Fiberglass TCP mainstream machinery line system is able to manufacture up to DN200. It is hard to hard to produce larger diameters Due to the limitation of continuous wrapping, production efficiency, and technical conditions, etc., Banline China and Banline USA team redesign the fiberglass wrapping machine, which can produce up to DN 630 under fully bonded fiberglass reinforcement TCP line.

TCP production line system has three continuous steps. First, a thermoplastic inner layer (liner) is extruded. Second, automatic tape wrapping with in-situ consolidation by using the fiber-reinforced thermoplastic tape, with each layer melt-fused onto preceding layers. Lastly, the pipe goes through an outer layer extrusion die. In current market, the mian TCP machinery companies are KraussMaffei, Ridgway, Banline, Goldstone etc.

Liner

The liner will need to fulfill its function of containing the transported fluid, the liner material should have adequate resistance to degradation from all the components of the fluid. On another hand, The liner should also possess sufficient ductility to enable it to withstand the strains imposed upon it during TCP manufacture, storage, and deployment (which may involve reeling or axial loads). It should also be able to resist long-term loads imposed upon it by joints and fittings without excessive creep. Furthermore, it should be capable of withstanding the strains imposed during pressurisation and, where appropriate, cyclic pressurisation.

The polymers used in the liner, fiber matrix, and outer layer are always of the same type. Banline TCP-Ultra line for oil gas is able to apply PolyEthylene (PE), PolyAmide (PA12), and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF), Polyethylene of Raised Temperature (PERT), etc. as polymers, and glass or carbon fibers as reinforcement.

For cold & hot water applications, generally plastic pipes such as PE-X, PE-RT, etc. have oxygen permeability, the oxygen concentration will increase as temperature rises. Therefore, some developed countries and regions require to use plastic pipes with barrier layers for hot water. EVOH material has barrier resistance. Based upon multi-layer co-extrusion technology, a 3-layer co-extruded pipe of PE-RT and EVOH is produced. There are 5 layers of co-extruded pipes with the structure from the inside to the outside: PE-RT/adhesive/EVOH/adhesive/PE-RT. EVOH barrier performance to hydrocarbons is about 4,400 times better than that of HDPE and many times greater than that of nylon 6, which makes them ideal for safe, light, durable, and environmentally friendly fuel system components.

All individual layers are melt-fused together, ensuring a bond between the layers that is as strong and durable as the base materials. For a cost-effective solution, we consider more about the most optimal material depending on the application. Co-extrusion for the liner is also applicable.

Fiberglass tape wrapping, heating, and cooling

The challenging part during the fiberglass tape wrapping process is heating and interspace between each wrapped fiberglass tape.

For fiberglass TCP pipe, generally use fiberglass tape as reinforcement material. Bonding quality is based on the heating process after wrapping the fiberglass tape layer, instantaneously heating, and cooling is the most ideal solution. The current technology for heating has infrared heating, laser heating, etc. however, due to instantaneously heating and cooling control difficulties, fusion bonding technology is still improving, which is the most challenging for TCP machinery line system companies.

Fiberglass wrapping

The maximum wrappable fiberglass tape width is upon 360mm, ( Fiberglass tape width generally from 90mm – 360mm, preferred nominal width shall be a multiple of 5 mm, enabling an approximate correspondence to be maintained with inch sizes.) different fiberglass wrapping machine sets suit for different fiberglass tape. There are two mainstream types of fiberglass tape wrapping machines, one is the planetary-wrapping machine from Ridgeway Machinery, another one is the co-axis wrapping machine from Banline TCP-Ultra Machinery. There are some great companies like KraussMaffei, and Goldstone also develops the TCP machinery line system, the wrapping machine form is similar to Ridgeway.

The planetary type of wrapping machine has the potential limitation of fiberglass width, therefore, most of the planetary-wrapping machine uses a smaller width (usually 50mm, 60mm) of fiberglass tape. The quality of fiberglass wrapping depends on the wrapping angle, multi-wrapping sets needs to ensure that each fiberglass tape wrapped interspace from the wrapping reel is even.

Preliminary identification can be used by checking the interspace between wrapped glass fiber tape; If the interspace between each wrapped fiberglass tape is large but even or each fiberglass tape overlapped after the wrapping process, adjusting the line speed to the appropriate level is a desirable solution. On another hand, if un-even interspace between wrapped fiberglass tape happened, interspace adjustment of wrapped fiberglass tape shall be complicated because the machinery manufacturer will need to check and adjust each wrapping reel set. Un-even wrapped fiberglass tape has a potential influence for the TCP pipe body, you can also find the Irregular traces on the TCP cover layer.

In order to solve this problem, there are two methods: 1. Reduce multi-wrapping reel sets. For example, reduce 4 planetary fiberglass wrapping reels to 2 wrapping reels. 2. Adjust the angle of each fiberglass wrapping reel, adjust wrapping reel anteroposterior position, etc. According to our experience, multi wrapping reel sets have more challenges to avoid uneven interspace, but its too early to say planetary wrapping method not reliable.

We and our US team redesign the fiberglass tape machine by using single co-axis wrapping technology, which also can use 90mm – 360mm fiberglass tape (nominal width shall be a multiple of 5 mm) for the wrapping process.

Heating and Cooling process

Each reinforcement layer wrapped on the liner shall be heated to 900℃– 1000℃（1620℉-1800℉）instantaneously in order to achieve quality fusion bonding performance between the inner layer (liner) and fiberglass tape, then be sure fast cooling is important after each heating process in order to avoid the deformation of the liner because, during the wrapping process, fiberglass tape has tensile force on the liner, if core pipe (liner) too soft due to insufficient cooling procedure, the liner will deformation during wrapping procedure.

For the heating process, heating temperature shall be at least 700℃（1292℉）, Banline TCP-Ultra is able to reach 900℃– 1000℃（1620℉-1800℉）in order to achieve high-quality fusion bonding performance.

Each wrapping, the cooling process is the same as mentioned before. In other words, fast heating and fast cooling during the fusion bonded process are quite important after wrapping each reinforced fiberglass layer.

For larger diameter (≥DN200) fiberglass TCP pipe, uniform heating of the reinforced layer is the challenging part. Considering the limitation of the winding equipment, which mainly strengthens the pipe circumferentially. Based on the structural design characteristics of the continuous glass fiber tape reinforced polyethylene composite pipe, Banline TCP-Ultra™ for oil gas industry and TCP-Wave™ for larger diameter applied to water application have successfully developed a co-axis wrapping technology and a high-efficiency thermal fusion bonding technology, which allow the wrapping angle and tension of the glass fiber tape to be precisely controlled and the glass fiber tape layers to be completely fusion bonded with both the inner and outer layers of polyethylene pipe.

Wish this brief introduction of the bonded fiberglass TCP machinery line system gives you thought to know the overall process. We are glad to share our experience of fiberglass TCP machinery, If your team is considering to start the new project, and need more technical details.

Please do not hesitate to contact us via email: owen.chen@banline.com or GlobalService@banline.com

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