Large diameter pipes production sets new trends

Innovative solutions to produce large diameter pipes used in infrastructure and industrial sectors have become highly advanced and generally more varied bringing multiple benefits at lower costs.

Borouge, a leading provider of innovative and value creating plastics solutions, has broken new ground in the infrastructure markets of the Middle East. Pipe manufacturers, industrial design consultants and investors in new plants in the Middle East can now specify increasingly larger diameter polyolefins (PO) pipes for their industrial projects. The excellent chemical resistance and mechanical properties of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) pipes make them ideal for a wide range of applications including cooling water transportation, sea water intakes and outfalls and effluent disposal.

Just over two years ago a major breakthrough was achieved when Borouge itself decided to install a total of 25km of 1600 mm diameter PE100 pipes at its new expanded plant in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi. Bringing sea water to cool the plant, these PE pressure pipes are very tough, easy to install and extremely tolerant to any installation damage that can arise, unlike the glass fibre pipes used in previous industrial cooling water lines. The complete pipeline was welded ensuring leak free joints which are as strong as the pipe itself greatly enhancing the durability of the system. These cooling water pipes were produced and installed by Union Pipes Industry in Abu Dhabi who purchased a new pipe extrusion line and butt welding machine specifically for this project.

Many other large diameter PE pipe projects have followed for both utility and industrial applications, which have ultimately led to even larger diameter extruders being installed in the region. This means a rapid increase in demand for PE, which will be met by the recent capacity expansion at Borouge's plant in Abu Dhabi. The company has tripled the production capacity of its plant to 2 million tonnes of PO per year and is currently expanding its manufacturing capacity to 4.5 million tonnes per year by the end of 2013, creating the world largest integrated polyolefins plant.

With the introduction of PP manufacturing capacity in its plant, the company is exploring enhanced solutions for the production of even larger diameter pipes. For the first time high stiffness PP High Modulus (HM) pipe grades (e.g. BorECO? BA212E) will be produced in the region. These materials can be extruded into a profile which can be wound around a mandrel and welded to adjacent windings to form a strong and stiff large diameter pipe. The machine producer, Bauku, based at Wiehl in Germany, has developed this technology for the manufacture of spiral wound pipes up to 3.5 metres in diameter, which have been used for industrial sea intakes and outfalls and large diameter sewage systems.

Greenpipe system for pipe extrusion

One company, United Arab Emirates-based Union Pipes Industry (UPI) expanded its large diameter pipe programme. A well-known producer of polyethylene (PE) pipe for infrastructure and industrial applications, UPI placed an order for a 2000 mm PE pipe extrusion line with battenfeld-cincinnati's Infrastructure division. UPI's choice for a complete line concept met the specifications inherent in battenfeld-cincinnati's greenpipe system which integrates optimised technologies for large diameter pipe extrusion, including the new 40 L/D high performance single screw extruder solEX, the inner pipe cooling concept enabled by the helix-pipeheads and the energy efficient downstream with a swarfless cutting unit for very large wall thicknesses. With such system, UPI was able to extend its market position in the Gulf region by supplying large diameter pipe extrusion lines for 1200mm, 1600mm and now 2000mm diSNEAKERS