Beginning in 2013, the FBC™ System Compatible Program from Lubrizol Advanced Materials, Inc. (“Lubrizol”) is being modified. Products that are not used in the installation process and/or are not designed or manufactured to come into contact with our CPVC products will not be listed on our chemical compatibility program.
Therefore, Lubrizol announced that the FBC System Compatible Program would no longer include cutting oil and antimicrobial coating product categories, both of which are designed for use with metal pipe.
Compatibility requirements for both cutting oils and antimicrobial coatings are addressed in the latest revision cycle of the NFPA 13R and 13 standards. Additionally, FM 1635 has been updated regarding chemical compatibility testing for antimicrobial steel piping combined with plastic piping products.
At the request of many customers, and to ease the period of transition, Lubrizol will continue to include cutting oils on its compatibility list until industry acceptable compatibility testing programs are prepared and adopted (or accepted). Users of these products should pay strict attention to the manufacturer’s recommendations of maintaining and employing only clean uncontaminated cutting oils and also the prohibition of blending dissimilar cutting oil products.
Products that are not listed on our program should not be assumed to be chemically incompatible with our CPVC products. Designers, specifiers and installers should check with the manufacturers of the specific products to determine if the products can be used with CPVC products.
The FBC™ System Compatible Program tests and monitors ancillary products to help determine whether a product is chemically compatible with Lubrizol’s FlowGuard Gold®, BlazeMaster®, and Corzan® CPVC piping systems. Other manufacturers and/or brands of CPVC piping have not been tested as part of the FBC System Compatible Program. The FBC System Compatible program is, therefore, only applicable to the chemical compatibility of ancillary products with the brands of FlowGuard Gold, BlazeMaster, and Corzan CPVC piping systems. This is because every brand of CPVC piping is made up of unique compounds, some of which may contain resins with different molecular weights and varying chlorine content. These characteristics directly impact the performance of the resulting product. Similarly, various CPVC products contain different performance additives. This too affects the performance characteristics of the ancillary product. For these reasons, Lubrizol bears no liability for any failures occurring as a result of using products in the FBC System Compatible Program with CPVC products other than FlowGuard Gold, BlazeMaster, and Corzan.
