Honeycombs, the secret to strong and light pipes for wastewater
Think of the kilometres upon kilometres of wastewater piping needed in one city alone, and you can fathom just how much can be saved by making it lighter. Until now, that’s been done with foamed cores, ribbed or corrugated pipes.
Sirci Gresintex came up with a new, equally effective way. The pipe wall is made lighter by incorporating longitudinal cells which, like a honeycomb, give the tube an apparently thick wall containing regular spaced voids, while the internal and external surfaces of Alvehol remain perfectly smooth.
The pipe wall structure can also be compared to a double T beam: this configuration gives excellent mechanical properties and, especially, a high rigidity but lower weight than a compact PVC pipe.
A particular advantage of this technology compared to other systems for weight-reduction (such as corrugated or ribbed walls) is that this pipe offers smooth surfaces inside and outside easier to be connected in a watertight way with rather standard connections.
Savings in pipe weight are particularly important for large pipes. This is why Alvehol pipes were developed with nominal diameters going up to 1,200 mm.
But how did Sirci Gresintex do it? The extrusion line for such Alvehol pipe needs a totally innovative extrusion die in order to make it possible to incorporate these cells into the pipe wall. The optimal design of the die allows for the perfect shape of the cells while keeping a smooth aspect on both external and internal surfaces.
The low weight of this particular type of pipes is translated into important savings in raw materials, production energy, transportation energy, and installation costs.
The use of light pipes such as Alvehol is particularly important during installation works where the use of large machinery like cranes, is difficult and sometimes even not recommended (for example in historical city centres or in confined spaces).
Now, there is a new way to renew those aging pipelines, being as efficient as a honey bee.
