Long-Term Point Loads Testing with Plastics Pipes [PE]

The quality of the PE products used for gas and water pipe line systems was constantly improved in the last decades. The renouncement of the complex sand embedding of buried pipes and thus the use of PE pipes in no-dig procedures cannot be impossible any more. However the pipes have to be tested on the effects caused by the loads - like point loads and notch formation -, which can be expected after the installation. IRO has performed point load tests since 1999 with a testing device especially designed therefore and offers this to pipe manufacturers and users. The client determines the type and size of the point load so a relative comparison of products can be obtained; however no global. Only the standardisation of the investigational performance could help pipe manufacturers as also users to a better orientation.