WAVIN INSTALLS RIVAL ON ALL PE/PP LINES

Wavin was founded in 1955. Wavin is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of plastic pipe systems and industrial plastics products.

Group Operations
Wavin employs 4500 people in 24 European countries and has a turnover of approximately EUR 0.9 billion.

Wavin has 40 manufacturing and distribution sites in 26 countries across Europe and South East Asia. Wavin has a worldwide network of over 70 licensees, agents and distributors supplying products and expertise in for instance the USA, Japan and South America. Wavin also has a participating interest in a plastic pipe manufacturing company in Australia.

Optimising the PE production lines with the RIVAL adjustable calibrating sleeve
Starting August 2002 Nordisk Wavin A/S has been running a project to optimise production by means of the RIVAL adjustable calibrating sleeve.

"Together with RIVAL A/S we planned to prove that we could optimise production by using their adjustable calibrating sleeve. We decided that we were ready to invest money in the project because we believed that we would eventually reap the benefits of this new calibrating sleeve," says Peter Sejersen, Technical Director of Nordisk Wavin A/S.

Purpose of the Project
The purpose of the project was to ascertain the benefits of replacing the existing fixed calibrating sleeves with the RIVAL® adjustable calibrating sleeve. Would this increase Wavin's profit in the form of less scrap and fewer production change-overs (stops), and would it be possible to use the same extruder die for different pipe thicknesses. The profit should originate from economical savings.

Objective
The objective was by means of production registration for the PE and PP lines to prove that the RIVAL® adjustable calibrating sleeve is economically justifiable compared with the fixed calibrating sleeves. The diverse range of products produced by Nordisk Wavin A/S was ideal for proving this point.

Status
Based on the experience they have gained so far, we have received the following feedback from Peter Sejersen, Technical Director of Nordisk Wavin A/S:

• It is a good product.
• We can use one adjustable calibrating sleeve for each pipe diameter.
• It is much easier to adjust the calibrating sleeve than it is to adjust the vacuum level in order to keep within pipe tolerances.
• We can change from one wall thickness to another without stopping production. A production stop costs 4 production hours!
• It is much easier to compensate for non-standard dimensions.
• It is much faster to start up a new production.
• Raw materials vary more today than before. The RIVAL® adjustable calibrating sleeve compensates for the variations in the specific shrinkage percentages.
• If a wrong-sized calibrating sleeve is chosen, production has to be stopped and started again, which results in reduced productivity.