Bradford team gives pipes super strength

The die-drawing process turns ordinary plastic into a lighter, stronger material. The process is now being commercialised by Saudia-Arabian company SABIC.

According to the team, the new pipes outperform standard plastic plumbing pipes in pressure tests, are much cheaper to transport and last longer, and will therefore be more sustainable.

SABIC aims to capture 20 per cent of the market with the new ‘biaxially oriented’ polyethylene and polypropylene pressure pipes.

Dr Fin Caton-Rose, who runs the research laboratory in the university’s Polymer IRC, said: “Biaxially oriented pipes are lighter and much stronger than traditional polyolefin pipes. They are cheaper to make, cheaper to transport and they last longer which means they are better for the environment.”

Biaxially oriented pipes are created using ordinary plastic that has been drawn through a die, or in this case, through a die and over a mandrel - this process changes the properties of the plastic at the molecular level, making them far stronger and more durable than traditional plastic pipes.