Company wants to have a new undergr. firewatersystem.
Competitors accusing each other about the used resin.
How can we test the used resin of a pipe.
We want it to be epoxy.
Send it to a lab? If yes; whitch lab in W-Europe?
Some help greatly obliged.

These are (used to be?) the top UK plastics research lab.
http://www.rapralimited.org/


I would guess most European countries will have their equivalent.

www.tynevalleyplastics.co.uk

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

Sometimes major resin suppliers have a commercial analytical department. I know DuPont does in Sydney Aus.

Any colledge/uni/polytech type institution that offers polymer science degree courses should have the capability and probably the interest.

Regards
Pat
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Maybe should be more clear about my location.
Should be a lab in Belgium/Netherlands.
Pat, its not the issue about the resin supplier, its more the issue about contractor has used the right resin; but its a very good idea to contact that suppliers.
Thank you very much for your input.

Resin suppliers know more about what resin is what and the different grades both they and their opposition offer than just about anyone else does.

Regards
Pat
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Yaeh, you are right.
We just want to know the contractor has used epoxy and not cheaper, p.e. ortoph. resin.
Certificates are in my opinion useless, the most misused and copied pieces of paper.
Greetings

So what is the property that warrants the use of the epoxy.

Regards
Pat
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HDPE pipe what is now underground, degrades very fast, we understand epoxypipe is the best against the hydrocarbons in the soil.
We dont want to use cast iron, what has other disadvantages.

Maybe its my bad use of the English language, but I meant:
Take samples of the pipe at location and analyze them somewhere

Immerse samples of pipe from the field and pipe known to be epoxy and pipe known to be the suspected inferior resin in the hydrocarbon in question and measure loss of properties of each.

Regards
Pat
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You can tell the difference between epoxy and other resins by FTIR spectroscopy. Should cost a couple hundred dollars and most labs can do that.

On a practical note, if PE doesn't work due to hydrocarbon then why not PVC? It's cheap and has a long track record of use in pipes.

Chris DeArmitt - PhD FRSC CChem
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Epoxy resin is thermoset material. By heating it up will not melt. Temperature degradation will start direct from solid state.
So use some fire; if material will soften and start to flow it´s not epoxy.

bobslo

There are more than one type of thermoset. Also when in a composite it is harder to analysis the resin used. two options are performance based tests or chemical analysis. As these resins tend to be quite chemically resistant, analysis with sophisticated machines is required.

Regards
Pat
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mr. Demon, PVC is really out of the question, it`s not resistent to hydrocarbons, and degrades faster then HDPE.
Saw it on a site here in the neighbourhood.
Also the mechanical properties are a problem.