When South Gippsland Water was contracted to supply 11 km of pipeline to the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant, it became apparent that the narrow roadways traversing the route would pose space restriction issues for construction machinery.
The winning tenderer, Darren Chandler of local contracting firm GEM Industrial, had just finalised his first order for a new track-based polyethylene (PE) welder, which not only addressed the space restriction but also offered new high pressure welding capabilities.
At the time, high interfacial pressure welding was just under consideration by Australian Standards, so South Gippsland Water and GEM Industrial decided to trial a range of high and low pressure welding techniques to prove suitability for the pipeline project.
Weld samples were sent to a National Association of Testing Authorities accredited lab for tensile testing and the results proved consistency across welding types. Soon after, the Plastics Industry Pipe Association adopted high interfacial welding pressure techniques into POP003 standards.
With standards approval in place, the pipeline became one of Australia’s first PE pipeline projects utilising certified high pressure welding techniques. The results showed not only an increase in weld quality, but higher daily weld rates, which allowed for more pipe to be laid in the ground per day.