From Steel to Poly Pipe
By 2008, HDPE poly pipe had gained wide acceptance across oil and gas, mining, wastewater, power generation and other industrial applications. It was cost effective, corrosion resistant, easy to work with and built to last. We saw an opportunity to take what we had learned about composite reinforcement and apply it to poly pipe.
The idea was simple: could we extend the pressure capabilities of HDPE while preserving the characteristics that made poly pipe so valuable in the first place? We figured it would take our team about two weeks to crack the code.
The Two-Week Project That Took Eight Years
Every step forward revealed another engineering or manufacturing challenge. Our team drew on expertise in chemical, mechanical and civil engineering to solve each one in turn. The persistence paid off.
The result was a patented manufacturing process and a new generation of poly pipe: MaxDR®.
MaxDR combines the characteristics operators value in HDPE with high-strength composite reinforcement engineered to extend poly pipe into higher-pressure applications. Rather than replacing what works about HDPE, we found a way to build on it.
From Innovation to Production
Today, MaxDR is manufactured at our 45,000-square-foot facility in Kilgore, Texas, where customers can tour the plant, see our production capabilities firsthand and learn how MaxDR is manufactured.
What began decades ago as an experiment with composite-wrapped steel pipe has evolved into a patented composite piping technology designed for the demands of modern infrastructure.
And we’re still driven by the same fundamental idea: Use engineering and composite materials to help pipe do more.
The Next Step in the Evolution of Poly Pipe
HDPE changed industrial piping by combining durability, corrosion resistance and fused connections with efficient installation.
MaxDR takes those advantages further.
By reinforcing an HDPE core with high-strength composite materials, Composite Piping Technology extends the operating range of poly pipe while reducing the amount of material required for comparable high-pressure applications. The result is what has driven us from the beginning – A Measurable Difference in Performance and Value™
