‘With regard to Molecor & MoPVC I am glad to provide some initial feedback:   As you know previously we were using MoPVC a few years back very successfully. The manufacturers at the time said they couldn't make it cheap enough so reverted to only manufacturing PE… it was great news when you said that Molecor were in fact producing MoPVC with the new efficient manufacturing technique.   The scheme we are on at Cranbrook is going very well with Molecor. So far we have installed over 2000mtrs (160mm & 110mm) and the feedback from the gangs is extremely good; it is lightweight, needs no special equipment and so machinery is often not required and the previous issues with EF & Butt Fusion (jointing / cooling times) are non-existent with push fit pipe. It’s too early to put an exact figure on the savings but we will before long, however, what I can tell you is that an average 160mm Butt Fusion joint takes anything between 25 & 35 mins per joint if all goes well. Not only is there no equipment to hire / off hire but on average we are taking under a minute to do each push fit joint with Molecor, as you would expect this time saving is beneficial to Kier, the developer and SWW, especially as we are normally the first in and the other utility providers are waiting to follow on from us. From a H&S perspective the material is lightweight so this greatly reduces the usual manual handling, working with machinery issues for our operatives and with the increased speed of installation this means that they are spending less time in the excavations’.

‘… the pipleline began at the very southern end of Poringland. This 1.8km section ran along the main road and had a high density of resident’s driveways along most of it. Following on from the feedback gained in the earlier section cross the field, it was decided that the ease of lay, the low weight and easy handling of MOPVC, would lend itself to this section. The 5.95mtrs pushfit pipes require no mechanical lifting equipment, no large transportation vehicles and no specialist jointing machinery. This also gave the engineers the freedom to excavate, lay and reinstate short sections, thus minimizing the disruption to residents… MOPVC cold bends very well and gives circa 5.6 degrees of bend over a full length of 225mm… The ease of working with the pipe was noted throughout the projec

‘All lay so far has been in carriage with lots of services in the way, but we have found we are o en able to cold bend pipes around other services which is a major benefit over using fittings. The streets are often very narrow here so we are unable to use large trucks or stock material at the side of the road. As we have to double handle everything, one of the big benefits of Molecor is that due to its light weight we can load 8-10 pipes or more at a time at our compound onto our smaller transit truck which would have been impossible with Ductile due to the weight. This is then easy to offload once we get to site, usually in the street with minimal mechanical handling being required, vastly speeding up the whole process. Our operatives really like the pipe and just how easy it is to move around. The cost of the pipe has contributed to a potentially significant saving and we eagerly await the arrival of an anchored system. This would mean Molecor could be the preferred option for many of our projects’.

“Shropshire & Powys water infra R&M working with the STW New Products Group have been successfully trialling a new type of lightweight pipe called Molecor PVC. The pipe which has significant H&S benefits & cost savings for the business it has been used on several jobs, saving in the region of £1K each time in transportation costs of our usual heavier ductile iron pipe. The benefits of Molecor PVC - Improved mechanical aspects of the pipe - Increased impact resistance - Eliminates the risk of crack propagation - Increased long-term service life - Its resistance to internal pressure - Improved water hammer properties Steve France – Team Manager who has been leading the trial said; “Molecor is not like the normal PVC we are used to seeing on the network, its totally unique design and molecular construction means its a lot more hard wearing and less prone to strength reduction. The benefits are clear to see and the teams prefer to use it!””

United Utilities ‘Potential benefits for United Utilities • £21k/annum procurement saving by replacing relevant Amey Ductile Iron / HPE orders with Molecor • A potential 33% procurement saving on other works
• Delivery eficiencies on repair & minor capital works
• Reduction in Lost Time Incidents and Injuries • More reliable network – increased asset lifespans • Reduced carbon footprint in operations’.