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July 1, 2019
Projects and Members Awarded by PPI
PPI Announces Awards for Projects and Members
Each year PPI presents awards to exceptional members and projects, this year there were some excellent awards given to some unique projects. PPI president, Tony Radoszewski, said he was particularly excited to give an award to a project located in North Pole, Alaska. Usually this event draws a guest count of nearly 400+ members, but this time there were 17 new member firms and 68 first time attendees. This is great because more plastic pipe professionals have recognized the benefit PPI provides to the industry. The project awards are as follows:
PPI Building & Construction Division Project of the Year
PPI Drainage Division Project of the Year
PPI Municipal & Industrial Division Project of the Year
PPI Power & Communications Division Project of the Year
Now, for the member awards:
Congrats to all award winners this year!
PPI Building & Construction Division Project of the Year
- Whisper Valley Net-Zero Community, Austin, Texas
- PPI Member Company: REHAU Construction LLC, Leesburg, Virginia
PPI Drainage Division Project of the Year
- Terror Lake Basin Diversion, Kodiak, AK
- PPI Member Company: Pacific Corrugated Pipe Company, Newport Beach, Calif.
PPI Municipal & Industrial Division Project of the Year
- North Pole, Alaska Potable Water Line
- PPI Member Company: Pipeline Plastics. LLC, Westlake, Texas
PPI Power & Communications Division Project of the Year
- Estes Park, Colorado Overhead Fiber Optic Installation
- PPI Member Company: Dura-Line Corporation, Knoxville, Tennessee
Now, for the member awards:
- Building & Construction Division Member of the Year - Christian Herrild, Teel Plastics, Inc., Baraboo, Wisconsin
- Drainage Division Member of the Year - Claude Labrecque, Soleno, Quebec
- Energy Piping Systems Division Member of the Year and Municipal & Industrial Division Member of the Year Jim Johnston, McElroy Manufacturing, Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Power and Communications Division Member of the Year - George Zagorski, Blue Diamond Industries, Louisville, Kentucky
- Plastics Pipe Institute Lifetime Achievement Award - Gary Runyan
Congrats to all award winners this year!
July 1, 2019
PPI Discusses Benzene and How it Ties into California Wildfires
Drinking Water, Benzene, and California Fires
After the unfortunate Santa Rosa and Paradise fires in California, the detected level of Benzene in the drinking system was elevated. Some experts have stated that plastic pipes are to blame, but PPI provides another insight on the matter involving the burning of wood and other natural products. While the city of Santa Rosa believes Polyethylene is to blame, PPI states that "Although the plastic pipe in the system may have burned or melted, we do not believe that the specific contaminants that have been detected in the water system originated from the burning or melting of polyethylene pipe." The city also stated that Benzene could be formed during pyrolysis of polyethylene. However, under typical fire conditions and temperatures, pyrolysis will not occur. Instead, pipe will usually combust with high temperatures and oxygen present. PPI goes on to cite a 1996 study by the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) which looked at what substances or chemicals are released from melted polyethylene. The study found that no aromatic substances such as Benzene were found during the study.
