
DIREXIONAL
DIREXIONAL Range
Trenchless pipe laying techniques
With the growth of urbanisation, demography and the scarcity of drinking water, project managers have to preserve our natural resources by ensuring that water is transported with the highest possible regard for sanitary conditions and environmental criteria. Trenchless pipe laying is a modern piping technique that addresses these concerns.
Thanks to the exceptional mechanical qualities, anchored joints and special coatings, PAM ductile iron products and systems are ideal for trenchless pipe laying. As an alternative to the traditional method of laying in trenches, these techniques of micro tunneling, pipe bursting or pulling through a casing are ideal for locations where conventional methods of implementation would be difficult, if not impossible.
For example, crossing through dense urban areas, rivers, canals, factories, railway lines, roads, and unstable terrain. When pipes are being laid, the nuisance caused to citizens through the slowing down of road and pedestrian traffic, diversion of traffic, noise and disturbance of local commercial activity has to be limited as much as possible.
Trenchless pipe laying techniques keep the social costs of a project to a minimum.
Pipe laying by micro tunneling
The curved trajectory of micro tunneling makes it possible to pass a pipe under obstacles starting from ground level. This technique involves three distinct steps:
- Creation of a pilot hole using a drilling machine guided from the exterior;
- Boring of the pilot hole; and
- Pipe assembly and pulling of the string of anchored pipes from the downstream well towards the upstream, using the drilling machine.
More than 90,000 linear meters (the equivalent of two Channel Tunnels) of PAM pipes have been laid to date using micro tunneling.


Pipe laying by pipe bursting
Pipe bursting is used to replace one damaged pipeline with another of the same diameter or, often, a slightly larger diameter. The old pipeline can be burst in-situ or removed piece by piece and broken up as it is pushed out of the tunnel. This replacement procedure can only be used for straight sections. An initial diagnosis is required, with a video inspection of the pipeline to be replaced, to ensure that there are no obstacles to impair its extraction or destruction.

Pipe laying by pulling through a casing
Pipe laying through a casing consists of introducing a pipeline intended to transport a fluid (drinking water, waste water, rain water, dry networks, etc.) into a circular sleeve that already exists or is installed specifically for this application. Ductile iron pipelines are perfectly suited for this application since the anchored joints can withstand significant pulling forces while retaining the flexibility offered by elastomer gaskets. This pipe laying method is suitable for specific rehabilitation techniques, for laying new networks that cross a natural obstacle, and for trenchless work.

Special coatings
The coatings in the DIREXIONAL range are made of extruded polyethylene, reinforced polyurethane or cement mortar, and fully address the requirements of trenchless technology. They completely protect the pipes from any impact that might occur during pulling and also improve the way they slide through the ground.

Calculation tools
Saint-Gobain PAM provides two calculation tools to improve project organisation on construction sites:
- Bead position c90to115
- ClassC100toC64
- DN100to300
- Bead position c113to135
- ClassC40
- DN350to600
- Bead position c90to158
- ClassC100toC64
- DN100to700
- Bead position c150to165
- ClassC30
- DN800to1000
- Bead position c95to158
- DN150to700
- Lu5.970
- Bead position c150to165
- DN800to1000
- Lu6.900
- D188to1194
- DN100to1000
- JointUniversal Tis-KtoUniversal Ve
- DN100to1000
- Mass0.700to11.700
- Thickness1.00to1.50
- DN60to300
- Mass0.190to0.670
- DN100to1200
- Mass0.18to3.76
- DN80to700
- L300
- Mass0.297to2.150
- DN150to2000
- L300to600
- Mass-to30.0
- DN80to1600
- Number(10)to5
- TypeAssembling and disassembling wedgestoWedge