What is UHMWPE?

14 Jul.,2025

 

What is UHMWPE?

UHMWPE Slurry pipe

What is UHMWPE?

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Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) is a linear polyethylene with molecular weight of over2.5X 10^6 g/mol, which is approximately ten times that of high density polyethylene resins (HDPE). The extremely high molecular weight of this resin offers superior performance of UHMWPE to any other thermal engineering plastic.

Uhmwpe Pipe can be used as slurry pipe, mine tailing pipe, Dredge Pipe, wear resistance pipe, mine tailing slurry pipe, sand and mud slurry pipe, coal mine pipe.

Advantage of UHMWPE pipe

• ultra high wear resistance

• ultra impact resistance

• ultra corrosion resistance

• excellent self-lubrication

• non-scaling

• long life-span

• easy installation

• cost effective

Features

UHMWPE mining pipe

DRAGON, started in , with 24 UHMWPE pipe production lines, overcame the difficulty of extrusion UHMWPE through improvement of equipment, formulation design, cooling system and technical parameters to achieve the continuous extrusion of UHMWPE pipe from DN30 to DN with molecular weight of 2.5 million to 9.2 million

Properties of UHMWPE pipe for mining

• High Wear Resistance
UHMWPE has the best wear resistant among all the engineering plastics. The higher molecular weight of the material is the more wear resistant of the UHMWPE pipeis. uhmwpe pipes are 4 to 7 times more wear resistant than PE 100 or Q235 carbon steel, 2.7times of SiMn 13 steel.Thus offers UHMWPE pipe longer life, less maintenance cost and downtime loss.

• High impact strength, flexible and light
The impact resistance of UHMWPE pipes is 5 times that of HDPE Pipe, 2 times that of PC pipe and 10 times that of PTFE pipes.
It means easy installation and less installation cost

• Extremely smooth/ Non scaling / less pumping cost
UHMWPE pipes have very smooth surfaces with low friction loss and high flow rate.
Surface g roughness of UHMWPE pipe is 0.mm, which provides UHMWPE Pipe far superior anti-scaling properties to any other pipeline on the market today. It saved maintenance cost of acid cleaning pipes.

UHMWPE has a friction coefficient of 0.05, compared to 0.28 for HDPE or 0.58 for Steel (ISO). Along with the benefits mentioned above, UHMWPE Pipes also offer significant cost savings through increased pumping efficiency.
It means less friction loss, less pressure loss and greatly reduced energy inputs.

• High corrosion resistance
For its saturated molecular structure, it has high chemical stability, resistance to all kinds of corrosive medium (acid, alkali, salt) and organic solvent. It will offer longer life than other pipelines in acid or corrosive applications.

• Working temperature
 -269 Degrees C to 85 degrees C.

• Environmental friendly

• UHMWPE is colorless, odorless and non-toxic. UHMWPE pipe is extruded out from pure virgin UHMWPE unless some additives required by clients.

Application

UHMWPE Slurry pipe applications

Mine Industrial: mineral mud conveying, high pressure water supply, gas supply pipeline underground coal mine.

Electric Power System: fly ash conveying of power plant, chemical water cycle and sulfur removal system.

Coal Mine Industry: coal powder/ pulverized coal,coal water slurry transportion, mine air supply, ventilation and drainage systems , and the desulphurization system

Chemical Industry: transmission of high corrosive medium, like strong acid, strong alkali, etc and conveying of bittern, salt slurry, crude salt of salt chemical 

Oil exploitation:transportation of crude oil and Natural Gas, waste water reinjection

Metallurgy Industry: conveying of coke powder, mineral powder, pulp and oil refining slag   

Dredging Projects: dredging work, sediment transportation of the river, lake, sea port, wharf, etc 

Marine Engineering: conveying of seawater, fresh water in desalination process

Study on Preparation of Ultra-High-Molecular-Weight Polyethylene Pipe of Good Thermal-Mechanical Properties Modified with Organo-Montmorillonite by Screw Extrusion

Firstly, the thermal and mechanical properties of pure UHMWPE pipe were tested and are shown in . The equipment and methods used to determine the properties in were the same as those used to characterize OMMT-modified UHMWPE pipe in Section 2.4. Then, during our experiments and tests, the effects of the addition amounts of filler, compatibilizer, and coupling agent on the thermal and mechanical properties of OMMT-modified UHMWPE pipe were studied.