Ultimately, PPI thinks that the water system was contaminated from natural substances such as ash, soot, and other wildfire leftovers. However, there were all sorts of materials burned during the fire, including car batteries or other toxic materials. It is likely that these natural and man-made materials were back siphoned into the system through severed lines during the wildfire. Some additional sources are linked below for you to view:
The most recent and complete PPI response to the Santa Rosa wildfires, and allegations of benzene forming from the burning of plastic pipes: Click to Link
On April 18, 2019 the Sacramento Bee published a story* on the situation (*the story lays out better in Chrome), with a short quote from PPI
On June 5, 2019 Plastics News published an excellent story on the situation, with quotes from PPI President Tony Radoszewski: https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/towns-reeling-wildfires-now-face-contaminated-water
Ultimately, PPI thinks that the water system was contaminated from natural substances such as ash, soot, and other wildfire leftovers. However, there were all sorts of materials burned during the fire, including car batteries or other toxic materials. It is likely that these natural and man-made materials were back siphoned into the system through severed lines during the wildfire. Some additional sources are linked below for you to view:
The most recent and complete PPI response to the Santa Rosa wildfires, and allegations of benzene forming from the burning of plastic pipes: Click to Link
On April 18, 2019 the Sacramento Bee published a story* on the situation (*the story lays out better in Chrome), with a short quote from PPI
On June 5, 2019 Plastics News published an excellent story on the situation, with quotes from PPI President Tony Radoszewski: https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/towns-reeling-wildfires-now-face-contaminated-water
July 2, 2019
United Poly Systems Bought by Equity Firm
United Poly Systems, a polyethylene pipe extrusion company, is sold to Equity Firm
United Poly Systems, a Polyethylene pipe extrusion company in Springfield Missouri, was recently sold to an equity firm named Industry Opportunity Partners. Under the new ownership, they plan to boost pipe production capabilities and build out their product mix more. Their target market is end markets and applications for pressure pipe fluid applications and conduit pipe for cable and electrical transmissions. United Poly Systems has a growing reputation and demand from oil and gas, industrial, municipal, industrial, and utility markets. They also make HDPE pipe with diameters from 3/4 in to 16 in with custom colors.
July 2, 2019
TREX Invests $200M at Two US Sites
Trex Plastic Extrusion
Virginia based Plastic extrusion company, Trex, plans to invest another $200 Million into a new plant by their headquarters and more production lines at their Fernley Nevada plant. Trex is actually the world's largest deck and railing producer and they expect their new plant to be running by first quarter of 2021. This company is a big recycler of plastic bags and film which they use to create their composite decking that competes with wood. Luckily, Trex has been gaining in popularity as many people are switching from wood to composite which is creating a healthy demand for the company. Due to this higher demand, they needed to expand capacity earlier in order to keep up. Trex also extrudes pipe, profile, and tubing and are the sixth largest manufacturer across the US industry.
You can read the full article here on Trex's investments.
For more info on Extrusion Consulting, click here.
You can read the full article here on Trex's investments.
For more info on Extrusion Consulting, click here.
July 2, 2019
Not All ABS is Created Equal by Joe Henz
I was fortunate to witness firsthand a number of major, high-dollar corporate screw-ups early in my career. Two of them involved ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene): the ubiquitous, commodity plastic widely used across industries.
ABS is a terpolymer, meaning it has--grafted together--three polymers (Acrylonitrile, Butadiene Rubber, and Polystyrene) into one. The beauty of this is that ABS has a nice balance of properties--better than any of its constituents has individually. And it can be tailored to the application. Need higher impact? Boost the amount of Butadiene Rubber. Need higher strength and heat resistance? Add more Acrylonitrile. Care more about easy molding and cheaper price? More Polystyrene.
The problem with ABS is it requires technical expertise to graft the A, the B, and the S together properly. Some companies do it well. Some don’t.
Take Exhibit A: in the 1980’s I was paying my way through college by working as a lab tech for a Conglomerate, with a subsidiary that extruded corrugated, double-wall ABS pipe for the municipal sewage market. ABS was sourced from three suppliers. Resin from all three suppliers processed fine, and made decent-looking pipe. The problem manifested itself some years later, after miles and miles of pipe had replaced the rusted iron pipe under Main Streets across the nation, and said street then repaved. This is a laborious and costly process, which municipalities do not expect to have to revisit for several decades. So it was no surprise that the Conglomerate was hit with numerous multi-million dollar lawsuits, when some of these pipes failed in just a short time after installation.
Strangely enough, only some of the new pipes cracked. I emphasize “some” because our R&D department--using SEM Microscopy--determined that the ABS from bad pipe looked very much different than ABS from good pipe. And we eventually determined that all the bad ABS came from ONE supplier!
Fast-forward a decade to Exhibit B: I worked for a Major Appliance Manufacturer, making refrigerators. You know that nice, white interior of the fridge? That’s a single, thermoformed sheet of ABS. We used a well known ABS company to create that and it worked great! We used it for decades, consuming it by the tens of millions of pounds annually, and lived happily ever after...
