Important Notice – AS/NZS 4130 Polyethylene (PE) pipes for pressure applications – January 2020

Prompted by a major PE pipeline failure in January 2019 the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA), in consultation with The Plastics Industry Pipe Association of Australia (PIPA), has undertaken a review of its Product Specifications for Polyethylene pipe.   

WSAA considers that the requirements for recyclate and the current batch definition and Batch Report Testing requirements within AS/NZS 4130 need to be amended and will ensure a review of the Standard is undertaken through the Standards Australia process. 

In the interim the following Clauses have been inserted into WSA PS 207 and WSA PS 215. These specifications are available at: https://www.wsaa.asn.au/shop/product/35716.

Clause 2 (b)

The use of recyclate in pipe other than a manufacturer’s own clean in-house production for which full batch traceability is maintained, is expressly prohibited

Clause 2 (c)

The manufacturer’s quality plan shall include within their  batch release test procedures a thermal stability test to ISO 11357-6 to be completed on a sample taken from the inside surface of the first pipe manufactured in a batch of a particular DN and PN and at an ongoing frequency not exceeding 12 hours of production for that pipe batch or when a new raw material compound is introduced.

Note the following update has since been released;

Important Notice – AS/NZS 4130 Polyethylene (PE) pipes for pressure applications – January 2020 (update)