SIPA
Lightweight compressed gas cylinders have plastic liners / PET provides high oxygen barrier
 Lightweight compressed gas cylinders with a PET lining (Photo: Sipa) |
Italian bottling company Sipa (Vittorio Veneto; www.sipa.it) has collaborated with pressure vessel specialist Composite Technical Systems (CTS, Chiopris-Viscone, Udine / Italy; www.ctscyl.com) on the development of a range of ultralight high-performance compressed gas cylinders.
Type IV pressure cylinders comprise a plastics liner inside a protective skin made from a continuous carbon fibre-reinforced plastic composite. They differ from Type I, II and III pressure cylinders, which are made partly or completely of metal and weigh significantly more. The new cylinders have a liner that was originally blow moulded in HDPE. However, CTS had identified PET as the ideal material, as it is lighter and gives the liner a barrier to oxygen up to as much as 100 times higher than HDPE.
SIPA’s engineers worked with the CTS team to create a PET liner for the bottles and the two companies cooperated on container development, prototyping, testing and production. Manufacture is now underway on a range of cylinders, with volumes ranging from two to nine litres. The smallest weighs 0.9 kg, and the largest just 4.0 kg – around 30% lighter than a cylinder with an aluminium liner, and five times lighter than steel. They can all withstand a service pressure of 300 bar.
Initial target applications for the cylinders include oxygen breathing tanks for use by fire fighters, scuba diving kits and automobile fuel tanks.
Type IV pressure cylinders comprise a plastics liner inside a protective skin made from a continuous carbon fibre-reinforced plastic composite. They differ from Type I, II and III pressure cylinders, which are made partly or completely of metal and weigh significantly more. The new cylinders have a liner that was originally blow moulded in HDPE. However, CTS had identified PET as the ideal material, as it is lighter and gives the liner a barrier to oxygen up to as much as 100 times higher than HDPE.
SIPA’s engineers worked with the CTS team to create a PET liner for the bottles and the two companies cooperated on container development, prototyping, testing and production. Manufacture is now underway on a range of cylinders, with volumes ranging from two to nine litres. The smallest weighs 0.9 kg, and the largest just 4.0 kg – around 30% lighter than a cylinder with an aluminium liner, and five times lighter than steel. They can all withstand a service pressure of 300 bar.
Initial target applications for the cylinders include oxygen breathing tanks for use by fire fighters, scuba diving kits and automobile fuel tanks.
18.11.2014 Plasteurope.com [229769-0]
Published on 18.11.2014