Heat Shrink Sleeves for Cold Weather?

Question:  Can Covalence heat shrink sleeves be installed on pipelines 

that will ultimately be in cold environments?

Answer: Absolutely.  A simple example of this could be seen here, 

Raychem originally got their first large scale pipeline project with the

Trans Alaskan Pipeline.  Those sleeves have been in service for more than 40 years 

now and they have certainly seen a lot of snow and a lot of cold temperatures.

When installing a product in cold temperatures; one of the main points of evaluation

is going to be 'low temperature flexibility'.  The question with ltf is:  how does the backing

and the adhesive perform, when bent at an extreme angle; at extremely low temperatures?

There could be cases (as an example) where a backing might crack or an adhesive might shatter

when exposed to extremely low temperatures and bent.  For the most part, however; this 

really only applies to 'installation' temperatures.  Once a shrink sleeve is installed, it will no

longer be able to bend in extreme ways (though pipe movement does occur; it doesn't 

occur in the same manner or to the same degree as a low temp flex test would require).  

So as one example, WPC100M passed the low temperature flexibility test at -50C (-58F). 

That is pretty stinking cold.