Development of piping elements from textile reinforced composite materials for chemical apparatus construction

Advancing globalisation in apparatus and plant construction is leading to ever higher demands being made as regards efficiency and performance on the many various components and in this respect on complex piping elements in particular. These construction elements usually need to resist not only the high internal pressures and temperatures, but also the influence of aggressive media. Overcoming the diverse technical demands connected with this can often only be achieved by employing new materials as well as by using corresponding construction techniques and manufacturing technologies. Both a lightweight relevant as well as low cost alternative to conventional metals and the now well-established apparatus construction material of glass fibre-reinforced plastics in wire-wrap technique, form the group of novel textile composite materials, which apart from a very high design flexibility as regards shaping and the load-adapted reinforcing arrangement specifically offer a considerable cost-saving potential. This makes the plastic composite structures with requisite textile reinforcement virtually predestined for cost-effective pipeline systems in chemical apparatus construction with its typical range of construction elements such as T-pipe pieces, angle pieces, reducing pieces or also pipe pieces.