Drinking Water Protection: SLA® Barrier Pipe in use for over 30 years

The egeplast SLA® Barrier Pipe is a safe and proven solution for clean drinking water in pipelines laid in contaminated soils. With 30 years of experience, egeplast offers a complete system with suitable connection technology for quick and easy installation, even using the trenchless drilling method.

As early as 1984, the question arose of how to utilize the many advantages of polyethylene plastic pipe systems in terms of installation and operational safety for more than 50 years, even in contaminated soils. At that time, cases of taste impairment resulting from the installation of standard PE pipes in heavily over-fertilized soils were observed in the Netherlands.

Driven by an innovative spirit, egeplast developed the first contaminant protection pipe, which has been continuously refined into the SLA® Barrier Pipe system. This allowed modern civil engineering with multi-layer polyethylene pipe systems to be implemented efficiently and economically, even in heavily contaminated soils. The additional aluminum layer prevents any penetration of contaminants into the inner pipe, thereby protecting drinking water from pollution.

In 1988, after an extensive testing and development phase at the Dutch testing institute KIWA, the first testing basis for PE pipes with a diffusion-tight aluminum barrier layer was created, expanding the state of the art at the time: “Test methods for assessing the permeability of aluminum laminate pipes.” This formed the basis for today’s BRL 17101, which serves as the foundation for the certification of barrier pipes with an aluminum barrier layer and whose requirements the current SLA® Barrier Pipe fully meets, even for the highest Class III.

Together with international partners, egeplast has also created suitable and reliable connection technology. For example, Conval in the Netherlands launched suitable brass connectors as early as 1995, which are also KIWA certified. And for welding the pipes, a suitable method for reliable and flexible re-coating was developed, which also functions reliably in the trenchless drilling method. In addition, egeplast offers all necessary fittings such as bends and T-pieces as system components and can equip individual components with an aluminum barrier layer in its own fitting production, if desired.

This demonstrates decades of experience with SLA® Barrier Pipe projects. egeplast customers are as enthusiastic today as they were in the past about the high product quality and use the SLA® Barrier Pipe system today as they did in 1995.

Compared to other solutions, the SLA® Barrier Pipe offers many advantages:

• Certified for the highest KIWA protection class III
• Manufactured according to PAS 1075
• Tested according to the highest hygiene standards (e.g., DK Water)
• Complete system including bends, T-pieces, and proven connection technology
• Environmentally friendly installation, cost and time advantages through trench-reduced and trenchless installation techniques
• Tailor-made solutions through various material combinations for different applications and customer requirements (e.g., difficult soil conditions, color coding depending on the transported medium)
• Protected transport of drinking water and sensitive media through contamination-prone areas
• Protection against environmental damage through safe transport of water and environmentally hazardous media, chemically contaminated wastewater and process water, and hazardous gases
• Long delivery lengths (several 100 meters depending on dimension), low weight
• Weather and seawater resistant aluminum barrier layer
• Kiwa confirmed barrier properties – even in tests with substances such as trichloroethylene (TCE)

We want to continue our mission of clean drinking water and the 30-year success story of the SLA® Barrier Pipe. What challenges or questions do you have?