BAHIR DAR UNIIVERSITY

BAHIR DAR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (BiT)

FACULTY OF MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
ETHIO PLASTIC INDUSTRY (EPI)

INTERNSHIP REPORT - PIPEFACTORYS

SUMBMITTED TO WOGIYE W.

SUMBMITTED BY-

 DANIEL ESHETU
AND

 MESEFEN MULAW
 JEMAL AYALEW

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 Pipe factory

PVC and pipe factory is one of the factories that are found in the Ethiopian
plastic industry. This factory produce different size pipes and PVC plastics for
different purposes like for irrigation purpose for sanitation and the like.
Specifically it produces three types of pipes, using two different factories. In the
first pipe factory there are two types of pipe product HDPE pipes and PPR pipes.
In the other pipe industry produce PVC pipes.Mainly produce PVC pipes for
different purpose like sanitation and drainage systems and other pipes for
irrigation and water transportation purpose plus to that conduit for wiring
purposes.

i Raw material
1. PVC risen (poly vinyl chloride) compound
 Resin
 Filler (CaCO3)
 Carbon black
 SMS (stabilizer)
 TiO2

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  HST (staeric acid)
2. PPR(poly propylene random)
3. HDPE (high density poly ethylene)
4. LDPE(Low density poly ethylene) product scraps
ii Raw material description

PVC risen-This compound is a very strong temperature resistance compound

called poly vinyl chloride with a good strength. It is a thermoplastic polyolefin
which is easy to process into pipes & fittings with superior chemical & physical
properties. They are best carriers of potable water (both Hot and cold) in
domestic as well as in industrial application in terms of quality and price. When
long term performance under adverse conditions without deviations in standards
is required. Thermoplastic resins consist of macromolecular chains with no
crosslinks between the chains. The macromolecular chains themselves can have
statistical oriented side chains or can build statistical distributed crystalline
phases.

PPR-is a poly propylene compound and a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide

variety of applications including packaging and labeling also to produce plastic
parts.

HDPE-is a high density poly ethylene. This is used for production of heavy task
films and materials having high temperature resistivity. It is a
polyethylenethermoplastic made from petroleum. It is sometimes called
"alkathene" or "polythene" when used for pipes. HDPE is known for its large
strength-to-density ratio. The density of HDPE can range from 0.93 to 0.97 g/cm 3
or 970 kg/m3. Although the density of HDPE is only marginally higher than that
of low-density polyethylene, HDPE has little branching, giving it stronger
intermolecular forces and tensile strength than LDPE.
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 LDPE-this is a low density poly ethylene which is mainly used for poly sheet and
other materials which require the less density poly ethylene requirement

Additives that are added in the production process

Filler (CaCo3)-for increasing strength

TiO2-for solar energy resistance
Steric acid-for physical appearance
Lubricant-for decreasing friction
Pigment-for coloring purpose
SMS stabilizer-for homogenized those chemicals and for temperature
stabilization.
iii , Process description process flow chart and products of two factors
In Factory 1- there are two types of pipe product HDPE pipes and PPR pipes
produced by HDPE and PPR Raw material.

Process flow chart 1

Raw Quality Hopper Extruder Trolley

materialimporte Inspection mounted Die
d
head

Triano/haul off Cooling Cooling Vacuum Calibrator

unit 2Tr unit 1 bath

Final Product
Cutting unit ROLLER Stored
Inspection

No
Crushing unit

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 First we going to mix raw material using a mixer like the profile factory this
dry mixer have a heating and cooling system consecutively with turbinate
equipment with coloring master batch in the proportion of 25Kg raw material
to the master batch 400g.
 There is a sucker which guide mixed raw material directly to the Hooper then
the Hooper direct the mixed powdered raw material to the extruder.
 The main area in this process is the extrusion part, where extrusion line
consists of a number of pieces of equipment. An extruder converts the
polyethylene raw material to a continuous tubular melt by extrusion through an
annular die having four different zone with different temperature about 357 oc.
The screw in the extruder will rotate and develop sufficient pressure to force
material to go through die and produce products with different geometries.
screw, extruder drive, barrel, feed hopper. The helical structured extruder
screw is the heart of an extruder, which includes transport, heating, melting
and mixing functions for plastic. An extruder drive, an electrical motor,
supplies power to rotate the screw. The stability and quality of products is
highly dependent of the design of the screw. The extruder barrel is outside the
screw providing heating and cooling capabilities. There is a feed throat connect
feed hopper and barrel. The feed hopper is designed to hold the plastic pellets,
and allows plastic pellets flow into the barrel steadily.
 Die is placed at the end of the extruder, and can determine the shape of the
product. It has three temperature zones.The speed of the extrusion polymer raw
material is 46.5 r/m,
 This product can be fabricate 50meter pipes with required shape and
thickness, 75,63,50, and 5.8,6.8. In 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Products – PPR pipe used for hot water resistance pipe.
HDPE pipe-used for town water pump distribution.
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 Fig.1 product in factory 1
In Factory 2- In this factory we use also HDPE and scrubs PVC, HDPE
recycling them from different fabrication we used in this compound.
 PVC is comes in two basic forms rigid and flexible. The rigid form of PVC is
used in construction for pipe and in profile applications such as doors and
windows. It is also used for bottles, other non-food packaging. We use this
material for fabrication water hose.
We also use recycled polymer for fabricating conduits. The recycled polymer
must be size reduced because scrub polymers are large in size that cannot
under goes extrusion process. And they need to be sorted depending they
physical property. By physical property mean specially their colors.
The other advantage of using this scrub polymer is we will not use master
batch. But sometimes we use a master batch for producing simple decorating
belts (Bingo).
We fabricate floor tiles from LDPE and HDPE, choosing from one depending
the flexibility required.
Process flow chart 2