That is until Corporate decided to save money by switching to another ABS manufacturer. This move saved us thousands of dollars--tens of thousands, in fact. Unfortunately, it ended up costing us MILLIONS in the ensuing service calls. How? Well, the new supplier was able to sell their ABS for less by scrimping on the Acrylonitrile, which is the most expensive ingredient in ABS. Consequently the new ABS was about 20% weaker, and not as chemically-resistant as the flagship product we were using previously. If you’re wondering what went wrong--technically--the chemical blowing agent we used in the polyurethane foam insulation, which is pumped into the void between the ABS liner and the sheet metal cabinet, attacked the ABS.
It wasn’t long before customers started complaining about unsightly cracks in the nice, white interior of their fridge--and they wanted something done about it. Problem was, there wasn’t really anything we could do about it (attempts to patch it looked like crap), except to replace the entire fridge! And the failures occurred soon enough that the product was still under warranty. Ouch!!!
Moral of these stories: ABS is a great material, but only if you buy from a reputable supplier, carefully qualify the grade you choose, then stick with it!
Check out Joe Henz bio here to learn more about him.
ABS is a terpolymer, meaning it has--grafted together--three polymers (Acrylonitrile, Butadiene Rubber, and Polystyrene) into one. The beauty of this is that ABS has a nice balance of properties--better than any of its constituents has individually. And it can be tailored to the application. Need higher impact? Boost the amount of Butadiene Rubber. Need higher strength and heat resistance? Add more Acrylonitrile. Care more about easy molding and cheaper price? More Polystyrene.
The problem with ABS is it requires technical expertise to graft the A, the B, and the S together properly. Some companies do it well. Some don’t.
Take Exhibit A: in the 1980’s I was paying my way through college by working as a lab tech for a Conglomerate, with a subsidiary that extruded corrugated, double-wall ABS pipe for the municipal sewage market. ABS was sourced from three suppliers. Resin from all three suppliers processed fine, and made decent-looking pipe. The problem manifested itself some years later, after miles and miles of pipe had replaced the rusted iron pipe under Main Streets across the nation, and said street then repaved. This is a laborious and costly process, which municipalities do not expect to have to revisit for several decades. So it was no surprise that the Conglomerate was hit with numerous multi-million dollar lawsuits, when some of these pipes failed in just a short time after installation.
Strangely enough, only some of the new pipes cracked. I emphasize “some” because our R&D department--using SEM Microscopy--determined that the ABS from bad pipe looked very much different than ABS from good pipe. And we eventually determined that all the bad ABS came from ONE supplier!
Fast-forward a decade to Exhibit B: I worked for a Major Appliance Manufacturer, making refrigerators. You know that nice, white interior of the fridge? That’s a single, thermoformed sheet of ABS. We used a well known ABS company to create that and it worked great! We used it for decades, consuming it by the tens of millions of pounds annually, and lived happily ever after...
That is until Corporate decided to save money by switching to another ABS manufacturer. This move saved us thousands of dollars--tens of thousands, in fact. Unfortunately, it ended up costing us MILLIONS in the ensuing service calls. How? Well, the new supplier was able to sell their ABS for less by scrimping on the Acrylonitrile, which is the most expensive ingredient in ABS. Consequently the new ABS was about 20% weaker, and not as chemically-resistant as the flagship product we were using previously. If you’re wondering what went wrong--technically--the chemical blowing agent we used in the polyurethane foam insulation, which is pumped into the void between the ABS liner and the sheet metal cabinet, attacked the ABS.
It wasn’t long before customers started complaining about unsightly cracks in the nice, white interior of their fridge--and they wanted something done about it. Problem was, there wasn’t really anything we could do about it (attempts to patch it looked like crap), except to replace the entire fridge! And the failures occurred soon enough that the product was still under warranty. Ouch!!!
Moral of these stories: ABS is a great material, but only if you buy from a reputable supplier, carefully qualify the grade you choose, then stick with it!
Check out Joe Henz bio here to learn more about him.
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