Wet tap on HDPE pipe
Wet tap on HDPE pipe
(OP)
I have a contractor on one of my jobs that is asking if we would allow wet taps on HDPE pipe. He said that it has been done before, it requires a different saddle type than for wet taps on pvc. THANKS FOR ANY INFO!





RE: Wet tap on HDPE pipe
Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.
WWW.amlinereast.com
RE: Wet tap on HDPE pipe
RE: Wet tap on HDPE pipe
http://ww
RE: Wet tap on HDPE pipe
Early on as when some contractors/utilities attempted to use such pipe (with which they were not as familiar) and with conventional mechanical/seal saddles for service and lateral connections, I understand one of the first things that happened was some more or less conventional mechanically sealing saddles eventually ended up some distance axially either upstream or downstream of the hole cut in the hdpe pipe, which of course didn't do much for the continuity of the service or main! This and other problems e.g. inward creep of pipe walls under high bolted compressive loading (at least without internal steel ring "stiffener" support understandably gave way in some quarters to arguably more vigorous promotion of variously fused insertions or lateral connections (leading also to promotion of e.g. "electrofusion" saddles etc.) However, there have also been some problems even at fused connections. While defective locations of heating wires, faulty installation/heating/surface prep etc., and even hydrocarbon contamination absorbed into the pipe wall have been blamed for some unsuccessful connections/fusions, one has to wonder looking at the manifestation and specific location of some damage if unexpected movement or stress as same was attempted wasn't a factor in some of these problems as well (as discussed http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/1998/SIR9801.pdf , and per illustration that once appeared at http://www.battelle.org/energy/cases/field.stm etc.)
If connections are to be made with proprietary mechanical-type devices, sleeves or saddles and seals etc., all of the various "cautionary" and "limitation" statements should of course be reads and understood (e.g. see http://w
I know incidentally that DIPRA also tested the resulting relative strength of a sidewall fusion method to connect to/tap hdpe they reported recommended by PPI in 2001 vs simple direct wall/thread tapping of ductile iron piping, and they published the protocol/ results that are accessible at h
One other thing that is perhaps worth mentioning (as you have not mentioned the sizes of piping involved and this inquiry is posted on the Waste...Forum) is that while "wet" or hot-tapping is of course sometimes done to sewer mains etc. and even maybe in some cases to even sewer forcemains under pressure, most wet-tapping equipment is most commonly used for potable water pipe tapping. What would obviously make some folks and maybe even the public or regulators some queasy might be the use of potable water tapping machines for making a sewer tap, and then "vice versa". It would proably make most sense for separate equipment to be maintained, and/or at the very least some effective disinfection procedure be followed to avoid any hint of unintentional contamination or cross-connection etc.
RE: Wet tap on HDPE pipe
Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.
WWW.amlinereast.com