3.1. Addition Amount of OMMT

In order to study the effect of the addition amounts of the filler OMMT on the thermal and mechanical properties of UHMWPE pipe, OMMT-modified UHMWPE pipes were prepared using different addition amounts of OMMT. The other additives in are the processing aids calcium stearate and zinc stearate.

Table 3

No.OMMT.588.HDPE-g-MAHUHMWPE..HDPEOther AdditivesOpen in a separate window

As shown in , the Vicat softening temperature, thermal deformation temperature, and Shore hardness show the same trend and increase with an increasing amount of OMMT for wOMMT ≤ 8%. When the nano-filler OMMT is introduced, it disperses in the matrix of UHMWPE/HDPE. With an increasing amount of OMMT, more polymer macromolecules should be adsorbed on the surface of the nano-filler OMMT. As a result, UHMWPE/HDPE entanglements will be strengthened. The strengthened entanglements will enhance the intermolecular forces and the rigidity of the OMMT-modified UHMWPE. According to its testing principle, the Vicat softening temperature can be regarded as the hardness of materials under heating conditions, i.e., the rigidity of materials. Therefore, the Vicat softening temperature increases with an increasing amount of OMMT for wOMMT ≤ 8%. When the OMMT-modified UHMWPE is heated, OMMT around the molecular chains of UHMWPE/HDPE plays the role of a physical cross-link, which limits the thermal motion of UHMWPE/HDPE molecular chains. Therefore, the thermal deformation temperature increases with increasing amounts of OMMT for wOMMT ≤ 8%. Moreover, with the filling of OMMT, the OMMT-modified UHMWPE is denser in molecular chain distribution, more complex in space structure, and more difficult to invade than the matrix UHMWPE/HDPE. Therefore, the Shore hardness increases with increasing amounts of OMMT for wOMMT ≤ 8%.

In , it can also be seen that the Vicat softening temperature, thermal deformation temperature, and Shore hardness first increase, reach their maximums at wOMMT = 8%, and then decrease. Therefore, a reasonable addition amount of OMMT is 8%. At wOMMT = 8%, the Vicat softening temperature, thermal deformation temperature, and Shore hardness are 135.2 °C, 133.1 °C, and 90 HD, respectively.

To study the deterioration of the Vicat softening temperature, thermal deformation temperature, and Shore hardness, SEM micrographs of the fracture surfaces at wOMMT = 5%, 8%, and 10% were compared, as shown in . The SEM micrographs show that no or slight aggregation of OMMT is found at wOMMT = 5% and 8%, while aggregation of OMMT is found at wOMMT = 10%. At wOMMT = 8%, OMMT disperses uniformly in the matrix UHMWPE/HDPE without aggregation; however, excessive amounts of OMMT give rise to aggregation, which can be a material defect and weaken the thermal and mechanical properties of OMMT-modified UHMWPE. In , the Vicat softening temperature, thermal deformation temperature, and Shore hardness decrease with increasing amounts of OMMT for wOMMT > 8%.

In addition, shows the DSC curves of the OMMT-modified UHMWPE at wOMMT = 5%, 8%, and 10%. The melting enthalpy (ΔH) and melting point (Tm) of the OMMT-modified UHMWPE, which can be obtained from the DSC curves, are also shown on the left and right sides in , respectively. With ΔH and the melting enthalpy of fully crystallized UHMWPE (ΔH0) known, the crystallinity (Xc) of the OMMT-modified UHMWPE can be obtained by the following equation and as shown in a:

Xc=ΔH/(ΔH0×wUHMWPE)×100%

(1)

It is found that the crystallinity of the OMMT-modified UHMWPE first increases, reaches a maximum at wOMMT = 8%, and then decreases with increasing amounts of OMMT. For wOMMT ≤ 8%, the addition of OMMT gives rise to the heterogeneous nucleation crystallization of UHMWPE/HDPE, which increases the crystallinity and the melting point of OMMT-modified UHMWPE; however, for wOMMT > 8%, an excessive amount of OMMT results in aggregation, which will weaken the effect of the heterogeneous nucleation crystallization of UHMWPE/HDPE. It is also found that the bending and tensile strengths of the OMMT-modified UHMWPE have the same trend as the crystallinity (refer to b,c) with an increasing amount of OMMT. At wOMMT = 8%, the crystallinity, bending strength, and tensile strength are 63%, 39.8 MPa, and 25.1 MPa, respectively.

