ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF QUALITY ASSESSMENT AND TESTING FACILITIES FOR MANUFACTURE OF PRESSUR-ISED PE PIPES

Nowadays the majority of installed pipes for gas and water distribution are made out of the thermo-plastic Polyethylene, a tough, flexible and high fatigue resistance material. The continuously grow-ing demand attracts more manufacturer to enter the market, especially manufacturer with already existing pipe extrusion facilities from low-grade products, such as conduits. To make sure that the market is not being saturated with non-standard products this project proposes a testing station for a former conduit manufacturer by incorporating already existing quality facilities. With a production capacity of approximately two different batches a day and 30 manufacturing groups a year an in-vestment of roughly US$90,000 is needed for additional testing facilities. For applying the designed quality management system, a quality manual is developed.