materials feature | ETPs & composites Aluplast has
replaced steel with PBT in its Energeto
windows, to boost energy efficiency
hydrocarbons, water, and other fluids and gases, has opened a new manufacturing plant in Midland, Texas. The plant, says Polyflow, is the first
RTP facility in the Permian Basin, and will help it to improve service to its customers in the region. As well as increasing Polyflow’s overall manufac- turing capacity, it will provide product to service centres across Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. “This facility will give our customers
in the region the best products and service possible as we support their aggressive drilling and tie-in sched- ules,” said Jim Medalie, CEO of Polyflow. “This meets our strategic objective of providing customers with unmatched responsiveness, consistent stock levels and high quality piping for a variety of applications, fluids, and gas transport.” The facility will produce the company’s Thermoflex piping. Polyflow says it is lightweight, easy to install, reliable, and offers lower ongoing maintenance costs than steel or other types of pipe. Thermoflex pipes are the basis of the company’s
Existing Pipe Enhanced Rehabilitation (Expert) technology – which relies on Twaron aramid fibres from Teijin Aramid. Their high strength allows for a pull- length of over 10km, and the rehabilitation can be completed in a matter of hours. The result is a rehabili- tated pipeline with the strength of new steel without the concerns of future corrosion. “The cyclic loading environments of oilfields place a high demand on the conveyance system,” says Medalie. “That’s why having chemically resistant tubing is crucial. With the combined technology of Polyflow and Teijin Aramid, gas- and oil-field services can keep running smoothly.” The company has also begun to used Teijin’s
heat-resistant material Technora, so that its systems can cope with the higher temperatures of deep drilling.
Hitting back Champion Fiberglass, a US producer of composite conduit, has hit back at the Steel Tube Institute of North America – which had criticised the performance of composite products. In a White Paper, Champion has listed 21 reasons why building contractors should switch from traditional products – such PVC-coated steel – to composites.
12 PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION | January/February 2015 “Our customers save thousands on
projects simply by reduced labour costs, brought on by the ease of installation and light weight of our conduit,” said Goran Haag, president of Champion Fiberglass. “Clients claim the benefits are innumerable and continue to specify fibreglass as their preferred conduit.” He said that heavy industry was “abandoning PVC-coated steel conduit” for a range of reasons – chiefly due to the superior corrosion resistance, lighter weight and lower installed cost of composites. These attributes often go hand in hand, said the company. For example, design engineers at lignite power generation facility were able to pull the composite conduit for longer distances than would have been possible with the originally specified steel conduit. As a result, saved around $1.5m by eliminating a number of needed access points
– which are expensive to build. “This serious value can be unlocked by project stakeholders, simply by specifying
a smarter conduit material – and this only represents one aspect of this leading-edge material’s value profile,” said the company.
Champion claims a two-year lifespan for steel pipe
in typical applications such as wastewater treatment, underground infrastructure and process manufacturing – but three times that for composites. At the same time – as detailed in the case study above – installation costs will be lower for composites: for a 100ft installation of 5in pipe, the labour rate set by the National Electrical Contractors Association in the US is $8.60 for compos- ite and $45 for steel, reflecting the relative different in installation difficulty. Other advantages cited by the paper include: better
shape retention; customisable material properties; superior vibration resistance; and better design flexibility. Corrosion resistance was a major factor in a recent
contract win in Europe. Amiantit of Saudi Arabia is to deliver its Flowtite pipes for a 25km raw water pipeline in Norway. It is one of the largest glass reinforced composite pipe contracts for water supply ever awarded in Europe, says Jarle Hausberg, MD of Amiantit Norway. Sydvatten, owned by 16 Swedish municipalities, supplies more than 900,000 people with drinking water. It plans to start installing the raw water pipeline this
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