Operating cost reduction of filament wound glass reinforced epoxy pipes by optimization of the oven curing time /

Abstract

There is a great demand of fiberglass pipes in Pakistan. They are manufactured by filament winding technique. There are only three manufacturers (companies) of GRE pipes in Pakistan which are unable to fulfill the complete demand of local market and the consumers go for importing the GRE pipes due to big gap in supply and demand. It is need of the hour to reduce this gap. This study helps to fill this gap by increasing the production rate on economical rates. The purpose was achieved by reducing the curing time and increasing the production rate from 15 pipes to 21 pipes per day through changing hardeners (a chemical used in the epoxy pipe manufacturing). The filament winding experiments were conducted in Sunder Production unit of Bin Tariq (Pvt.) Ltd. It is a well-known manufacturer of fiberglass pipes, fittings, FRP tanks and fiberglass boats located at Sunder Industrial Estate, Lahore. The author is working in the production department of the company. The properties of the pipes prepared with the modified formulation were compared with the conventional pipes. Finally an economic comparison was made and it was shown that the profit margin increased by 8.3 million PKR and sales increased by 22.63 million PKR annum.