Owens Corning Introduces SE 2350, A Revolutionary Reinforcement Designed Specifically to Increase Performance in High-Pressure Pipe Applications

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 28, 2005 – At the American Composite Manufacturers Association (ACMA) Show, Owens Corning today introduced SE 2350, a revolutionary single-end Type 30® roving reinforcement for high-pressure pipe applications. Ideal for epoxy-based pipe applications that distribute oil, chemicals and other corrosive materials, SE 2350 offers a 17 percent improvement in burst strength over any competing product, and a host of other industry-leading performance characteristics including:

• A 10 percent increase in cyclical regression (stress) strength.

• A 41 percent increase in manufacturing efficiency and 35 percent reduction in rework costs by addressing critical factors in the process, by providing:

o easy and consistent delivery of glass from its storage creel to the production mandrel

o less frictional resistance and lower fuzz eliminating broken glass strands that result in defects and scrap

o low, stable tension in the glass strand to maintain uniformity in pipe construction, resulting in less work stoppage to adjust tension

o faster “wet-out”, a critical step in the manufacturing process

• Due to improved burst strength, the opportunity to reduce pipe thickness by 10 percent – resulting in cost savings of as much as 10 percent.

“We didn’t set out to create a product that was just incrementally better than current technology, we set out to continue our 66-year history of glass fiber innovation and create a product that absolutely transforms this market and sets a new benchmark for the industry – and SE 2350 does that,” said Wisdom Dzotsi, global Type 30 product manager for Owens Corning, adding that in developing the product, engineers created over nine tons of sample material and more than 2,500 feet of pipe, and ran over 600 cyclical regression and 4,000 tensile tests.

“After several decades of limited penetration in the oil, gas and chemicals process industry, with high steel costs and high oil and gas prices driving increased sector activity, we’re poised for a growth rate of composites in piping applications of more than twice that of general industry,” added Dzotsi. “And with SE 2350, our customers can take full advantage of that growth profitably, with less scrap, increased production speed and volume, and less maintenance and rework costs.”

Already, customers agree. In testing, SE 2350 is meeting marketplace and product demands for leading epoxy pipe producer Fiber Glass Systems.

“We produce pipe that ends up transporting chemicals and gasoline in places all over the world, so needless to say the pipe needs to be able to withstand extremely demanding conditions, and because of the fragile ecology in many areas, we can’t afford failures. We needed a solution that could help us confidently produce pipe for these requirements,” said Jerry Givens, Vice President – Quality and Process Engineering at Fiber Glass Systems, a leading producer of epoxy pipe. “Owens Corning provided the solution with the SE 2350 glass-fiber reinforcement. The added bonus is that it has characteristics that make the manufacturing process smoother and improve the ultimate quality of our product.”

SE 2350 will be manufactured in Amarillo, Texas, and available globally in various sizes. Production in other regions will be considered as customer demand increases in the market.