Gemcell Australia

The electrical trade owes a lot to plastics and the technology behind them. No-one would want to go back to the days of metal conduit – PVC product performs so much better – yet how often do we stop and think about the companies with scientific and technical resources that deliver such user-friendly products into our hands?

Conduit, ducting and cable cover are so often and so widely used in the electrical field that we tend to take it for granted that they will always perform exactly as we expect them to perform every day. They are light to carry and manipulate, easy to cut, profile and bend yet they are durable and look good in situ. But this does not happen by accident. Craig Johnson from Key Plastics explained that since these (and hundreds more electrical products) made the transformation from old-generation materials into modern plastics, the electrical tradesperson’s job has become progressively easier. But it has taken decades of intensive on-going scientific and technical research, development and field testing of materials and design to ensure that these products perform without fault in usage and endurance, even in harsh Australian conditions.

“When your company’s products are selected for use in major infrastructure projects such as Sydney’s M5 East & M7, Cross City Tunnel and Lane Cove Tunnel, you can safely assume it’s because the products meet all standards, specifications and requirements including environmental criteria for those projects” said Craig. Key Plastics is registered under the Supplier Assessment Accreditation Scheme by Standards Australia, which gives it the status of being authorised by all Australian Authorities and in addition, all Key Plastics factories are Quality Assured.

Key Plastics is a 100% Australian owned company that holds a number of supply contracts with major energy providers and continues to win service awards from its customers. With manufacturing and distribution sites located around Australia Key Plastics today has a truly national presence. The company’s history can be traced back to 1982 when it produced plastic plumbing fittings at its Moorebank site. The company entered the PVC pipe manufacturing field in 1993 with the acquisition of the General Plastics pipe plant at Minto in NSW, then this plant was completely redesigned and new equipment was installed to bring it to world-class manufacturing standards.

In August 1999 the moulding and administration operations were relocated to a new purpose built facility adjacent to the extrusion operation at Minto NSW. Iplex Pipelines purchased Key Plastics in 2001 and in January of 2008 ALM industries was acquired to enhance the Key Plastics range of products in Plumbing, Electrical and Hardware markets.

Expanding on the commitment that Key Plastics is making to environmental sustainability in a number of key areas, Craig explained that Key Plastics is a signatory to the Vinyl Council of Australia PVC Product Stewardship Program. “This includes a number of agreements including commitments to a Waste Management program” said Craig. “As part of this commitment, Key Plastics has established a recycling program in conjunction with the pipe industry group PIPA”.

Iplex/Key Plastics has been instrumental in getting the pipe Standards changed so that recycled PVC can be used without compromising product quality. “Previously there were arbitrary limits on the use of recycled PVC” Craig explained. “We take recycled unplasticised PVC (pipe or other forms) for use in sandwich construction pipes. PVC pipe and/or conduit can act as a net outlet for recycled unplasticised PVC in general. Not only can we take recycled PVC pipe, we can use other recycled PVC that – for a variety of reasons – cannot go into the product of origin and would otherwise become landfill” explained Craig.

Key Plastics is continuing to increase its offering to the electrical market with an ever-expanding product range that includes Rigid PVC conduit in Medium & Heavy Duty and Class 6, Telecommunication & Telstra conduit, Flexible Conduit in Medium & Heavy Duty and Telecommunication from 16mm to 50mm diameter. In addition Key Plastics offers Electrical Ducting with pre punched holes for ease of installation in white and grey and Cable Cover in both roll and slab form with the ability to custom make up to 450mm wide by 200m in length for long run projects such as wind farms.