materials feature | ETPs & composites
Invista’s Raptor nylon pipe
withstands high temperatures and pressures, while being fast to install
summer. The pipes will be delivered in diameters of DN1400 and DN1600mm. Sydvatten wanted a non-cor- rosive pipe material that could provide a lifetime of more than 100 years. “While steel and concrete pipes often have issues
with corrosion, research shows that composite pipes have a unique durability,” said Markus Janson, sales manager for the Swedish market in Amiantit Norway. The contract was awarded shortly after Amiantit
invested more than $10m in Flowtite Technology, its Norwegian research centre for glass reinforced composite pipe.
Flying high Victrex has obtained the AS9100C/ISO9001:2008 aerospace certification for its pipes production lines. The standard is specially designed for the aerospace
industry. It requires Victrex to have a quality manage- ment system in place to consistently provide products that meet customer and applicable legal and regulatory requirements. It also specifies that the system must establish processes for continuous improvements and ongoing conformity to regulatory requirements. Frank Schemm, Victrex Pipes aerospace market manager, said: “Whilst we offer straight tubing solutions for demanding aerospace applications, we continue to develop bent, flared, and jointed systems to fit the spacing requirements of various aircraft platforms.” The pipes, made from Peek, can be around 70%
lighter than comparable metal pipes, says the company, giving aerospace engineers the chance to save weight in their designs.
Steel replacement But it’s not always pipes that require the performance improvement that engineering plastics can deliver. Aluplast of Germany recently boosted the energy efficiency of its Energeto windows by replacing steel reinforcements with polyurethane foam and Ultradur
14 PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION | January/February 2015
PBT from BASF. Although steel adds rigidity to PVC window frames it is ‘thermally vulnerable’ – meaning that it is does not retain heat very well. Aluplast set about trying to improve this. “We pushed it to the limit”, said Peter Kotzur,
marketing director at Aluplast. “We squeezed out every bit of energy efficiency we could and optimised the profile depth and the number of hollow chambers – but it was still not enough.” In the end, Aluplast got rid of the steel, replacing it
with Powerdur – which it developed with BASF, using its Ultradur material. At the same time, it incorporates a special polyurethane material that boost insulating capacity. As a result, there is now a central gasket system
with a profile depth of 70mm and bonded glass which eliminates the thermal bridge that is typically seen in conventional windows. Energy use has been slashed, delivering a Uw rating of 0.87W/m2K. Sound insulation is increased to class IV, and burglary resistance jumps to class RC2. Aluplast and Kunststof-Fenstersysteme have also
developed a new recycling method in order to separate the PVC from the Ultradur. The separation is done by tribo-electrical charging, in which the PVC particles are charged negatively and the Ultradur particles positively. They are then sorted through an opto-electronic process – which allows 100% separation and recycling of the PVC and Ultradur.
Click on the links for more information: ❙
www.raptornylonpipe.com ❙
www.polyflowglobal.com ❙
www.championfiberglass.com ❙
www.amiantit.com ❙
www.victrexpipes.com ❙
www.aluplast.net ❙
www.basf.com
www.pipeandprofile.com
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