Plastic Pipes Uses Trends

In recent years throughout the world, the world, the importance of plastics pipes in the design of piping systems for public and industrial water supply and sewage transport has gradually increased. This trend reflects a growing confidence in plastics as a piping material, perhaps due mainly to greater worldwide knowledge and experience in this field.

The plastics are mostly manufactured on a petrochemical basis with petroleum as the raw material. In this context it may be of interest to know how the world consumption of petroleum looks. Only 4% of the world production of oil used for manufacturing plastics while 96% is burned as fuel in the fields of transportation, heating, etc.

The use of plastics is expanding rapidly, and especially in the case of plastics pipes. This is particularly true for pipes designed for water pipes and sewers outdoors and indoors. All industrial countries show the same tendency. For example, it can be mentioned that plastics pipe production in Europe rose from about 1.4 million tonnes in 1985 to 2.6 million tonnes in 1997. The corresponding figures for USA were 1.8 million tonnes in 1986 and 2.4 million tones in1997.

It should also be noted the rapid growth of polyolefins pipes in developing countries like South- East Asia and East Europe.


The Further annual growth in Europe for pipes is estimated at + 7% for PE, + 10% for PP and + 2% for PVC.

The favorable price trend has also contributed to the fact that today plastics pipes are competitive with conventional pipes within the total civil engineering infrastructure branch.

Against the background of such developments, it seems suitable to spread further knowledge of plastics pipes and hoe they should be used in a proper way for water supply and sewage disposal. Thus, the previous survey of the problems, particularly in the field of outdoor pipe applications , is hereby updated.

Crosslinked polyethylene(FEX) can be based upon HDPE as well as MDPE. In the crosslinking process the molecules are linked together by strong chemical bonds and chemical and physical crosslinking methods are both available. The chemical methods implies use of crosslinking agents such as peroxide, AZO compounds or silane, while physical crosslinking is archived by electron radiation.