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Power industry

Plastics pipes activities at TWI

TWI has been involved in the area of plastics pipes for over 15 years. Recent activities have included the development of NDT techniques and procedures for butt fusion and electrofusion joints in PE pipes, determination of the long-term performance of joints in PE pipes and development of novel welding techniques for plastics pipes. TWI has also recently started the only UK training and certification scheme for plastics pipes welding to the new European standard EN 13067.

Recent Projects

  • Verifying welding procedures for PE pipe liners.
  • Improving the productivity of butt fusion welding of PE pipes.
  • Vibration welding of plastics pipes.
  • Development of novel combined butt fusion/ultrasonic NDT equipment.
  • Determination of effect of welding parameters on mechanical properties of PE pipes.
  • Development of novel pipe rehabilitation techniques.
  • Comparison of short and long-term performance of butt fusion welds in PE pipes.
  • Development of novel NDT techniques for electrofusion welds.
  • Expert witness for failed plastic valve.
  • QA testing of PE pipe butt fusion welds.
  • NDT of PVDF pipe liner.
  • Independent assessment of IR welding technique.
  • Market research study on plastics pipes for agricultural use.

Facilities

  • Hot plate (butt fusion) welding machines (manual and semi-automatic) for pipes sizes up to 315mm.
  • Electrofusion control boxes.
  • Socket fusion equipment (manual and machine) for pipe sizes up to 63mm.
  • Linear vibration welding machine with unique tooling for pipe sizes up to 180mm.
  • Unique infrared lamp welding machine for pipe sizes up to 125mm.
  • Hot gas and extrusion welding equipment.
  • Universal testing equipment for carrying out standard specimen tensile, bend and peel/decohesion tests over a temperature range from -40°C to +120°C.
  • 20-station coupon tensile creep rupture test rig for specimens up to 32mm thick and temperatures up to 80°C.
  • Unique 12-station whole pipe tensile creep rupture test rig for pipe sizes up to 355mm and temperatures up to 80°C.
  • Ultrasonic NDT probes and calibration blocks specifically designed for PE pipes.
  • X-ray IQIs specifically designed for PE pipes.
  • Instrumented drop weight test equipment.
  • Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer with IR microscope.
  • Differential Scanning Calorimeter.
  • Melt flow indexer.
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