0.001") accuracy
Deliverable is what the fabricator actually needs: measured tie-in positions, nozzle orientations, and dimensioned isometrics in STEP or PDF
0.025mm (0.001") accuracy — metrology-grade, NIST-traceable, appropriate for connection geometry and fabrication tolerance verification
Licensed PE with hands-on fabrication and mechanical background — understands what the geometry means, not just what it measures
Carry-in cases, battery-powered, deployable in 20 minutes — deliverable within days, not weeks
Engineering judgment: nozzle orientation errors, angular error accumulation, pipe sag patterns, flange face conditions — all interpreted, not just measured
Deployment & Response
We come to your facility, plant, or job site. No infrastructure required, no facility shutdown. Within 50 miles of Nashville is included in all base prices. All pricing is estimated — contact us with your pipe size, connection count, and facility location for a project-specific quote.
| Within 50 miles of Nashville 37206 | Included |
| 51–150 miles | +$180 |
| 151–300 miles | +$295 |
| 300+ miles | Quoted individually |
| National travel | Contact for quote |
When Piping Contractors Call Us
Scenario — Brownfield replacement, refinery
A corroded condensate return line needs replacing. The plant data is 20 years old. The shutdown window costs $50,000 an hour.
Over 20 years, the pipe rack shifted, undocumented repairs altered geometry, and the tie-in point elevation drifted 45mm from where the drawing says it is. A fabricator who builds to the old isometric produces a spool that can't bolt up. In a shutdown where field re-welding is not an option, that means an extended outage. We scan the existing tie-in points before the shutdown begins, the fabricator gets the actual geometry, and the replacement spool installs in the planned window.
Scenario — Stainless spool, food plant
A CIP line retrofit is scheduled for a weekend shutdown. The stainless spools are being prefabricated. Nobody has verified the tie-in geometry.
A dairy plant adding a CIP circuit to an existing process line. Stainless spools cannot be bent or adjusted on site — if they don't fit, the choice is field welding inside a sanitary zone or an extended shutdown until replacement spools can be fabricated. We scan the tie-in points the week before fabrication is scheduled to begin. The fabricator gets the actual measured geometry. The spools arrive Monday morning, bolt up, and the plant is back in production by Tuesday.
Scenario — Nozzle orientation error
A replacement heat exchanger was installed. The nozzle orientations are slightly different from the drawing. The connected piping hasn't been designed yet.
A heat exchanger swap where the replacement unit's nozzles are rotated slightly from the original datasheet due to manufacturing variation. If the piping designer works from the datasheet, the connected spools won't line up with the actual equipment. We scan the installed exchanger, produce a report of actual vs. drawing nozzle positions, and the piping designer models the new connections to the real geometry — not the drawing that doesn't match what's in the plant.
Scenario — Congested mechanical space
A new chilled water distribution line needs to route through a mechanical room that has been modified three times since the original drawings were made.
A commercial building mechanical room where 30 years of modifications have left the actual pipe, duct, conduit, and equipment arrangement unrecognizable from the original drawings. A new chilled water distribution run needs to thread through it. We scan the room, deliver the as-built obstruction geometry, and the mechanical designer routes the new line through what's actually there — identifying conflicts with existing services before a single hanger is ordered or a pipe is cut.
Scenario — Spool QC before shipping
A fabrication shop is shipping six spools to a refinery turnaround next week. The engineer wants to verify termination geometry before they go on the truck.
Six critical service spools fabricated for a turnaround installation. The consequences of a field fit problem during a turnaround are serious — extended outage, emergency re-fabrication, missed production targets. We scan each spool at the shop, compare termination point positions and flange orientations against the design isometrics, and flag any deviations before the truck is loaded. Corrections happen at the shop. The spools go to site verified.
Scenario — As-built isometric capture
A corroded spool needs to be replaced in kind. The original isometric doesn't exist — it was never drawn or was lost in a records transfer.
A legacy process line where the original fabrication isometric was never created, or was lost when the plant changed ownership. The corroded spool needs to be replaced with an identical piece. We scan the existing spool in place — centerline geometry, bend angles, offsets, termination positions — and produce a dimensioned isometric from the scan data. The fabrication shop receives a drawing that reflects what's actually installed, not what somebody guesses the original was.
Questions from Piping Contractors & Mechanical Engineers
Why don't the original piping drawings match what's actually installed?
Because brownfield facilities change continuously over decades and drawing updates rarely keep pace. Pipes sag under load and thermal cycling, structural steel shifts, undocumented field modifications are made during maintenance, equipment is swapped with units that have slightly different nozzle positions, and repairs alter geometry without a drawing revision. A 45mm elevation discrepancy at a tie-in point is enough to make a new spool impossible to bolt up. In a shutdown window where every hour costs tens of thousands of dollars in lost production, discovering that in the field is not an acceptable outcome.
How is your scanning different from what a survey firm provides?
A survey firm with a terrestrial LiDAR scanner is set up to capture entire facilities — full plant floors, complete pipe rack systems, building-wide as-built models. That's the right tool when you need to model everything. It's overkill when you need to capture two tie-in flanges and the run between them. The HandyScan Black Elite at 0.025mm (0.001") is a metrology instrument — higher accuracy than a survey scanner, in a carry-in case, deployed in 20 minutes. And we bring engineering judgment: we understand nozzle orientation errors, how angular error accumulates through multi-bend runs, what pipe sag looks like in scan data, and which dimensions the fabricator actually needs to cut steel correctly.
Is 0.025mm accuracy actually necessary for piping work?
The accuracy matters most where it matters most. A standard bolted flange has bolt hole tolerances of a few millimeters — the flange bolt circle isn't where high accuracy changes the outcome. The problem is angular error accumulation over a multi-bend spool run. At 4 meters of run length, a 0.5-degree orientation error at the first elbow produces a termination point 35mm off position. Capturing tie-in geometry accurately at both ends — not just "close enough" — is what allows the fabricator to account for the actual spatial relationship between the two connection points and cut the spool correctly the first time.
Can you work in an operating facility without disrupting production?
Yes. Equipment operates from battery, requires no facility power, and the Class 1 lasers present no safety concerns in operational environments. In food, pharmaceutical, and sanitary facilities, we use no aerosol sprays or chemical coatings on or near product-contact surfaces. We work during production windows, maintenance shifts, or planned downtime — whatever the facility schedule allows. Setup is 20 minutes and we work around your operations rather than requiring them to stop for us.
What does the fabrication shop actually receive from you?
The geometry the fabricator needs to cut pipe: actual flange face positions and orientations, pipe centerline elevations at tie-in points, and the spatial relationship between connection points. We deliver dimensioned isometric sketches with actual measured values, STEP or IGES models of the connection geometry, and point cloud data in formats compatible with common pipe design software. We discuss format requirements with the fabricator and the mechanical designer during scope review — the deliverable is what they need to use, not a standard package we hand everyone.
Can you verify a spool before it ships to site?
Yes. We scan the fabricated spool and compare it against the design isometric. Termination point positions, flange face orientations, run lengths, and offset geometry are all verified against the design. Errors are caught at the shop and corrected before the spool ships — not discovered during a shutdown installation window when the only option is emergency field modification or waiting for a replacement to be re-fabricated.
Ready to discuss your piping project?
Tell us what you're connecting, the facility location, and your fabrication timeline. We'll respond within one business day.