Raw material

Flow chart for Flow chart for

Floor tiles Crushing (Size Conduit Factory
reduction)

Extrusion
Double rolling Machine Cooling

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 Rolling Machine Finishing

Storing Storing

 The main fabrication process has the same extrusion and dies processing like
pipe factory 1.
 First the raw material are mixed using a dry mixer like the profile factory this
dry mixer have a heating and cooling system consecutively with a turbinate
equipment .the there is a sucker which guide directly to the Hooper then the
Hooper direct the mixed powdered raw material to the extruder then his
extruder have seven temperature zone which are in increasing order and with
extruder inside then after that the die containing a mandrill then the molten
material will pass through to attain the shape in need. The die and mandrel is
changed according to the thickness in need. After passing the die and mandrill
there is a vacuum pressure calibration system used to maintain the shape and
size of the pipe. Then after that there is a temperature cooling system used to
lower the high temperature of the pipe. Then there is a haul off machine used
for rolling to the next machine which is auto rotary cutter which is used to cut
the pipe in order of the required meter. The cutter will cut the pipe with the
signal from the encoder then the cutter will cut the pipe or if it is needed to
troll the roller will roll the pipe.
The reason we are using two rolling in plastic sheet fabrication is to make flat
shape of the product with the required thickness, also the speed will be
adjusted.

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 Fig1. production of pipe

Products

PVC pipe-which divided in to two

I. U-PVC –which is Unplasticized PVC pipe. The pressurized type is

used for high pressure water pump and the non-pressurized type is
used for sanitization.
II. V-PVC-which is plasticized PVC pipe. The pressurized type is used
for irrigation for sugar factory and the non-pressurized is used for
housing purpose.

Condit-it is classified in to flexible and rugged both can be fabricated in different

diameter and thickness.Flexible Condit is produced from recycling LDPE and
rugged Condit produced from PVC recycling.

Use of product- for irrigation system, for water distribution, for sanitation system.

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iv Problem identification
 There is no stand by generator when there is power loss.
 There is diameter, thickness and mass variation
 Off center
 Discontinuity
 The extrusion machine not checked and there is no calibration. That some
of the machine are not working and some have uncontrolled computer
system that affects the temperature of extrusion machine, that will affect
the product of the company. We need to fix every machine to increase the
work ability before we start to produce any product.
 In the factory we were able to observe that there is leaking of gas in to the
vacuum tube these cause the shape to be deformed.
 Lack of using machinery.
 There is no safety for the workers. This production process required a high
temperature and machine equipment loading that affects the person works
on this factory. Also the machine will break when heavy lifting of machine
equipment done by only
 Seeing the current actual situation of Ethiopian plastic industries, most of
this industries import their raw material from foreign countries with high
cost and long shipment procedure.
v Recommendation
 To install stand by generator to prevent power loss defects
 To prevent diameter, thickness and off center variations we should
carefully attach die and mandrill in proper position and attachment and not
letting air pass through the vacuum tube.

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 To prevent mass variation and discontinuity we should carefully measure
raw material mass and also be Shure on quality of the raw material
 For discontinuity we should be careful of arrangement of temperature and
rolling device speed.
 We recommend using a viscous fluid in leaking areas
 We use new HDPE resin for strengthen for supporting scrub polymer
property that will cost much more. But we can strength our raw material by
only using the scrub polymer.
 Lack of using extraction machinery can be diminish by produce many
products by changing the die, that can give the product the required shape.
We can use this machine for fabricating new product.
 By mixing raw materials HDPE, LDPE and PP and the scrape too
according to the higher ratio with any proportion that suit for a desired
property and strengthen the raw material then we get the higher specific
property.
 There is an excellent potential in the nation to produce ethylene from this
source of ethanol and using long process and procedures it is possible to
produce polyethylene and poly vinyl chloride this procedure will help the
country to reduce its foreign currency plus it will decrease the time delay
on shipment and create a sustainable raw material production opportunity.

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