HDPE Conduit Types
HDPE conduit products are manufactured in a wide range of colors, lengths, diameters and wall types. These apply not only to the protective conduit but also to innerduct, if present.
HDPE Conduit types include:
-
Outside Plant:
smoothwalltypical conduit that is smooth on the outside and inside
,
ribbedlines running in the longitudinal direction to help prevent the cable from spiraling during installation
,
tracer wireconduit with a copper tracer wire as the locator
,
aerialconduit supplied with supporting strands for aerial crossing
,
Cable-in-Conduit (CIC)pre-installed power or fiber optic cable
,
innerduct (CIC)smaller conduit that partitions the larger conduit
-
Inside Plant:
corrugatedflexible conduit used in Inside Plant applications
(riser/fiber optic conduit in building rise shafts
plenum)rated for use in air handling ceilings and computer room floors
,
innerductsmaller conduit that partitions the larger conduit
Various colors or stripes can be used to identify the network operator or the type of cable used in the conduit such as telecommunications (e.g. orange) and power (e.g. red or black with red stripe).
Conduit Sizes
HDPE conduit standards such as ASTM F2160 specify the dimensions for HDPE conduit. Various sizing systems exist, including IPS types SDR9, SDR11, SDR 13.5, DR 15.5, SCH 40 and SCH 80, "True Sized" and SIDR. For IPS types, wall thickness is described by the Dimension Ratio (DR)average outside diameter divided by the minimum wall thickness which typically ranges from DR 9 to 17 for conduit up to 12" in diameter. The lower the DR number, the thicker the wall, relative to other wall types.