Extrusion International 5-2019

50 Extrusion International 5/2019 PIPE EXTRUSION Water is one of the scarcest resources across the globe and absolutely necessary for all kind of organizations, so its industrial management must be efficient and is a pending issue to be improved PVC-O Pipes and Fittings for Industrial Applications Industries are more and more concerned about the avail- ability of water and more and more industries agree that the availability of water is impacting their business then, this percentage is expected to grow in a few years. The fact that access to water has become difficult over the past few years and that this is likely to increase in the near future, has been acknowledged by some industries and is an issue that worries industries belonging to sectors like chemicals, textiles, manufacturing, etc. Inadequate avail- ability of water is the main problem when running busi- ness and poor water quality affects negatively to sectors like pharmaceutics, food processing or agriculture among others. Apart from this, high costs for obtaining water are behind the business interests of smaller industries and others located in the driest regions of the country. The development of new infrastructures and regulations has not evolved in accordance with urbanization and the growth of population and as a result of this, the manage- ment of wastewater has become a major challenge. Important improvements to reduce surface water pollu- tion are being made but it also has to face groundwater exploitation, a source from which lots of cities depend. Bearing all these facts in mind it can be seen that a reform is urgently needed. This reform should consider a reduc- tion in non-revenue water, groundwater exploitation, etc. Most of the water is used for irrigation purposes and, even now, traditional techniques of flooding are fol- lowed, something that implies an important waste of wa- ter. Modern irrigation techniques such as drip irrigation or sprinkler irrigation have been found much more effi- cient and are starting to be used; with them productivity increases and the wastage of water is minimum. After irrigation and supply, the third largest consumer of water is the industrial sector. A proper water manage- ment implies a conscious use of it together with its con- servation. A series of measures should be taken in order to optimize its use and to avoid its waste. Among these measures it should be taken into account the material to be installed in new projects and infrastructures. A material that could help to improve the industrial water management and, at the same time, to preserve the envi- ronment is the use of PVC-O pipes and fittings, the most eco-friendly material. Althoughmaterials tend to lose their mechanical properties when they are subjected to pressure over long periods of time, this process is not as pronounced in Class 500 PVC-O pipes and fittings as in other materials. Bearing this in mind, we can clearly see that pipes and fit- tings in this material have a useful life of over fifty years. Molecor manufactures PVC-O pipes and fittings which present important advantages in relation to the optimal use of water. Besides their hydrostatic resistance, previ- ously mentioned, these elements have between 15% and a 40% more hydraulic capacity than systems with pipes made from other materials and with the same external diameter. Their extremely smooth surface contributes, Source: www.un.org OPVCpipes andfittings installation