The questions buyers ask before the first order
Grades, standards, sizing, certification and jointing — grouped by material. Every answer here is the same one our engineering desk gives on a call.
PPR Piping
We are the manufacturer — no agents, no trading desks. Compare our ex-factory quote against any China PPR supplier. If you find a lower genuine factory price for equivalent spec, we match it.
Every batch ships with a material certificate. Third-party SGS or BV lab reports on request. Pre-shipment inspection or send samples to your own lab — we encourage it.
Standard: 3,000–5,000m pipes (mix sizes DN20–DN160), 5,000pcs fittings (mix types). Trial orders with lower quantities available at a small surcharge.
No. Strictly B2B wholesale. No retail, no marketplace, no consumer sales. Your import market stays protected from channel conflict.
Yes. OEM/ODM: custom colors (green, white, grey, blue), private label printing, custom packaging. MOQ applies — ask your sales contact for details.
DIN 8077/8078, ISO 15874, CE, SGS as standard. Regional certs — SASO, SONCAP, NOM — arranged per destination. Tell us your market and we'll confirm.
PPR stands for random copolymer polypropylene (PP-R), a rigid thermoplastic used for hot and cold water plumbing. It is joined by heat fusion rather than glue, which makes leak-free joints, and it is rated for decades of service under pressure. We produce PPR to ISO 15874 and DIN 8077/8078 in DN20–DN160.
It depends on the application. PPR suits hot-water and pressure plumbing with heat-fused joints that don't leak; PVC suits cold-water supply and drainage; PEX suits flexible retrofits. We manufacture all three, so we recommend the right system for your market instead of pushing one line.
Pricing is ex-factory and moves with the size mix, PN class, and volume, so we quote per order rather than publish a fixed list. Send your product list and we return a full itemized price list within 24 hours — no obligation.
Lead time depends on order size, customization, and whether the sizes are in stock. We confirm the exact production and shipping schedule with your quotation, and share QC and container-loading updates before dispatch. FCL and LCL are both supported with full export documents.
We export to 120+ countries through any major port your freight forwarder uses, including the main West and East African gateways. We provide full export documentation and customs-clearance support, and arrange regional certificates such as SONCAP (Nigeria), SASO, or NOM on request.
You can audit the factory. IFAN runs a 120,000m² facility in Zhejiang, operating since 1993, with 30+ extrusion lines and an in-house ISO testing lab. Send your QC team or a third-party inspector, request live production video, or verify our business license on China's official company register.
HDPE / PE100 Pipe
The number is the material's minimum required strength (MRS) in bar under ISO 12162. PE80 has an MRS of 8.0 MPa, PE100 has 10.0 MPa. At the same pressure rating PE100 allows a thinner wall, so you get more metres per container and a lower delivered cost per metre.
SDR is the Standard Dimension Ratio — outside diameter divided by wall thickness. A lower SDR means a thicker wall and a higher pressure rating. SDR11 in PE100 gives PN16; SDR17 gives PN10. The same SDR number means different pressures in different PE grades.
ISO 4427 is the international standard for polyethylene pipes and fittings for water supply; EN 12201 is the European equivalent. Gas distribution uses ISO 4437 or EN 1555. Ask any supplier which specific standard their pipe is certified to, not just that it is 'ISO certified'.
Three methods. Butt fusion heats two pipe ends against a plate and presses them together, giving a joint as strong as the pipe wall. Electrofusion uses a fitting with an embedded heating coil, useful in trenches and repairs. Mechanical compression fittings suit small diameters and transitions to other materials.
No. Butt fusion requires matching wall thickness at the joint face, so both pipes must be the same SDR and the same PE grade. Joining different SDRs needs an electrofusion coupler or a mechanical transition fitting.
Fusion creates a monolithic joint with no gasket or solvent seam, which removes the main leak path in buried networks. HDPE is also flexible, so it tolerates ground settlement and seismic movement that can pull rigid PVC joints apart.
It is a classification, not a warranty. Under ISO 9080 the long-term hydrostatic strength of a PE compound is extrapolated from pressure-test data to 50 years at 20 °C. That extrapolated value is what assigns the material to PE80 or PE100 under ISO 12162.
We buy from established international producers — Borealis, Hyosung and LG Chem — rather than on the spot market, and batch documentation is available for each production run. Ask any supplier to name their resin producer and show the batch certificate; it is the one claim you can verify independently.
Standard lead time is 45 days from order confirmation. That is longer than a trading company quoting from stock, because the run is produced to your specification rather than pulled from mixed inventory. Plan procurement around it, or ask us about scheduling repeat orders in advance.
IFAN manufactures and supplies B2B only — distributors, importers, contractors and project procurement. We do not sell single lengths to consumers, which protects the pricing of the distributors who carry our stock.
uPVC Drainage
uPVC is unplasticised PVC — rigid pipe with no plasticiser added, used for drainage and cold pressure lines. 'PVC' in trade usage normally means the same thing. CPVC is chlorinated PVC, which raises the temperature limit to around 90 °C so it can carry hot water where uPVC cannot.
EN 1401 covers buried non-pressure drainage and sewerage, EN 1329 covers soil and waste inside buildings, and ISO 4435 is the international equivalent for buried systems. Always state the standard on the order, because a pipe made to one is not automatically compliant with the other.
