HSS - Heat Shrinking Sleeves

Heat-shrinkable means just that, heat them up and they shrink. It starts out with a thick extruded poly olefin sheet (polyethylene or polypropylene) that is formulated to be cross-linkable. This improves the molecular structure such that the polyolefin will work as part of a heat-shrinkable sleeve and provide the required level of mechanical protection while in-service. It makes the polyolefin perform more like a tough, heat-resistant and elastic material.

Heat-shrinkable sleeves are applied onto the cutback at the field weld or "field joint" during the construction of a pipeline. The heat-shrinkable sleeves have an adhesive that sticks the sleeve to the cutback and the factory applied mainline coating and also acts as a corrosion protective layer. The backing provides mechanical protection against abrasion and soil stress forces after the pipeline is buried.