Our site uses cookies necessary for its proper functioning. To improve your experience, other cookies may be used: you can choose to disable them. This can be changed at any time via the Cookies link at the bottom of the page.


PE technical guidance
HDPE Pipe technical guidance (High quality Polyethylene Pipes)
 
Construction

How can I verify details of the pipes and fittings that have been installed?

Quick access

Good Quality Assurance by the contractor is necessary to achieve this.

The contractor should record location of pipes to provide suitable location in the future and this should be carried out in accordance with the operator's or contractor's QA system. Normal practice is to record the location on maps and this is now made easier with GPS systems.

Although it may not be necessary to record details of individual pipe lengths, other than diameter and PN rating, it may be beneficial to record joint and fitting locations. The record of the joint and fitting location can be used in conjunction with jointing data logging facilities to provide a cross-reference with the pipe and fittings installed.

Traceability is an integral part of modern, sophisticated, Quality Assurance systems used for PE pipe networks. The systems available, and mandatory at many end-users, enable tracing through the whole process, from the resin batch at the PE producer, through pipe extrusion, the utility company and the installation contractor's operations. All installations can be traced back to the resin batch from which they were produced, with full data on the history of the pipe or fitting at any location.

The most up-to-date traceability systems are based on the use of barcodes. The barcodes can record data covering:

  • fusion-jointing equipment data
  • fusion-jointing equipment operator data
  • site data (geographical location)
  • data on fittings and pipes
  • fusion-jointing parameters
  • installation dates
  • assembly procedures

This information on the barcodes can be affixed to the pipes and fittings insitu, and recorded in a database, ideally linked to a Geographical Information System (GIS). At any subsequent excavation or operation the barcode can be read and all data on the pipes and fittings concerned can be accessed. Similarly in planning operations and works the data is readily accessible from the GIS or database.

ISO 12176 Part 4 defines a traceability system for encoding the characteristics of the pipes, fittings, fusion-jointing equipment, fusion-jointing equipment operators and fusion-jointing protocols. It is applicable to PE pipes, fittings and valves conforming to ISO standards for gas supply piping systems and also to the assembly operation utilising methods such butt, socket and saddle fusion, electrofusion, induction fusion and mechanical jointing.

Traccoding, a database which supports ISO 12176 Part 4, has been established at www.traccoding.com

It is up to the user to create the link between the various elements in order to provide a complete traceability system. Care is necessary when determining which data are to be downloaded into the traceability system database and the minimum information to be stored in the database for later retrieval. The choice and the amount of data will strongly influence the performance of the database when it is used later.

Most available fusion boxes and butt fusion machines are equipped with the necessary hardware to collect the necessary data automatically.

References

ISO 12176-4:2003 Plastics pipes and fittings - Equipment for fusion jointing polyethylene systems - Part 4: Traceability coding
http://www.traccoding.com
Gueugnaut, D. Mise en place de la traçabilité; l'exemple des conduites de gas en polyéthylène à Gaz de France. Gas, Wasser, Abwasser (GWA); SVGW Zürich, October 2003.

Last update Thursday 31 May 2018

Members of the Association

BOREALISBOROUGEFormosa Plastics CorporationHanwha TotalEnergiesINEOS O&PIRPCKorea Petrochemical IND. Co., LTD (KPIC)LyondellBasellPetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical CompanyPRIME POLYMERSABICSCG Chemicals & Thai PolyethyleneSinopecTASNEE
TOP