DIRAX on PE Coated Pipe

Dirax Shrink Sleeves on Polyethylene Coated Pipe

     Do DIRAX shrink sleeves bond well to PE pipe coatings?  Absolutely.  The DIRAX sleeve itself utilizes a heat shrinkable PE backing, and since the sleeve overlaps onto itself every single install, DIRAX has been proven to bond well to PE hundreds of thousands of times.

     I recently stumbled across an old training tape we had lying around.  A line up in the mountains where DIRAX was being installed on PE coated pipe.  There are a number of installation filmed in this video and the quality is unfortunately on the poorer side. 

     As a reminder:  the DIRAX installation process is essentially as follows:

1. Pipe must be cleaned properly
2. Epoxy bonding agent is mixed
3. Steel and adjacent line coating heated (steel to 140-190F)
4. Apply the epoxy coating all bare steel (if this line were FBE coated, you would apply epoxy to the FBE as well)
5. Wrap main DIRAX sleeve and secure closure using torch and gloved hand
6. Shrink main DIRAX sleeve
7. Wrap leader strip half on the previously installed DIRAX sleeve and half on the factory applied coating.
8. Secure closure of leader strip
9. Shrink leader strip
10. Use a silicone roller to roll all overlap areas. 
11. Check that adhesive flow is evident, that there are no cold spots and that the DIRAX system is fully conformed to the pipe surface.

Simple!