Van t Veer
Business # 1998 Gothenburg
I have been asked to present you with an outline of the environmental aspects of plastic pipe systems today, but I intend to take the issue a little bit broader and talk about Health, Safety and Environment aspects. I will not present a facts & figures story on technical details, but I will try to give you a broader political and marketing picture, as far as this is possible in the time available. Also due to the limited time I have to restrict myself to items which require your attention, so please don't be alarmed when I concentrate on problem areas instead of the many positive aspects of plastic pipe systems.
Plastic pipe systems versus other materials
If industry, and especially our industry that works with "artificial" materials wants to keep its "licence to operate", we have to realise that society increasingly forces us from the traditional situation where there was general trust in what we were doing into distrust, where everything that we do will have to be explained and proven to be right. It seems that our colleagues from the so-called traditional material pipe systems have better understood this than we from the plastic pipe industry, as they seem to know everything which is negative about plastics, whereas we know far too little about the negative Health, Safety and Environment aspects of their products. This has brought us into a situation where we are mostly in the defensive, are mostly involved with damage control. If we want to change this and fight for our business, we have to become much more proactive, which requires knowledge of the facts, assistance in communication processes and experience as to who are our target groups and how can we reach them.
Related papers
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The effects of liquid hydrocarbons on long term strength of pipe grade thermoplastic resins is an important consideration when designing pressure pipe for use in the oil and gas industry. There is an extensive body of work going back several decades descri bing these effects for pipe grade polyethylenes, and all...
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For PE 100-RC, two tests are still under development for pipes: the point load test (PLT) and the accelerated notch pipe test (aNPT). The PLT was developed by a project group consisting of manufacturers and end users. The PLT determines the resistance to point loads as they can occur in practice. An earlier study...
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Unplasticized polyamide 12 (PA-U12) is increasingly being used in pipe applications, especially in the gas sector. However, the material behavior in the usual quality tests for pipe welds has not yet been thoroughly investigated. For this reason, two research institutes, worked in cooperation with a manufacturer of...
Author(s) : Sjoerd Jansma, Peter Cloos, Ernst van der Stok
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Author(s) : Karel van Laarhoven, Andreas Moerman
Pipe failure in drinking water distribution networks occurs as a result of loadings on the pipe that exceeds its strength. Especially, pipes that deteriorate over time have an increasing probability of failure. Prediction models that estimate when a particular pipe will fail can therefore be valuable tools in pipe...
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For high pressure pipes above maximum operation pressure of 10 bar, this paper emphasizes PA-U12 as the easy to install alternative to steel. It underlines the superb performance of PA-U12 pipes for alternative installation techniques without need for a separate mechanical protection. An unplasticized polyamide 12...
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Biofilm establishes itself over a short period of time in all pipelines conveying raw and treated water. Depending on the type of biofouling, it is documented that it will inevitability lead to a reduction in the hydraulic capacity. Since none of the current design relationships used to calculate the friction loss in...
Author(s) : M. Boerakker, S. van Mierloo, D. v. Beek, R. Schipper, P. Voets, M. Soliman, K. Jacobson, D. Lukes, B. Rabaud, F. Zraick
HDPE pipes are used for standard pressurized water pipes, offering an excellent solution for safe transport of (drinking) water. The HDPE pipe market is growing globally. Especially in countries that suffer from water scarcity, surface water and water from rivers have to be used for drinking water supply. To guarantee...
Author(s) : Mario Messiha, Andreas Frank, Isabelle J. Berger, Jan Heimink, Hermann van Laak, Florian Arbeiter, Gerald Pinter
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Author(s) : Marc van Loo (Dr.), Constant Van Aerschot, KumHoong Lou
In many parts of rural developing Asia and even some parts of Africa, sewerage from households is often discharged directly to the surrounding. This unfortunate fact means that many waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid continue to afflict these communities. Numerous efforts from governments,...
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The effect of eleven different test parameters on the strain hardening modulus was investigated using the Design of Experiments statistical method. The changes in strain hardening modulus due to temperature, tensile drawing speed and the cooling rate after annealing were assessed. The importance of taking account of...
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Author(s) : Frans Scholten, Ernst van der Stok
The residual quality of first generation PE50 gas pipes, installed in Netherland between 1961 and 1979, is still remarkably good. The only premature failures of a few PE50 pipes were exclusively caused by point loads. When under point loading, they started failing in practice after 8 to 26 years, in a brittle manner....
Author(s) : Frans Scholten, Ernst van der Stok, Britta Gerets, Mirko Wenzel, Mike Boege
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Author(s) : Ernst van der Stok, Jeroen Weller, Frans Scholten
This paper describes falling-weight tests as a first step towards determining the effect of residual stresses on the fracture behaviour of old PVC-U gas pipes at impact. Results showed that the level of surrounding pipe support, the quality of the material and the diameter of the striker had a major effect on the...
Author(s) : Tony Calton, Roel van’t Veer, Henk Meerman
The European plastic pipes and fittings industry has made a commitment through TEPPFA to use a quarter of a million tonnes of recycled material a year by 2020. This presentation provides background to the growth in the use of recycled material for pipe applications and outlines some of the achievements to date and the...
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