Common Sewer Materials
Orangeburg Pipe
Orangeburg pipe (also known as “fiber conduit”, “bituminous fiber pipe” or “Bermico” or “sand pipe”) is bituminized fiber pipe used in the United States. It is made from layers of ground wood pulp fibers and asbestos fibres compressed with and bound by a water resistant adhesive then impregnated with liquefied coal tar pitch. It was used from the 1860s through the 1970s, when it was replaced by PVC pipe for water supply and ABS pipe for drain-waste-vent (DWV) applications. The name comes from Orangeburg, New York, the town in which most Orangeburg pipe was manufactured, largely by the Fiber Conduit Company. It changed its name to the Orangeburg Manufacturing Company in 1948.
ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene)
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is used for the conveyance of potable water, slurries and chemicals. Most commonly used for DWV (drain-waste-vent) applications. It has a wide temperature range, from -40 °C to +60 °C.
ABS is a thermoplastic material and was originally developed in the early 1950s for use in oil fields and the chemical industry. The variability of the material and its relative cost effectiveness has made it a popular engineering plastic. It can be tailored to a range of applications by modifying the ratio of the individual chemical components.
They are used mainly in industrial applications where high impact strength and rigidity are essential.
This material is also used in non-pressure piping systems for soil and waste.
uPVC (unplasticized polyvinyl chloride)
plasticized polyvinyl chloride pipe for underground water mains
uPVC or PVC-U, is a thermoplastic material derived from common salt and fossil fuels.
The pipe material has the longest track record of all plastic materials. The first uPVC
pipes were made in the 1930s. Beginning in the 1950s, uPVC pipes were used to replace corroded metal pipes and thus bring fresh drinking water to a growing rural and later urban population. uPVC pipes are certified safe for drinking water per NSF
Standard 61 and used extensively for water distribution and transmission pipelines
throughout North America and around the world. uPVC is allowed for waste lines in
homes and is the most often used pipe for sanitary sewers.
Polyvinyl chloride(PVC)
PVC is the world’s third-most widely produced synthetic polymer of plastic (after polyethylene and polypropylene). About 40 million tons of PVC are produced each year. PVC comes in rigid (sometimes abbreviated as RPVC) and flexible forms. Roughly half of the world’s PVC resin manufactured annually is used for producing pipes for municipal and industrial applications. In the private homeowner market, it accounts for 66% of the household market in the US, and in household sanitary sewer pipe applications, it accounts for 75%.
Cast Iron Pipe
Cast iron pipe is pipe made predominantly from gray cast iron. It was historically used as a pressure pipe for transmission of water, gas and sewage, and as a water drainage pipe during the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. In many modern applications, cast iron pipe has been replaced by ductile iron pipe, but this newer product is still often loosely referred to by the older historical name.
Vitrified clay pipe (VCP)
Vitrified clay pipe (VCP) is pipe made from a blend of clay and shale that has been subjected to high temperature to achieve vitrification, which results in a hard, inert ceramic.
VCP is commonly used in gravity sewer collection mains because of its long life and resistance to almost all domestic and industrial sewage, particularly the sulfuric acid that is generated by hydrogen sulfide, a common component of sewage. Because clay sewer pipe has a porous surface, it tends to attract tree roots. Roots that impinge on clay pipe may eventually cause the pipe to crack. Leaks can attract roots. Once a crack is established in the clay sewer pipe, roots tend to be encouraged to infiltrate the pipe.
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