POLYOLEFINS | MATERIALS
with similar characteristics to the ones recently dug up will last for longer than the current 50-year design life. More recent high-pressure pipes, such as PE100, could have a useable life up to 160 years. The project also revealed that installation issues cause most of the joint failures on PE pipe. “Thanks to the foresight of engineers 40 years
ago, today’s water industry engineers have a valuable asset – robust data,” said Jo Claronino, technical lead at Severn Trent Water. “The hope is that this can be used to create a
national database of companies’ analysis showing the life expectancy of water supply networks across the UK and Ireland.” While one of the testbeds been decommis-
sioned, the other is still operating. “The remaining testbed still has a significant amount of information to give to future engineers, so we will continue to maintain and re-test it,” said Claronino.
Patent ideas Basic research into polyolefins is not slowing down – as evidenced by the number of recent patent applications.
Many of these are for new grades of material
that can address specific industry needs. Dow, for example, has been granted a patent for an ethylene/alpha-olefin-based material, which is used to make a monolayer pipe with a hydro- static strength greater than 100 hours at 20°C and 12MPa. “Polyolefin resins can have relatively poor long-term hydrostatic strength at high tempera- tures, which can render them unsuitable for
Left: Borealis has received the highest chlorine resistance accreditation for its
HE1878E-C2 grade of HDPE
Follow us on...
Be the first to know when we publish a new edition, plus updates on our conferences and useful links.
www.twitter.com/plasticsworld
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46
