Couldn’t find the PE pipe after it was buried? Learn more about tracer technology.

Introduction of Polyethylene pipe

Polyethylene pipe, referred to as PE pipe, is a common non-metallic pipe.

Many countries have used PE pipes for more than 40 years.

In the early days, we often used PE pipes in urban gas buried pipelines.

In recent years, due to the development of non-excavation engineering and large-diameter PE pipes, PE pipes have more uses. .

For example:
1. Municipal water supply project
2. Gas engineering
3. Dredging works
4. Mining Engineering
5. Agricultural irrigation

As a widely used pipe material, PE pipe also has certain defects.
Firstly, it is not resistant to heat.
Secondly, the resistance to damage is poor.
Thirdly, it is not UV resistant.
Fourthly, it is difficult to be detected when buried underground.

Then, the following two questions arise:
How to grasp the direction of underground PE pipeline?
How to accurately locate underground PE pipes?
By solving these two problems, we can avoid pipeline damage and safety accidents.

However, due to its special material, PE pipe:
1. Non-conductive.
2. Non-magnetic
3. Features such as low density
Besides, commonly used metal detectors cannot track.
So how to accurately locate the underground direction of the PE pipe?

Tracer Wire system

Tracer wire system, its principle is mainly:
1. Rely on metal wires laid in parallel pipes
2. Use the magnetic field change generated by the current passing through the metal wire
3. Locate the position of the metal tracer wire
4. Further guess the position of the PE pipe.

The advantages of this system are:
Firstly, the product is relatively mature and has a lot of experience in domestic use.
Secondly, the construction method is simple and the workers are easy to operate.
Thirdly, the detection gap with the original copper steel pipe system tracer method is not large.
Fourthly, it is easy to integrate with existing systems.

Type and Performance of tracer wire

Firstly, Steel wire plastic film tracer line.

This is a press made of steel wire and PE plastic film.
Often used in conjunction with warning tape.
The wire diameter is about 0.5mm².

Performance:

1. Not easy to connect.
2. High resistance.
3. The detection distance is limited.
4. Easy to break.
5. The electrical effective connectivity is easily damaged.

Secondly, Previous Tracer Wire

Use copper or aluminum as tracers.

Performance:

1. Long detection distance and good effect
2. The cost is relatively expensive
3. The PVC insulating layer is easy to age
4. Tension is limited

Thirdly, Special metal tracer wire.

It is composed of special metal wire core (copper clad steel) and PE outer protective layer.

Performance:

1. PE sheath: insulation, anti-corrosion, waterproof, anti-aging.
2. The copper layer in the core layer can enhance the conductivity and improve the electrical signal.
3. Long service life
4. Easy to install
5. Strong tensile performance

tracer wire installation
copper tracer wire

Leave a Reply

es_ESSpanish