To better understand the changes in the bending and tensile strengths, small-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) curves of OMMT and OMMT-modified UHMWPE (wOMMT = 8%) were compared, as shown in . It can be seen that the diffraction peaks of OMMT at the crystal (001) for OMMT and OMMT-modified UHMWPE (wOMMT = 8%) occur at 2θ = 3.314 and 2.538 deg, respectively. Then, the layer distances can be obtained by the Bragg equation:

2dsinθ=nλ

(2)

and the calculated layer distances for OMMT and OMMT-modified UHMWPE (wOMMT = 8%) are 2.663 and 3.477 nm, respectively.

Compared with that of OMMT, the diffraction peak for the crystal (001) of the OMMT-modified UHMWPE (wOMMT = 8%) moves to a smaller angle, which indicates that the molecular chains of UHMWPE/HDPE enter the lamellar structure of OMMT. With more molecular chains of UHMWPE/HDPE entering the lamellar structure of OMMT, the OMMT-lamellar-coated molecule chains of UHMWPE/HDPE are able to sustain larger bending loads. In addition, under tension loads, the molecular chains of UHMWPE/HDPE in the lamellar structure of OMMT extend along the lamellar structure, which gives rise to a uniform distribution of tensile stress. As a result, both the bending and tensile strengths of the OMMT-modified UHMWPE increase with an increasing amount of OMMT for wOMMT ≤ 8%. However, for wOMMT > 8%, an excessive amount of OMMT induces aggregation, which will be a material defect and weaken the effect of OMMT-lamellar-coated molecular chains.

Ultra-high Molecular Weight Polyethylene Pipe (UHMWPE) Market Size, Growth, Forecast –

Market Overview and Report Coverage

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) pipe is a type of plastic pipe made from ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene material. It has excellent abrasion resistance, low friction properties, impact resistance, and high tensile strength, making it ideal for demanding applications in various industries such as mining, oil and gas, water and wastewater, and chemical processing.

The UHMWPE pipe market is expected to witness significant growth in the coming years. The increasing demand for lightweight and durable pipes in industries such as oil and gas exploration, mining, and water transport is driving the market growth. UHMWPE pipes offer numerous advantages over traditional materials like steel and concrete, including extended lifespan, lower installation costs, and improved flow rates.

Moreover, the rising focus on infrastructure development, particularly in developing economies, is fueling the demand for UHMWPE pipes. These pipes are widely used in industries such as water and wastewater management to transport fluids efficiently and safely.

Additionally, the growing awareness about environmental sustainability and the need for cost-effective solutions is bolstering the market growth. UHMWPE pipes are recyclable and have a low carbon footprint, making them a preferred choice for eco-conscious industries.

Despite the positive outlook, the UHMWPE pipe market faces challenges such as high manufacturing costs compared to conventional pipes and fluctuations in raw material prices. However, technological advancements in production processes and increasing investments in R&D are expected to overcome these challenges and drive market growth.

In conclusion, the UHMWPE pipe market is projected to grow at a CAGR of % during the forecasted period. The increasing demand for lightweight, durable, and cost-effective pipes in various industries, along with the focus on sustainable infrastructure development, is expected to drive market growth in the coming years.

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Market Segmentation

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The Ultra-high Molecular Weight Polyethylene Pipe (UHMWPE) Market Analysis by types is segmented into:

Low Range

Medium Range

High Range

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) pipe is categorized into three market types based on their range: low range, medium range, and high range. The low range market typically consists of UHMWPE pipes with lower molecular weights and simpler structures, suitable for applications with moderate requirements. The medium range market involves UHMWPE pipes with increased molecular weights, offering enhanced strength and durability for a broader range of industrial applications. Finally, the high range market includes UHMWPE pipes with the highest molecular weights, designed for heavy-duty and high-performance applications that demand exceptional strength and resistance to wear and impact.

