50 Years of PVC Pipe in Australia from Think Pipes Think PVC

PVC pipes - 50 Years of Service in Australia and still flowing strong

PVC is an important material of choice for pressure pipeline applications throughout the world, and technological advancements have introduced different use PVC pipes to the Australian market - PVC-M and PVC-O.

Unplastisicised PVC (PVC-U) was first developed in the 1930's and came to be used in pressure pipelines from the 1950's, firstly in Europe, followed by the United States and then Australia since the 1960's. The product has a well-known and respected performance history in pipeline applications.[1]

More recently technological advancements in PVC pipes have led to the subsequent development of Modified PVC (PVC-M) and Oriented PVC pipes (PVC-O). Australian was an early adopter of PVC-O pipe with local manufacturing commencing in 1984. Australia has continued to be at the forefront of significant advances for PVC-O pipe when local manufacturers developed the process that would significantly increase the output of PVC-O pipe. From this work came the in-line orientation process, where a feedstock pipe from the extruder is stretched over a mandrel or plug under tightly controlled conditions to produce a bioriented PVC pipe. More recently, an alternative process has been developed that orients feedstock pipe by inflating with pressurised hot air. These processes havebecome the standards for production of PVC-O pipes around the world. Australia continues to have the largest PVC-O pipe manufacturing capacity in the world.