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HDPE Conduit:
The High Performance Choice for
BURIED CABLE
With its high performance characteristics, crush strength, bending radius and superior pulling ability, High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) conduit is the right choice for buried cable. It provides superior security and protection against road utility construction, random dig ups, and rodent damage. Some distinct benefits of HDPE conduit are as follows:
Cable Investment Protection
HDPE conduit’s excellent performance helps the telecommunications industry protect its infrastructure investments. In fiber optic service, this moisture-tight and mechanically tough conduit is helping reduce replacement costs from accidental damage. It is also being used to help protect installations of high-bandwidth coaxial telecommunications cables, and extends its service life.
In the electrical industry, HDPE conduit is helping to maintain high operating service levels. Although many direct-buried power cable systems are designed for 30 or 40-year lifetimes, they are susceptible to external influences like rock impingement, and often require repairs. Non-conductivity HDPE conduit is finding favor over direct burial in both primary (substation to transformer) and secondary (transformer to end-user) cables.
Engineering Information and Support
The Plastics Pipe Institute (PPI) develops and maintains a substantial body of information related to the uses of HDPE conduit. PPI’s staff and member companies are experts in the design of polyethylene conduit systems and are available to answer your questions on HDPE conduit.
Standards
The following organizations have developed relevant standards for HDPE conduit and raceways that cover most aspects of their manufacture and use.
Their criteria help ensure that conduit performance is consistent and safe over a broad range of applications:
– ASTM F2160 Standard Specification for Solid-Wall High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Conduit Based on Controlled Outside Diameter (OD).
– NEMA TC7 Smooth-Wall Coil able Polyethylene Electric Plastic Conduit
– UL 651A Type EB and A Rigid PVC Conduit and HDPE Conduit
– UL 651B Continuous Length HDPE Conduit
– UL 2024 Optical Fiber Cable Raceway
Installation Savings
HDPE conduit is suitable for all methods of duct and cable installation, including trenching, direct plow, and installation into existing main pathways (conduit pulling, slip-lining and pipe-bursting). Supplied on reels in several-thousand-foot lengths, it does not require manufactured bends and can be easily navigated around unexpected obstructions in the ground or within existing ducts. The few joints that are required can be made reliably through a number of options.
Due to HDPE’s low coefficient of friction, cable can be pulled or blown into HDPE duct over great distances and at fast rates. Special HDPE conduit products, such as pre-installed cable-in-conduit (CIC), can also save time and labor by simplifying field installation.
Exceptional Long-term Performance
HDPE conduit protects cable more effectively than other conduits over great periods of time. Among its many features, HDPE conduit is:
• Bendable and flexible without breaking, even with ground heaves or shifts, over a wide range of temperatures
• Immune to attack by, and provides no host nutrients for, bacterial or fungal growth and is impervious to insect attack
• Resistant to most ordinary chemicals
• Non-conducting and therefore not susceptible to galvanic corrosion nor will it contribute to electrical interference
• Ductile, and resistant to aging or cold-temperature brittleness
• Able to withstand low temperature impact better than any other conduit material
• Installable over an ambient temperature range of –30 °F to 180 °F. Power conductors rated at 194 °F (90 °C) and medium voltage cable rated at 225 °F (105 °C) are permitted for use with HDPE conduit
• Moisture proof and watertight
Source : Plastics Pipe Institute
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