Brief facts on HDPE pipe

At the very close of the 19th century, a German chemist Hans von Pechmann noted a precipitate while working with a form of methane in ether in the Laboratory. In 1900, German chemists Eugen Bamberger and Friedrich Tschirner identified this compound as polymethylene, a very close cousin to polyethylene.

Thirty years later, a high-density residue was created by an American chemist at Du Pont de Nemours & Company, by subjecting ethylene to a large amount of pressure.

Working with ethylene at high pressures, British chemists Eric Fawcett and Reginald Gibson created a solid form of polyethylene in 1935. Its first commercial application came during World War II, for insulation of radar cables.

In 1953, Karl Ziegler of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and Erhard Holzkamp invented highdensity polyethylene (HDPE). The process included the use of catalysts and low pressure, which is the basis for the formulation of many varieties of polyethylene compounds. Two years later, in 1955, HDPE was produced as a form of pipe.