ShieldLiner - Trenchless Pipe Lining System
The ShieldLiner System is a new trenchless pipe lining technology being developed by Vortex Pipes Limited. Patents for the ShieldLiner System have been awarded in a number of countries and are pending in a number of others. The ShieldLiner System lines, seals, repairs and reinforces a pipe in one process step by applying a structural textile liner, generally fibreglass in a resin matrix, to bind with the fibreglass liner to form a composite of the old pipe reinforced with the new liner.
- Dry (fibreglass) liner is inverted into pipe with air pressure
- Resin is pumped into resin pool via hoses and ShieldLiner Tool
- Liner is wet out with resin inside pipe
- Resin parts A &B are mixed in ShieldLiner tool and cure at ambient temperature while air pressure is maintained
- Liner is firmly bonded to host pipe
- Cracks and voids are filled with resin
- Host pipe and liner become a single "composite" pipe
- Suitable for pressure pipes
- as Semi-structural liner (i.e. spanning holes and gaps in host pipe)
- as fully structural liner
- Suitable for water pipes (using potable water approved Epoxy resin system)
- No refrigeration and storage life issues as for pre-impregnated liners
- Pressure Chamber eliminates need for inversion towers or large inversion drums
- Tolerant to uneven surfaces (e.g. line over top of deteriorated cement lining in mild steel water pipes)
The Pressure chamber allows to feed the dry liner stored on the sock reel into the pressurised pipe. Alternative lining systems either require to contain the impregnated liner inside a large inversion drum, or require the construction of a water tower to facilitate inversion of the liner into the pipe. With the ShieldLiner pressure chamber, there is no limit to the length of the liner that can be fed into the pipe.
The pipe tool is at the core of the Shieldliner System, it facilitates the mixing of resin, wetout of the liner and controls the speed of the lining process.