interview | SABIC
Typical properties of Vestolen A 5640C steel pipe coating HDPE Units SI
Values
POLYMER PROPERTIES Colour
RAL number
Melt flow rate (MFR) at 190˚C and 5kg
Carbon black content Density1)
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES 1) 2) Tensile test 3) 4) stress at yield strain at yield strain at break tensile modulus Hardness Shore D
ESCR (10% Igepal CO-630), F50
THERMAL PROPERTIES Vicat softening temperature 1) 2) at 10 N (VST/A)
– –
dg/min %
kg/m3
Black 9004
1.8
>2.0 956
MPa % %
MPa – h
21 15
>600 850 57
>2000 ˚C
ISO 306 >110
1) Compression moulding conditions of test specimen (according to ISO 293): moulding temp: 160˚C, cooling rate: 40˚C/min
2) Conditioning of test specimen: temp. 23˚C, relative humidity 50%, 24 hours 3) Speed of testing: 50mm/min 4) Test spcimen according to ISO 527-2 type 1BA, thickness 2mm Source: SABIC
a long lifetime and many of the properties in terms of environmental stress cracking resistance are quite similar.
It is a logical step to add steel pipe coating as the
next product in our wide portfolio of grades. However, I don’t want to suggest that the raw materials for standard pressure pipes are similar, the requirements are quite different and also the testing is quite different. The standard for plastic pipes focuses very much on resistance to rapid crack propagation, slow crack growth and pressure resistance. But with steel pipe coating this is not the case. The whole pressure of the medium is carried by the steel rather than the plastic so there is a big difference in the polymers. PC: What does Arkema bring to the table? HP: In terms of the collaboration with Arkema, as you are aware steel pipe coating systems need to be approved based on a combination of epoxy, adhesive and a top coat. Arkema has been in this market for quite some time already supplying the adhesive and we have optimised the product that we are offering, our Vestolen A 5640C, to match with the extrusion profile of the Arkema Orevac grade. Together it has been tested by the institute KTH to confirm the system fulfils the
18 PIPELINE COATING | December 2016
ISO 6964 ISO 1183
ISO 527-2
– –
ISO 1133 Test methods ISO 868 ASTM D1693B
requirement of DIN EN ISO 21809-1, DIN 30670 and CAN/CSA-Z245.21. SABIC is supplying the HDPE; Arkema is supplying the adhesive. However, we will go for a joint market approach meaning that we promote the full solution based on Orevac and Vestolen to the customers that we meet with. PC: What does your new Vestolen HDPE grade offer pipe coaters that they cannot already find on the market? HP: It’s a mix of properties such as ease of processing, product performance, consistent and high quality, but also how SABIC supports the pipe market and the pipe industry. Starting with the last point, the fact that we have a dedicated pipe team that is organised globally is a big benefit to global steel pipe coaters. And this market is global – the fact that we can anticipate their global need is a big advantage. Secondly, SABIC has multiple manufacturing plants around the world. We are not limited to just one geographic area but we can supply on a global scale from world scale plants. That is a big advantage compared to some of the competitor suppliers in this industry. Last, but not least, we offer on-site technical support for our customers. Performance is more or less limited by the polymer type. Our HDPE faces a similar temperature limit to what is already there in the market. If you want to go higher in temperature then a different polymer should be selected, namely polypropylene. PC: You have been developing your coating offering for more than two years. What feedback have you gained and how close are you to commercialisation? HP: We have had feedback during the various trials we have done. We are learning every day but what we have learned so far is that the processibility of the material is very good, the surface finish of the pipes is good. Secondly, our materials widely exceed the requirements that are required by the ISO standard. For ESCR performance, ISO demands at least 1,000 hour but our product exceeded 5,000 hours in this test. But mainly processing was seen by several coaters as an advantage. I won’t go into details of who exactly we are working with but what I want to show is that we are not limited just to one area. We are now producing this material in our plant in Germany and we want to sell this material in Europe, Middle East, Russia. We are in contact with many of the pipe coaters and the fact that we have a solution together with Arkema is clearly of interest. We see that some network companies, some pipeline operators are more conservative than others but I would say at the moment we are very close to the first commercial pipeline being installed with our material. For more information visit:
www.SABIC.com or download the brochure
www.pipeline-coating.com
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