ABS >>> the Other Piping Material ABS is the material of choice when it comes to the injection molding of many light and rigid products such as electronic components, automotive body parts, enclosures, protective head gear (football and motorcycle helmets), power tools and toys. Ever hear of Legos? Legos made from ABS It’s precisely the features of durability, ease of use, cost effectiveness and environmentally soundness that are needed for these product applications that make ABS an excellent piping material for a wide spectrum of residential, commercial and industrial applications. Acrylontrile Butadiene Styrene—or ABS—was first discovered in the 1940s. By the 1950s it was being made into pipe. Though ABS might be at the top of piping’s alphabet list, it has not yet gained the proper recognition or confidence of specifying engineers and builders in North America. With over a half-century of successful usage and billions of feet of piping installed, ABS, similar to other plastic piping materials, offers an impressive list of advantages: excellent chemical, corrosion, and abrasion resistance; superior joint integrity; low thermal conductivity; and optimum flow characteristics. There’s more—ABS also offers one of the broadest temperature ranges of any polymeric piping materials (-40°F to 180°F). Many piping materials become brittle at low temperatures, not so with ABS. The ability of ABS not to lose its impact resistance at low temperatures is well recognized especially in colder weather climates as well as by the manufactured home and recreational vehicle industries. And more—the presence of butadiene in the ABS polymer imparts greater ductility properties than many other piping products which make it an ideal material for burial in expansive soils (soils that migrate due to the presence or absence of moisture) and shifts in the earth due to seismic activity. Easy and Safe to Install There nothing lighter in weight than ABS in the category of drain, waste and vent (DWV) piping systems. This lightweight feature in part is due to a proven pipe extrusion process known as “cellular core”. Several pipe manufacturers have developed over the last 25 years a tri-layered ABS pipe designed for non-pressure applications. The inner and outer extruded layers are solid, rigid ABS with the middle, sandwiched layer composed of the same ABS resin but injected with a blowing agent to create a larger cell structure, thus lowering the density of the center pipe layer. This design results in a lighter piping system that still maintains its superior physical properties. Other advantages of ABS are the ease of installing one-step joining (no primer required), low VOC (volatile organic compounds) solvent cemented joints. It is also one of the quickest to install and one of the most leak-proof piping systems in the industry. ABS piping systems, unlike metal, does not use potentionally dangerous open flames or molten lead for making joints, eliminates the need for thrust blocking or seismic restraints, requires no added coatings, wraps or linings and minimizes the number of pipe joints with standard 10 and 20-foot long pipe lengths. A comprehensive study compared ABS to metal piping for DWV and storm drainage systems on a 12-story residential high rise. ABS piping systems showed a savings of over 80% in material costs and 25% in labor savings1. Additionally, the physical properties of ABS yield further savings: huge reduction in transportain costs of finished products; eliminating external and internal pipe protection ; minimizing or eliminating expensive joining equipment and heavy-duty moving equipment); few if any field site thefts; reduced insurance costs (minimizing field accidents due to ABS’s light weight and lack of open flame or molten lead pots required for joining). Environmentally Sound Completed and preliminary Life Cycle Assessments (scientific studies usually done by a third party to determine the economic and environmental impact of manufactured products from cradle to grave) have shown that ABS piping systems compared to metals are more beneficial. From an energy use standpoint, ABS piping really shines compared to metals. It uses less energy in manufacturing; less in the transportation of finished products; less in the retention of fluid temperatures; less in the transportation of fluids (due to the smooth and long-lasting inner pipe bore); and less in recycling. ABS manufacturing processes of extrusion and injection molding eliminates almost all post-industrial scrap. And, when the product has completed its functionality, it can be easily and economically recycled into dozens of other useful products with many of the features and benefits of the original ABS material. Applications In North America, ABS is available in pipe diameters of 1¼ to 6-inch and is the preferred DWV piping material in certain geographical regions, recreational vehicles and manufactured housing. Other non-pressure ABS applications are: commercial DWV, drains for storm, roof, road and bridging, sub-service drainage, rain harvesting, decentralized wastewater treatment systems, gray water reuse and radon venting. In Canada, Great Britain and other European countries, ABS is used in pressure applications from ½ to 12-inche pipe diameters. These applications include: chemical processing, geothermal energy, HVAC, marine, mining, refrigeration, surface-finishing, swimming pools, and waste and water treatment systems. ABS Industrial Application So you engineers and installers, consider how ABS can add all-around value to your future building projects. It has a lot to recommend it—durability, safe and ease of installation, environmental soundness and cost-effectiveness.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 00:48:27 +0000
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