Product category:
Pipes
News Release from: Saint-Gobain Pipelines | Subject: PAM Directional ductile iron system
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 29 October 2007
Trunk main takes new direction with
ductile iron
Saint-Gobain Pipelines' PAM Directional, the ductile iron system for directional drilling, has proved to be the lowest cost option on the new Ledbury trunk main.
The project, being carried out by Laing O'Rourke for Welsh Water, involves the installation of a new 14.5km, DN350 ductile iron trunk main running from Bewdley Reservoir to Ledbury in Herefordshire This cross-country pipeline is mostly laid using open cut techniques but four sections required horizontal directional drilling (HDD)
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 31 Mar 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Saint-Gobain Pipelines' product manager for water and sewer Nigel Ward explains: "Ductile iron is wrongly perceived as too heavy or inflexible for use in directional drilling so common practice was to use plastic in its place".
"However, PAM Directional is designed specifically for HDD and is well established in Europe".
"Contractors can use the same machinery as for plastic pipes and PAM Directional has the advantage of being able to withstand very high pulling forces".
"Because PAM Directional is designed as a complete system with the PAM Natural used on the other sections of the trunk main there is a direct interface between the two which, compared with combining ductile and plastic, saves further cost".
Whereas joining plastic pipe requires time consuming welding, installation of PAM Directional is simplified with an anchored push-fit jointing system using the Universal Ve joint.
Available in diameters of 100 to 700mm, PAM Directional is suitable for all ground conditions and is supplied with a ZMU (fibre cement) coating to protect the pipe during installation and as an anti-corrosion measure when installed.
On the Ledbury project, where the pipeline is required to withstand working pressures of 20 bar (one of the key reasons for the material choice), the contractors ran an above ground pressure test on the PAM Directional before installation.
Laing O'Rourke development manager Graham Walker supervised the on-site work and says: "We were very impressed with the system and our drilling contractor, AMS, was surprised at how easily it went in".
"With the Universal Ve joint, the assembly was very quick and compared with welding plastic pipes, it was a faster process.".
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