U.S. customers adopt stricter ISO pipe standard.

Some U.S. utility service providers are taking technical specifications into their own hands by moving to a higher level than is required by the ASTM PE 3408 standard for pressure pipe used in natural-gas distribution, potable-water systems, and oil and gas production. For example, PSE&G, one of the nation's largest gas and electric companies and New Jersey's largest publicly owned utility, recently approved a new-generation bimodal PE pipe resin from Dow Chemical Co., Houston, in part due to its ability to exceed ASTM PE 3408 and meet the higher performance requirements of the European ISO PE100 standard. The ISO standard requires longer-term extrapolations of performance.

Launched in 2002, Dow's Continuum DGDA-2490 NT resin was the first PE100 pipe material produced in North America to be listed with a 100-yr rating at 20 C (68 F) by The Plastic Pipe Institute (PPI). It also has PPI ratings for 50 yr at 40 C (104 F) and 11 yr at 60 C (140 F), making it the first PE100 resin to be listed at elevated temperatures. The material boasts significantly improved long-term hydrostatic strength combined with excellent resistance to slow crack growth and rapid growth propagation when compared with MDPE and HDPE resins currently available for PE pressure-pipe production. Tel: [phone] * PTDirect: 112WD