Aluminum reinforced polypropylene pipe

Polypropylene pipes reinforced by aluminum are far superior to their metal counterparts in their characteristics. Therefore, when installing a plumbing or heating system, most people opt for plastic products. Such popularity is understandable. Plastic pipes do not spoil the appearance of the premises, they are convenient in maintenance and installation. Reinforced products last much longer than ordinary plastic, while retaining all the technical parameters. There are two ways to reinforce plastic pipes: aluminum or fiberglass. Let's look at both options.

General characteristics

Polypropylene products, regardless of the method of reinforcement, have the following technical features:

• Increased strength and stiffness compared to conventional plastic. Accordingly, during installation, you can start up long pieces of the pipeline without using additional fasteners.
• Reduced linear expansion of products. For ordinary plastic, this figure is 10 millimeters per meter, at a temperature of 70 degrees heat. When using reinforcement, the expansion rate can be reduced by 10 times, only 1 mm per meter of pipeline.
• Increased resistance to high temperature and corrosion. For reinforced products, temperature differences from -10 to +90 degrees are not terrible.
• Due to its high strength and wear resistance, it is possible to lay a monolithic water supply in the apartment, thereby eliminating the possibility of leaks.
• Reinforcement has virtually no effect on the total weight of the structure.

Aluminum reinforcement

These products can be recognized among analogues by marking - PPR-AL-PPR. It is possible that you will come across the marking PPR-AL-PEX. These are also pipes reinforced with aluminum, only the inner layer is made not of plastic, but of ethylene. It is worth noting that there are several ways to reinforce aluminum.

• At first, a smooth foil was used for this, which had to be glued with a special adhesive composition. Subsequently, this method of reinforcement was abandoned. The slightest violation of manufacturing technology, and the pipe began to delaminate. Smooth foil began to be replaced with perforated, this made the design more reliable.

• In addition, it is interesting to consider the method of joining the foil. On some products, reinforcement is overlapped. A thickening appears at the junction of the foil, and in order not to disturb the general geometry, manufacturers have to reduce the surface layer. This negatively affects the life and technical characteristics of such products.
• Reinforced pipes where aluminum foil is joined end-to-end look much more profitable. These products are better able to withstand temperature and pressure. A laser is used to reinforce polypropylene in this way.

Despite the clear advantages of reinforced pipes, there are some disadvantages. For example, a rather laborious connection process. When using fittings, the edges must be cleaned. For this, a special device is used - a shaver. This tool is not cheap, but you cannot do without it when installing aluminum-reinforced pipes. If this process is neglected, moisture will fall between the layers of the product. As a result, leaks will occur, respectively, the service life of the heating system will decrease.

Fiberglass reinforcement

According to its technical characteristics, this option is not inferior to previous products. The use of fiberglass allowed to strengthen the pipe without loss of elasticity. Fiberglass reinforced pipes are more convenient in terms of installation. They do not need additional cleaning, which greatly simplifies the workflow. Of the shortcomings, it can be noted that it is unlikely to save on fasteners of fiberglass pipes. If you leave too long sections, the pipeline will sag during operation.

Fiberglass reinforced pipes can be identified by the PPR-FB-PPR marking. The products are a three-layer structure, where the outer and inner layers are made of plastic, in the middle there is a layer of fiberglass.

Manufacturers of fiberglass pipes declare that the service life of their products is about 50 years. In most cases, this is true.

Nuances when choosing

After reading the information and comparing the characteristics of reinforced pipes, many probably have a question: what products with which reinforcement should be preferred? Fiberglass products look most favorably. They are more convenient to install, which will save time during the work. In addition, the manufacturing technology of such pipes looks more reliable: fiberglass is simply fused between the layers of plastic. Given that these products have good elasticity, they can be bent, minimizing the number of fitting connections.

When choosing a product, pay attention to the maximum allowable pressure that the pipe can withstand. On polypropylene pipes, this parameter is indicated by the letters PN. The best option for installing a heating system in an apartment is PN 25. Pay attention to the temperature limit.

When choosing, we recommend that you pay attention to the products of German or Czech manufacturers. They hold the palm in this market segment. But you have to pay for quality. From budget options, we can distinguish Turkish or domestic reinforced pipes.