Drinking Water Protection: SLA® Barrier Pipe in Use for over 30 Years

The SLA® Barrier Pipe from egeplast is a safe and proven solution for clean drinking water in pipelines 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 horizontal directional drilling method.

As early as 1984, the question arose as to how the many advantages in the Installation and operational safety of polyethylene plastic pipe systems could also be used for more than 50 years in soils with pollutant contamination. During this time in the Netherlands, cases of taste impairment resulting from the Installation of standard PE pipes in heavily over-fertilized soils were discovered.

With the drive of an innovation leader, egeplast developed the first pollutant protection pipe at that time, which has been continuously developed into the SLA® Barrier Pipe system to this day. For the first time, this made it possible to efficiently and economically implement modern civil engineering with multi-layer pipe systems made of polyethylene, even in heavily contaminated soils. The additional layer of aluminum prevents any penetration of pollutants into the inner pipe, thus protecting the drinking water from contamination.

At the Dutch testing institute KIWA in 1988, after a complex testing and development phase, 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 was the basis for today’s BRL 17101, which serves as the basis for the certification of Barrier Pipes with an aluminum barrier layer and whose requirements the current SLA® Barrier Pipe also fully meets for the highest Class III.

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

This demonstrates the experience built up over decades 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 low-trench and trenchless installation techniques
• Tailor-made solutions through various material combinations for different applications and customer requirements (for example, in difficult soil conditions, color coding depending on the medium transported)
• protected transport of drinking water and sensitive media through areas at risk of contamination
• Protection against environmental damage through the safe transport of water- and environmentally hazardous media, chemically contaminated waste 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 – also in tests with substances such as trichlorethylene (TCE)

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