Seattle, WA, USA--(Jobwerx News)--Fortron® PPS Provides Strength, Low Creep, Hydrolysis Resistance in Water Meter Housing. Fortron linear polyphenylene sulfide from Ticona is a stable housing material that molds accurately, holds tight tolerances, and has excellent mechanical, thermal and chemical properties.

A new water meter that lets tenants in multi-family houses calculate their water consumption uses a housing made of Fortron linear polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) to gain strength, low creep and long-term hydrolysis resistance. The water meter is produced by AGAWA® in Remsheid, Germany, and is meant to be retrofitted to apartment water lines with minimal visual impact.

Most in-apartment water meters used in Europe have brass housings. AGAWA chose Fortron PPS, which is supplied by Ticona, the engineering polymers business of the Celanese Corporation, over brass to gain the economies inherent in a plastics injection molded part. It also selected linear PPS over branched PPS because of its superior creep strength.

Ticona produces and markets a broad range of engineering polymers. Celanese has 29 production plants with major operations in North America, Europe and Asia. The Company is the #1 or #2 producer of products comprising the majority of its sales and has four major businesses: Chemicals Products, Technical Polymers Ticona, Acetate Products and Performance Products.

Retrofitting meters on apartment water lines is usually a costly, complex and intrusive process. “We wanted to develop a visually acceptable, flush-mounted installation that could be easily and inexpensively fitted by a plumber in about an hour,” says Bernd Sonje of AGAWA. “We also needed a dimensionally stable housing material that molds accurately, holds tight tolerances in use, and has excellent mechanical, thermal and chemical properties. After we found that glass-fiber-reinforced Fortron PPS met these criteria, our design office worked closely with Ticona to deliver the results we needed.”

Water Meter Housing - Fortron® polyphenylene sulfide provides the strength and resistance to creep and hydrolysis needed in the housing and divider plate (dark components) of a water meter cabinet made by AGAWA. The unit is designed to be retrofitted on residential water lines.

The water meter cabinet has three injection molded PPS elements: top and bottom halves that are screwed together and an internal divider plate that directs water into a flow meter screwed on top of the housing. The housing, which measures 75 by 85 mm in cross section and 110 mm in length, comes in models with openings for 15 to 28 mm water lines. The housing attaches to a water line within a wall, and the meter projects outside the wall so it can be read. A gasket added after molding forms a seal with the line.

“Fortron PPS is easy and economical to mold and, unlike metal, needs no secondary finishing steps,” says Wolfgang Wieth business program manager of Ticona. “This high-performance plastic is an ideal replacement for metals because is hard and rigid, has little creep, absorbs almost no water, and offers excellent oxidation and hydrolysis resistance, AGAWA used it for the pressure- and strength-relevant parts of its new water meter.”

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For information on Fortron PPS, contact: Ticona, 8040 Dixie Highway Florence, KY 41042, USA. Phone: 1-800-833-4882. Email: prodinfo@ticona.com. In Europe: Ticona GmbH, Professor-Staudinger-Straße, D-65451 Kelsterbach, Germany. Phone: +49-(0)180-584-2662 (DE) or +49-(0)693-051-6299 (EU).