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The market will soon
have stronger PE pipes manufactured with new technology of sandwiching
highly oriented PE sheet between 2 pipe layers. A
Japanese company has developed a new process to develop PE pipes
with superior strength. The 3 layer composite pipe consists of 2
layers of PE pipe based on PE100 bi modal HDPE grade. First the
inner layer of pipe is produced. A highly oriented (30-40 times)
sheet of HDPE is spirally wound on the inner core of the pipe. This
structure is then fed into a special die, where a black coloured
top layer of HDPE from PE100 is coated on to it. The outer black
colour provides the requisite weather-resistance. The sheet has
very high rigidity due to its orientation which contributes to the
extreme strength of the pipe at significantly lower thickness.
Such a composite structure is ideally suitable for pipes with diameter
larger than 200-400 mm. HDPE pipes have found increasing application
in water distribution at high pressures. This new development in
HDPE will increase competitiveness
as compared to other materials, aiding in increasing the share of
HDPE in high-pressure applications. Sekisui
has already demonstrated the successful usage of this new structure
to pump water up to a high altitude mountain in Nagano Prefecture
of Japan.
Will this new development increase the usage of PE pipes in transporting
water at high pressure? Will it replace PVC pipe or bioriented PVC
pipe? Will it also replace XLPE pipe? The successful commercial
viability of this new technology in the near future will decide
its impact on to the plastics pipe industry.
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