Page 24 - Gi September2020

PLASTIC

PIPELINES

BEYOND

50 YEARS

New evidence tells us to think in centuries rather than in connection with two phrases,
decades for the effective lifetime of PE pipe, explains Derek depending on their level of knowledge:
Muckle, Director of Innovation and Technology at Radius ‘lifetime’ or ‘design point’. The latter is
Systems and a Past President of the BPF Pipes Group correct, the former is the
misinterpretation. To keep it simple, it
is a 50-year design point, and the design
here is a popular myth that wear process that can be managed. point is used as a classification index
plastic pipes have a lifetime of What does that mean in practice? Quite for different strength materials. It has
50 years, but they actually have simply, plastic pipes are capable of nothing to do with lifetime.
reliable working lifetimes that operation measured in hundreds of One of the great things about plastic
T are much longer than this. Even years, not tens of years. pipes is that they do not suffer from
if they do start to fail, it is not a sudden So, it is useful to understand why corrosion-related defects. That’s
loss of the asset, but rather a gradual people talk about 50 years. It is usually obvious to many but the issue with

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BFPPipes.indd 1 12/08/2020 17:34