A study conducted jointly by the German chemical industry association VCI and the German economic research institute Prognos has shown that worldwide demand for chemical products will continue to increase up to 2030, as population growth, rising life expectancy, demographic change and rising incomes will result in increasing demand for consumer goods and health services. And the health economy and consumer goods manufacturers are among the chemical industry’s customers.
Extreme environmental conditions
Pumps and pipe systems ensure transportation of substances within a chemical plant. The same can be said for hoses, which are just as essential, providing flexible conveyance connections for the purpose of filling and emptying IBCs, containers, tanker trucks and tanker ships in the chemical, pharmaceutical and oil industries. There is a great deal that they need to withstand, such as aggressive and critical media, high temperatures and pressure, and they need to be able to do this under extreme conditions not found in many other sectors.
This is why the hoses are required to comply with numerous standards and directives. Hose lines, for example, that are operated with liquids whose gases can form potentially explosive mixtures or that are used in potentially explosive zones, are subject to European and international regulations to ensure their safe construction. This is because hose lines can gain an electrostatic charge from the media flowing through them and/or if hoses are dragged across the ground. The charge can reach such high energy levels that sparks are generated, such as upon coupling of the hose line, and these sparks are capable of igniting an explosive mixture. In order to prevent such a dangerous situation, it must be possible to safely discharge an electrical charge that has formed on the internal surface of the hose through the hose wall in accordance with EN 12115:2011 and IEC 60079-32-1:2011.
Continental has successfully solved the conflicting objectives of achieving resistance to oil and resistance to high steam temperatures to combine them in a single highly flexible product. The newly developed oil- resistant cover makes this Continental-branded hose ideal for any application where external oil contamination used to result in the premature failure of steam hoses.