South African joint venture (JV) company African Pipes, Valves & Fittings (APVF) Piping Systems offers a complete thermoplastic piping system for the industrial, gas and mining markets.

The JV between fuel supplier Bohlale Energy and investment company African Rainbow Capital (ARC) is a Level 2 broad-based black economic empowerment company and offers “the widest range of thermoplastic piping systems for various industrial and mining processes”.

These include chemical storage and processing, water treatment and management, gas piping, as well as slurry and bulk materials transportation.

APVF is the exclusive agent for a comprehensive range of leading brands such as Simona and Stübbe from Germany, Plastitalia from Italy, Worldpoly from Australia and Elysee from Cyprus.

Among the products on show at this year’s Electra Mining Africa exhibition, in September, the company will exhibit its specially developed multi-layered slurry piping system from Simona.

“A number of industrial and mining processes are moving away from the traditional steel or stainless steel in favor of thermoplastics, which offer the benefit of improved chemical resistance, and easier installation and maintenance owing to lower weight. In most cases there is also a cost saving both in plant life and maintenance,” the company says.

APVF adds that, depending on the project, “there can be substantial cost savings, and installation can be done faster and more efficiently”.

The Simona abrasion protection line (AP-line), in particular, offers significant abrasion resistance compared to conventional high-density polyethylene (HDPE) or rubber-lined steel pipes with lower maintenance and improved longevity. 

The AP-line is a three layered co-extruded pipe designed specifically for corrosive and abrasive environments, such as slurry transportation.

The inner layer is a rubberised highly abrasive resistant layer, APVF says, noting the second layer is standard PE100 and the outer layer is a white PE100 layer to reduce the thermal expansion of the line.

From testing completed by Simona, there is a six to seven times improvement in longevity over steel and three to four times improvement compared with standard HDPE, APVF states, adding that this means there “could also be a reduction in maintenance requirements and costs owing to improved wear and chemical resistance”.

Trials are planned in South Africa later this year for key customers.