Following some spectacular failures in Chinese and Hong Kong plastics pipe applications for pressure water and gas, Chinese municipal service providers are calling for help from a number of international organizations and companies to solve the problem of counterfeits. The Chinese authorities appear to have been a victim of fake pipe processors in their own country who were using polyethylene (suspected to have been film grade or recyclate) to extrude pipes for gas and pressure water applications and then sold as PE100 pressure pipes.

Hong Kong reported in a 1.5-km length section of pipe installed two years previously in which a total of 15 failures occurred. The pipe, sold to water authorities as PE100, was suppose to have withstood 6-8 bar pressure. Tested at the Borouge (Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.) R&D center, the pipes proved substandard and not processed from any known pipe grade. Similar failures have occurred in mainland Chinese gas systems. The call for advice brought together, late last month, representatives of the Gulf Plastics Pipe Academy (GPPA, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.), seven HDPE producers, the PE100+ association, 14 gas companies, five pipe processors, and Chinese officials in Beijing to find a solution to fake pipe sales.—[email protected]