While there is a significant amount of infrastructure development taking place across Africa, often supporting large mining operations, many countries are struggling with poor-quality plastic pipe installations, says technical solutions partner PACT Africa MD Benjamin Cockram.

PACT Africa was established in 2022 with the aim to provide high-quality technical solutions and aftersales support.

“Plastic is the most efficient and reliable material from which to make pipes for water, oil and gas reticulation systems. However, as African countries develop, there is a growing realisation of the real cost of poor-quality plastic pipes and demand for better quality standards to be adhered to.”

Cockram emphasises that entrepreneurs and businesses in Africa need to deal with the business side of things such as market development, sales and distribution.

“They want to buy complete systems and have a knowledgeable partner to manage manufacturing for them and guarantee performance. Most companies don’t have the in-house engineering resources to realise a successful plastic extrusion project, but we have been doing this for 30 years.

“Our aim is to work with companies where quality and efficiency are paramount, and where developing a reputation as a reliable pipe system supplier is seen as critical to long-term success.”

Cockram adds that mines, for example, need quality pipes to prevent unwanted stoppages and production losses, but are often located in remote locations far from pipe producers. However, these operations represent sufficient demand to justify a local pipe plant.

“We are aiming to support this demand with the type of equipment needed to ensure the pipe quality specified by mining engineers.”

Partnering for Peak Performance

PACT Africa has partnered with several global machinery leaders, such as rubber and plastics processing machinery manufacturer KraussMaffei.

“We would not be able to guarantee the quality we boast without KraussMaffei’s extruder technology, which allows the plastic melt to be prepared at the absolute right melt quality to produce quality pipe. This is achieved with a wide, easy process window forgiving of variations in materials,” emphasises Cockram.

He explains that consistently producing an excellent melt in an extruder allows control of the quality of the pipe by ensuring the finest adherence to dimensional tolerance, as well as pipe quality with low wastage.

“The KraussMaffei extruder uses the best screw and barrel technology. As a result, we can achieve good quality melt while maintaining high output and keeping electricity consumption low.”

This is in addition to the longevity of KraussMaffei’s equipment, which operate efficiently for more than 30 years.

Some degree of automation on a production line is also vital.

“Efficiency means using the minimum resources to make the maximum quantity of high-quality product. The degree of automation needed to achieve this is what we aim for. This is as true in Africa as anywhere else in the world,” states Cockram.

Knowing that a production line is only as efficient as its weakest link, PACT Africa only works with partners of global renown for various manufacturing elements such as feeding and dosing, mixing, socket forming, winding and coiling, and cooling.

PACT Africa’s technology allows for the manufacture of the most economical pipe at the required quality, with the company working on PVC foam core pipe projects for low-pressure drain and waste pipes, large-bore PVC pipe for agricultural reticulation for pipes up to 800 mm and projects for gas pipe sizes 200 mm and smaller.

Support that Aids Market Dominance

“Our customers can dominate their markets by producing high-quality, lightweight pipes effectively at the lowest cost price a metre,” boasts Cockram.

While he says demand for plastic pipes for applications in civil, urban, mining and industrial applications goes without saying, the company sees great potential in extruded polystyrene insulation board manufacturing.

“As insulation is overlooked and essential to sustainable development in Africa, we are looking to work with people in this field. The supply of special film and sheeting, such as geomembrane, multi- layer sheet for specific applications like dam linings and roof sheeting, is also critical for the continent’s developmental needs.”

However, the pipe and sheet production industry in much of Africa depends on government spend, and political instability has a negative effect on the industry.

“Instability leads to short-term thinking, which equates to investment in poor-quality materials and machinery that results in inferior outcomes. This is disastrous. We aim to work with the companies that plan long term and are agile enough to navigate these challenges and weather these storms. It is an extremely challenging environment, but some companies are leading the way,” advances Cockram.

PACT Africa exists to provide technical support, including planning and project realisation, process development and after-sales support.

“We are a technical partner for African companies in the true sense of the word,” concludes Cockram.