Once the trench or service corridor is closed, the next crew inherits your specification. The plate above the pipe. The wire beside the duct. The warning before the cable. Each needs to do its job long after yours is signed off.

Tapex Industrial brings together the Dig Safe® range and AP Sensing monitoring technology for fibre networks, buried power cables, gas, water and oil pipelines, and buried rail assets and services.

Bring us your route drawings, installation method and asset-owner requirements. We’ll help you turn them into a coordinated product schedule, installation details and handover checks—so fewer decisions are left at the trench.

Start with the risk. Finish with a workable specification.

A busy service crossing, a long directional drill and a remote rail corridor ask different things of a specification. Start with what could damage the asset, how it will be installed and how crews will find or monitor it afterwards.

Our team helps you shortlist the right products, gather the technical evidence and resolve the joins between systems. You get a clear basis for selection, with the details your designer, contractor and asset owner need to review.

Protection that fits the crossing

Overpipe® HDPE protection plates provide a physical barrier above buried pipelines and services. Their connected layout, high-visibility surface and handling features bring protection and warning together. Serious protection. A lighter lift.

For your specification, settle the required plate coverage, thickness, burial position and clearance, connection arrangement and tested resistance to the excavation threat. On steel pipelines, include cathodic-protection compatibility—the corrosion-control system still needs to work beneath the plate.

Tapex helps you match the Overpipe layout and connector system to the crossing detail, with drawings, test evidence and installation guidance ready for the asset owner’s review.

For other protection duties, consider hard cable covers above buried cables, Pipe Armour™ Rock Shield around pipeline coatings exposed to abrasive backfill, and AssetPro™ plates where electronic identification is also required. Select for the damage mechanism, required coverage and installation conditions.

A locating system, from end to end

A reel of tracer wire is a start. A traceable route is the result you need.

Copperhead® combines copper conductivity with a steel core for installation strength. The range includes wire for open-cut work, directional drilling and pipe bursting, plus compatible connectors, grounding and access points.

Specify the wire’s breaking load and insulation for the installation forces and ground conditions. Define the connection, grounding and access-point layout for the locator crews will use. Include an actual route-locating test at handover; electrical continuity alone does not prove the route can be traced.

Tapex helps you specify the complete signal path, including branches and terminations, so the next crew has somewhere to connect and a line to follow.

Where termites threaten the wire jacket, Dig Safe® termite-resistant tracer wire adds a nylon barrier sheath. For valves, joints and changes of direction, 3M™ EMS markers provide point location. Match each marker to its installed depth, utility type and compatible locator.

A clear warning before the service

Bright tape above a buried cable gives an excavator a message at the moment it matters. Dig Safe® warning tapes and meshes identify the service below; Wavelay® tape and Detectamesh® mesh add a conductive element for locating.

Choose the asset owner’s required colour and wording, width, burial position and durability for the soil conditions. For detectable products, include conductor continuity, joining details and the locating method. A visible warning and an electronic trace serve different purposes; specify both where the project calls for them.

Keep an ear on the route

AP Sensing uses fibre optic cable as a continuous sensor. Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) detects vibration and acoustic activity. Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) measures temperature along the fibre. Strain sensing adds a view of deformation where the application requires it.

Match the technology to the event: excavation near a fibre route, hot spots along a power cable, leak signatures on a gas, water or oil pipeline, or interference around buried rail services. Suitable existing fibre can be assessed for reuse.

Define the events to detect, route coverage, required event-location accuracy and alarm response time. Then settle fibre type, position and coupling to the ground or asset, optical losses, alarm interfaces and site acceptance tests. The useful result is an alarm tied to a place—and a person ready to respond.

Tapex brings your engineering and operations teams together with AP Sensing to develop the monitoring brief, assess the fibre route and agree commissioning criteria before equipment is selected.

Carry the detail through to handover

We help assemble the product data, drawings, test reports and installation requirements into a specification package your project team can use. Where alternatives are proposed, we help compare the properties that matter to your design, including system compatibility and acceptance tests.

Asset-owner requirements set the final selection and installation detail. Put the nominated product, relevant performance evidence, required accessories and handover tests in the same package. Less room for guesswork when the trench is open.