POLYOLEFINS | MATERIALS
Putting polyolefin pipe into new applications
The range of applications for polyolefin pipe continues to grow, due in part to higher performing grades – and the willingness of contractors to specify these materials
Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) pipe are widely used for projects ranging from plumbing systems to large infrastructure projects. In many cases, new – and high performing – grades are preferred to traditional materials such as steel. In one example, Uponor in the USA recently supplied both PP-RCT and PEX for a new ‘snow melting’ system at a university campus. The system, at the Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, melts snow on a large pedestrian bridge – which con- nects the university campus with student housing on the other side of a busy freeway. These types of system are common, and work by running warm glycol through pipes in order to melt surface snow. This latest project was complicated by the fact that the system needed to be incorpo- rated into a bridge. “At the start of the project, it was difficult to see how we would do it,” said Aron Frailey, founder of building contractor Thermal Engineering, which carried out the work. “Even with 3D models, we struggled to understand how we would thread roughly 2,000 feet of pipe through all the girders
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of this bridge structure.” The project is a ‘hybrid’ snow-melt installation because it uses both PP-RCT and PEX. In total, 36,000ft of PEX was installed in a ‘grid’ on the bridge, along with 1,900ft of PP-RCT – in diameters of 2.5-4in. Thermal Engineering chose PP-RCT – rather than steel – because it was better able to withstand the salt and magnesium chloride used for snow and ice melting on Utah’s highways. At the same time, it was easier to handle – and so less labour-intensive. Shipped in 19ft lengths, a stick of 4in PP-RCT weigh a small fraction of its steel equivalent. PP-RCT offered one more critical advantage over steel: the ability to move with the bridge. “The structure is intended to move as much as 18 inches and in every direction all the time,” said Frailey. “I was concerned about the joint integrity of a steel piping system with all that movement, and I liked the flexibility of PP-RCT to handle it.” n Uponor says that its ability to offer both PEX and PP-RCT has allowed it to launch a new service – which it calls Complete Polymer Solution – for
Main image: “PP-RCT was flexible enough to handle the movement of the bridge in all directions,” says contractor Aron Frailey
March 2021 | PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION 13
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