Plastic accessories for plumbing appeared in our country around the middle of the 90s of the last century, after which they almost immediately replaced the cast-iron and steel counterparts. This is especially true for water pipes. It would seem that during such a time the HDPE pipe (the characteristics of which we will describe below) should have worked well, but some of us still refer to plastic with a certain amount of skepticism. Let’s talk about this product in more detail.
What are these pipes made of?
The production technology is such that the process of crosslinking of ethylene molecules occurs at a pressure of 5 kg / cm
2 . A material is formed with a density of 0.941 g / cm, which has good rigidity. Due to its crystalline structure, it is opaque. Given that ethylene combines into compact molecules with a slight branching, the strength of the resulting material is very high. HDPE is melted at a temperature of the order of 130 degrees, so during standard operation of the products you should not be afraid of their failure due to the temperature factor. Thus, the HDPE pipe, whose characteristics are so good, is excellent for organizing water supply systems for private houses.
In addition, it has excellent resistance to fats and acids, which makes such pipes an optimal candidate for installation of not only water supply systems, but also sewers. It should be noted that under certain conditions it can also crack, but this will not happen when using high molecular weight grades. In principle, the HDPE pipe, the technical characteristics of which are quite high, is used at temperatures up to -50 degrees Celsius.
In addition, HDPE produces packaging film, pipes and insulation for high voltage cables, nets for fences, furniture fittings and the furniture itself, as well as a huge list of other products.
Key Product Features
However, we are interested in the technical properties not so much of nets and fittings as of the pipes themselves. Let's look at them in more detail.
Firstly, their service life is at least half a century. Chemists back in the 50s of the last century laid such stability in their design. As we have said, they are not exposed to aggressive chemical environments. Moreover, stray currents do not act on polyethylene pipes , while metal pipes can be destroyed by them in just a few seasons. And the costs of their installation themselves are almost an order of magnitude lower: in the end, if necessary, even one person can handle such work. And all this is a PND pipe. The technical practice of their use has clearly shown that even scale does not form on them, so you can safely forget about the need for punching and damage to equipment.
Note that even at very low ambient temperatures, which lead to ruptures of standard metal products, polyethylene remains completely unharmed. This is due to the fact that the thermal conductivity of this material is extremely low. That is why the HDPE pipe (the characteristics of which we examined) can be used with equal success not only in temperate climates, but also in the
Far North. By the way, even at extremely low temperatures, when the water does freeze inside the product, nothing bad will happen: polyethylene simply expand by 5-7%, so that ice can not break it.
These same properties provide excellent resistance to water hammer, so even pranks of public utilities do not threaten you. If something happens, the repair will not take much time. In addition, the HDPE pipe, the characteristics of which also allow its welding, will not lose strength over time even at welds.