SN is ring stiffness in kN/m², and it measures resistance to crushing under soil and traffic load. SN4 is typical for normal burial, SN8 for deeper cover or trafficked ground. Stiffness class is chosen from the burial condition, not from the fluid pressure.
Almost always process, not product. The usual causes are the wrong cement for the diameter, no primer on pressure work, insufficient interference fit, or the joint being disturbed before the cement has set. A correctly made solvent weld fuses the two surfaces into one material.
Not safely. Socket depth and taper tolerances vary between manufacturers even within the same nominal standard, and a marginal fit is what produces a slow leak two years later. Buy pipe, fittings and the matched cement as one schedule from one source.
Both are in use. PVC wins on weight, installation speed, hydraulic smoothness and resistance to sulphide attack, which is the usual failure mode in concrete sewers. Concrete still wins on very large diameters where PVC is not produced.
Yes. IFAN quotes pipe, every fitting shape, and the matched cement and primer as one schedule, which removes the most common site problem — the wrong-material glue being bought locally and used on a system it was not formulated for.
Yes. IFAN ships mixed containers of uPVC drainage pipe, fittings, traps and stacks with per-shipment batch certificates referencing EN 1401, EN 1329 and ISO 4435, so a project bill of materials can be consolidated into one shipment.
Brass Valves
CW617N is the European designation for a hot-forgeable lead-free brass alloy, roughly 57–59 % copper. It is the standard body material for potable-water valves in Europe because it resists dezincification and keeps lead migration within drinking-water limits. Ask any supplier to state the alloy, not just 'brass'.
Forging aligns the grain structure and eliminates the porosity that casting can leave, so a forged body handles pressure cycling and over-torque better. Cast bodies allow more complex shapes at lower tooling cost. IFAN produces both, with cold forging in-house for the forged range.
Brass ball valves run DN8 to DN100 in PN16, PN25 and PN40, with FF, FM, MM and double-union connections, in BSP or NPT threads. Brass gate valves run DN15 to DN50 with BSP or NPT threaded ends. All in lead-free CW617N.
CE, ACS, WRAS, SASO and potable-water approvals, manufactured under ISO 9001. That spread lets a buyer match the approval to the destination market — WRAS for the UK, ACS for France, SASO for Saudi Arabia — instead of hunting for a valve that qualifies after the order is placed.
A ball valve gives quarter-turn on/off with negligible pressure drop when open, and it seals reliably after long periods idle. A gate valve opens gradually, which suits throttling-free isolation on larger bore, but the seat is more prone to sticking if left unused for years.
The brass valve range is stocked year-round with no MOQ and roughly a ten-day lead time, which is different from our made-to-order extrusion lines. That makes it practical to add valves to a pipe order without waiting for a production run.
Yes, and it is usually the cheapest way to buy. IFAN manufactures the brass valves, the PPR and PE pipe and the fittings, so a single mixed container can carry the isolation, the distribution and the connection parts of one system with matching certificates.
Ask for the material certificate stating CW617N and the third-party test report against the drinking-water regulation of your market. An alloy claim without documentation is not verifiable, and lead content is exactly the parameter that customs and water authorities test on arrival.
PEX & PE-RT
The letter names the cross-linking method, not the quality grade. PEX-a is peroxide cross-linked during extrusion and reaches the highest degree of cross-linking with strong thermal memory. PEX-b is silane cross-linked after extrusion. PEX-c is irradiated. All three meet the same pipe standards when correctly made.
PEX-a can be expanded and will return to its original diameter when heated, which is what expansion-fitting systems rely on. It also lets the pipe swell if water freezes inside and recover afterwards, instead of splitting — the main reason PEX-a is specified in cold climates.
IFAN produces PE-RT, PEX and PEX-AL-PEX floor-heating coils in 16, 20, 25 and 32 mm from one factory, supplied in mixed-size containers with certificates per shipment. The matching press and sliding-sleeve fittings come from the same source, so pipe and fitting are dimensionally matched.
PEX-AL-PEX is a multilayer pipe with an aluminium core between two PEX layers. The aluminium gives a full oxygen barrier and lets the pipe hold its shape when bent, so it stays where it is routed. Plain PEX needs clips to hold a bend and needs an EVOH barrier layer for closed heating circuits.
Oxygen diffusing through a bare polymer wall corrodes the steel components in a closed circuit — the boiler heat exchanger, pumps and manifold bodies. A barrier layer, whether aluminium or EVOH, is what keeps that corrosion out of a system that will run for decades.
Yes, where the pipe carries a potable-water approval for your market. The approvals to look for are the ones your inspector recognises — WRAS in the UK, ACS in France, NSF in North America — plus the material certificate showing the compound used.
Expansion fittings suit PEX-a because they exploit its thermal memory: the pipe is expanded, the fitting inserted, and the pipe shrinks back onto it. Crimp and press systems work across PEX types and need no waiting time. Choose the system first, then buy the pipe and fittings that match it.
It is the most common cause of leaking PEX joints. Insert diameters and sleeve tolerances vary between manufacturers even at the same nominal size. IFAN supplies the pipe and the matching press and sliding-sleeve fittings together so the dimensional pairing is guaranteed.
Request a factory-direct quote
Tell us the sizes, pressure class and volume you need. Our engineering desk replies with a specification sheet and FOB pricing — no trading-company markup in between.