Dow's reputation as a science and technology leader is partially founded on its ability to offer customers a legion of "experts with answers" in addition to its broad portfolio of high performance products. 

 "Many customers are surprised to learn that we have the capability to make pipe in our own facilities and conduct an extensive battery of tests to help customers optimize their resin selection for specific applications," said Gerd Kriese, a 20-year Dow veteran and one of the dedicated technicians working in the company's pipes laboratory at Horgen.

At its European headquarters in Horgen, Switzerland, Dow has assembled an impressive range of pipe installations and analytical capabilities, operated by highly experienced pipe technicians. The facilities and services available to European customers include:

• A commercial scale pipe extruder, with the ability to make pipes ranging in diameter from 20mm to 110mm.
• A pilot steel pipe coating plant.
• Hoop stress test facilities.
• Specialized microscopes and testing equipment for FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) and ESCR (environmental stress crack resistance).

On a day-to-day basis, we are helping customers with analytics from melt flow index measurements and density calculations all the way through to near commercial-scale pipe fabrication," said Edelgart Runkel, a nine-year member of Dow's team of dedicated pipe laboratory technicians. "What we offer is extremely valuable to our customers, since many of them just don't have the resources to operate similar laboratories or installations.