After London Heathrow Airport and Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, Frankfurt Airport is the third largest airport in Europe.
At a cost of approximately € 500 million, the new departure gate A-West will be constructed at Terminal 1 over the coming years. Along its length of at least 700 m, this new terminal section will offer 7 positions for wide-bodied aircraft, including the Airbus A380. Surface water will be drained from the airport apron in front of the terminal building with the use of POLO-ECO plus PREMIUM SN12.

Exacting requirements
Ultimate precision, quality and operational reliability is required in all airport areas. The same applies to the installation of pipe work. In addition to smaller passenger aircraft, up to four aircraft of the type Airbus A 380, with a wingspan of almost 80 metres and a maximum take-off weight of 560,000 kg can be handled simultaneously on the airport apron of the new departure gate. The resulting demands placed upon construction materials and prefabricated parts are formidable.

On the basis of these exacting requirements the awarding authority opted for POLO-ECO plus PREMIUM SN12 from the company Poloplast when selecting the pipe material. This system represents the trend-setting advancement of the PP 3-layer pipe that has been used successfully in sewer construction since 1998.

Superior performance of the pipe system
The ring stiffness SN 12 of POLO-ECO plus PREMIUM is exceptionally well suited to resist even a static load of this magnitude. Due to the pipe’s 3-layer (ML-multilayer) wall construction encompassing a magnesium silicate-reinforced intermediate layer, the system POLO-ECO plus PREMIUM is able to withstand increased loads at a constant wall thickness.

During the development of POLO-ECO plus PREMIUM particular attention was devoted to achieving high longitudinal stability. A specially developed PP-blend outer layer reduces the thermal absorption rate of POLO-ECO plus PREMIUM and provides the product with optimal axial dimensional stability.

This is a factor that is of utmost importance for the laying of pipes on a shallow incline, specifically at elevated outdoor temperatures.
POLO-ECO plus PREMIUM already demonstrates its strengths during transport and upon deployment at the construction site. The robustness of the PP material and its superior impact strength can withstand enormous demands.

The moulded Top-Connect (TC) socket system facilitates the fast and precise laying of the pipes. Timesaving and safety of installation are a determining factor in demanding construction projects such as the departure gate A-West at Frankfurt Airport.

Together with the long-term impermeability of the system, the high chemical resistance and the excellent abrasion resistance of the inner layer of POLO-ECO plus PREMIUM offer the awarding authority high operational reliability. Smooth inner pipe surfaces prevent scale deposits and incrustations and perfectly maintain the hydraulic flow behaviour.

Ecological criteria
Frankfurt Airport is certified according to EMAS, the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme of the European Union. The airport operator Fraport AG has participated in EMAS since 1999. This was inspected and confirmed again in 2008 by an independent environmental expert.

The environmental policy of FRAPORT AG states that the development and proliferation of environmentally sound technologies must be encouraged through the application of ecological criteria to the selection of products and services.

POLO-ECO plus does not only deliver a convincing performance with regard to installation and operation. The pipe system also bears significant ecological advantages. A study carried out at the Institute for Industrial Ecology confirms this. The study Windsperger/Steinlechner – Ecological Examination of PP ML-pipes 1998 – revealed that the material polypropylene and the mineral-enhanced intermediate layer of POLO-ECO plus demonstrate a significant ecological impact reduction.