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The Ultra-high Molecular Weight Polyethylene Pipe (UHMWPE) Market Industry Research by Application is segmented into:

Metallurgy & Mining

Petroleum Chemical

Ocean Engineering

Food & Beverages

Others

The Ultra-high Molecular Weight Polyethylene Pipe (UHMWPE) market finds application in various industries including metallurgy & mining, petroleum chemical, ocean engineering, food & beverages, and others. In the metallurgy & mining industry, these pipes are used for transporting abrasive slurries, mine tailings, and corrosive chemicals. In the petroleum chemical sector, UHMWPE pipes are utilized for transferring acids, alkalis, and other corrosive fluids. The ocean engineering domain utilizes these pipes for underwater pipelines and offshore structures. In the food & beverages industry, UHMWPE pipes are preferred for food processing and handling.

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In terms of Region, the Ultra-high Molecular Weight Polyethylene Pipe (UHMWPE) Market Players available by Region are:

North America:

United States

Canada

Europe:

Germany

France

U.K.

Italy

Russia

Asia-Pacific:

China

Japan

South Korea

India

Australia

China Taiwan

Indonesia

Thailand

Malaysia

Latin America:

Mexico

Brazil

Argentina Korea

Colombia

Middle East & Africa:

Turkey

Saudi

Arabia

UAE

Korea

What are the Emerging Trends in the Global Ultra-high Molecular Weight Polyethylene Pipe (UHMWPE) market?

The global ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene pipe (UHMWPE) market is witnessing several emerging trends. One such trend is the increasing demand for UHMWPE pipes in the oil and gas industry, due to their excellent corrosion resistance, high wear resistance, and significant reduction in maintenance costs. Another trend is the rising adoption of UHMWPE pipes in the mining sector for slurry transportation, as they provide superior abrasion resistance and prolonged service life. Additionally, the market is experiencing a surge in the use of UHMWPE pipes in the water and wastewater treatment industry, driven by their exceptional chemical resistance and leak-proof nature.

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Major Market Players

Celanese is a leading producer of UHMWPE and has a strong presence in the global market. The company has a rich history in the chemical industry, dating back to its founding in . Over the years, Celanese has expanded its product portfolio and established itself as a key player in the UHMWPE market. The company has a global presence and operates in various industries, including automotive, consumer goods, industrial, and medical.

LyondellBasell is another major player in the UHMWPE market. The company was formed through a merger between Lyondell and Basell in . LyondellBasell has a diverse product portfolio, including UHMWPE, which is used in applications such as pipelines, tanks, and linings. The company has a global footprint, with manufacturing facilities and offices in various countries.

Asahi Kasei Corporation is a Japanese chemical company that has been operating since . The company produces UHMWPE under its brand name, “Thornathane.” Asahi Kasei has a strong presence in the UHMWPE market and is known for its high-quality products and advanced manufacturing processes. The company serves a wide range of industries, including automotive, electronics, and healthcare.

While specific sales revenue figures for these companies are proprietary information not readily available to the public, their market growth and size can be gauged by their significant presence in the UHMWPE market and their continued investments in research and development, as well as expansion of manufacturing capacities.

UHMW-PE - Piedmont Plastics

UHMW at Piedmont Plastics

Virgin UHMW, also known as UHMW-PE (ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene), is a tough and durable plastic used in a wide range of industries. This high-performance thermoplastic is especially popular in food and beverage processing, bottling and canning, conveying systems, material handling, and packaging. As a machinable material, UHMW plastic is versatile, easy to work with, and offers long-lasting performance, even in demanding environments.

Available in plastic rod, plastic sheet, and plastic tube form, UHMW outperforms traditional materials like metal, wood, and nylon when it comes to abrasion resistance and impact strength. Its slick surface and low coefficient of friction help reduce equipment wear, lower energy use, and minimize maintenance costs. UHMW sheet can also handle extreme temperatures from as low as -22°F (-30°C) up to 180°F (82°C) without losing its physical properties.

Thanks to its natural lubricity and resistance to moisture, UHMW is ideal for industrial applications such as conveyor wear strips, truck bed liners, star wheels, valves, and food service components. It's also FDA and USDA compliant, making it safe for use in food-related environments.

As a trusted plastic supplier and plastic sheet distributor, Piedmont Plastics offers a wide selection of UHMW plastic in various sizes, thicknesses, and colors. We also provide custom cut-to-size services to meet your specific needs.

Need help choosing the right UHMW sheet, rod, or tube? Contact Piedmont Plastics today for expert guidance and industrial plastic solutions that work!

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