Message to Conference – Good Time to Invest in Plastic Pipes

Uponor

Uponor is to sponsor one of the conference lunches. Chair of the PPXIX Organizing Committee, Sarah Patterson - Technical Director of the Plastics Pipe Institute (PPI), comments:

“Uponor is recognized as an international market leader, striving to provide better plumbing, indoor climate and infrastructure solutions across Europe, North America and in other international markets. In close partnership with building industry professionals, they continuously seek out innovative ways to ensure their systems offer the most efficient, reliable and high-performing solutions available to residential and commercial structures around the globe to enrich people’s way of life.”

Uponor roots are from European innovators that can be traced right back to the 1620's. The company is headquartered in Vantaa, Finland.

Zoran Davidovski who is the Technical Program Chair for the event comments:

“Our conference is hosted every two years in North America and Europe on an alternating basis. This year, we have a total of 35 speakers from the North American continent and conference emphasis is clearly on the added value that plastic pipe systems generate across the whole supply chain. Studies will be presented and reviewed from the perspectives of extreme weather and seismic events, scarce water resources and aged porous pipelines made from traditional materials.”

“Performance advantages of our technology are such that new construction and the pipe rehabilitation market have fueled world demand. North America is leading this trend. There has never been a better time to invest in plastic pipes.”

New pipes for old

More than one professor is convinced that this perception is matched by practice. Associate Professor Stephen Folkman from the Utah State University in Logan has undertaken landmark research into the way plastic pipes withstand dynamic earth movements such as earthquakes and landslides. His recent contribution to be reviewed by conference is the most comprehensive survey of utilities carried out across the US to obtain data on water main failures.

This latest work showed that break rates for cast iron and asbestos cement pipes have significantly increased since a similar study was announced in 2012 and that utilities should increase replacement rates of those materials. PVC pipe remains the lowest break rate material when compared with asbestos cement, concrete, ductile iron, cast iron, and steel pipe materials.

During the Las Vegas conference, Ryan Benner, Greg Kodweis and Roger Jordan from the Las Vegas Valley Water Department are expected to endorse the professor's findings with local experience. The district delivers water to approximately 1.4 million residents within the City of Las Vegas and is currently replacing aging water pipelines with new PVC pipelines within a tenyear Capital Improvement Plan at a cost of USD 200 million.

Shaken not stirred

Also noted is that PE pipes are also favored for rehabilitation – especially for their flexible and sustained performance during extreme seismic activity. Conference attendees will closely review a water main replacement project undertaken by East Bay Municipal Utility District in a fire-seismic geohazard zone known as Panoramic Hill, a historic residential neighborhood located in Berkley and Oakland, California.

Krista Moita, a civil engineer for the utility project will outline how the district replaced 7,800 feet of primarily four-inch unlined cast iron water mains with 12-inch HDPE pipelines.

Innovation and investment are key industrial drivers and Professor John Vlachopoulos from the McMaster University in Canada will announce improvements in the production process of double walled corrugated pipes.His innovative process design is expected to be of particular advantage in the production of large diameter sewer and drainage pipes.

Sponsors for PLASTIC PIPE XIX in Las Vegas, USA are as follows:

• Main Corporate sponsors: Baerlocher and Rollepaal

• Gold level sponsors: McELROY, LyondellBasell, The Dow Chemical Company, S&B Technical Products Hultec USA and MOL

• Silver level sponsors: TRI Environmental, Rifeng Enterprise Group, SICA and Trelleborg

• Gala Dinner sponsor: The European Plastic Pipe and Fittings Association (TEPPFA)

• Welcome Reception sponsor: KraussMaffei Berstorff

• IPAD corners sponsors: PVC4Pipes Association and PE100+Association

• Lunch sponsors: Uponor, PSILab and RTP Company

• Coffee Break sponsors: battenfeld-cincinnati, Hamilton Kent, Milacron and NSF International

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