THE PIPES: Costs, Value and Price

The importance of promoting the true value of a pipe system. This includes not only the cost of the pipe itself, but the costs of installation and maintenance, plus the cost of failures.

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We questioned how well customers understand this and how much they simply look at the price of the pipe. We urged the plastics pipe industry to provide fact-driven evidence with regard to the “less visible costs”, because the trend in inter material competition is moving towards the lowest costs over the lifetime of a product.

“It is important to educate customers about the

difference between price and cost,” he said.

We also outlined some of the innovations in plastics pipes technology that can help to reduce total lifetimes costs for certain applications. For example,

these can include:

l Structured walls using foam core, ribbed wall or twin

wall technologies;

l Selecting more rigid polymer grades;

l Using trenchless installation and novel renovation

techniques;

l Designing systems for optical inspection, including

automated methods;

l Improving inspection chamber design; and,

l Developing safer and more reliable systems based on recognised technical standards, testing certification and quality assurance procedures for both materials