Primus Line technology has been available in Australia since 2014, backed by local stock and a wide network of trained and certified installation supervisors.
To date, approximately 80 projects have been completed across Australia and New Zealand, with over 25,000 metres of liner installed.
The longest single-shot installation in the region reached 1.4 kilometres in one continuous pull — a major feat still unmatched by many rehabilitation technologies.
Projects have covered a wide range of applications and clients, including the rehabilitation of a vertical pipe for Sydney Water and a 3-in-1 project with Hunter Water – the first of its kind in Australia – as well as installations for Rio Tinto.
When the Primus Line technology was launched over 25 years ago, there was no global standard to which this new product could conform. No category existed to classify this innovation.
As a complete unit, the self-supporting, three-layered liner with its specifically designed connectors uniquely and independently adopts the full operating pressure without relying on the host pipe.
For a flexible pipe, this was genuinely unprecedented. From the outset, the inventor and manufacturer, Rädlinger Primus Line, was determined to produce a premium product that would meet the highest quality standards.
From the very first installation, this commitment meant one thing above all else: deployment would only occur after adequate testing.
A new product in a world of mismatched standards
An American consultant and engineer once summarised the early challenge plainly: “Solutions like flexible fabric-reinforced pipes were often misclassified or lumped into standards that didn’t really fit.”
In contrast to resin-cured liners, the Primus Line system consists of a flexible plastic pipe reinforced with aramid fibres and specially designed connectors.
Installation is carried out without bonding to the host pipe, offering fast and minimally invasive rehabilitation for pressure pipelines. The host pipe merely serves as an installation duct.
Because no standard adequately described this type of product, Rädlinger Primus Line did not wait for regulation to catch up.
The German company took an active role in shaping the testing frameworks and standards that the industry needed.
As early as 2004, Rädlinger Primus Line, in cooperation with the DVGW (German Association of the Gas and Water Industry), established a testing basis in the form of VP 643: a technical regulation for ‘flexible, fabric-reinforced plastic inliners and associated connectors for gas pipelines with operating pressures above 16bar’.
This was the first step towards specific liner testing regulations, and it reflected the company’s founding principle: the Primus Line system would only be installed where the performance data existed to back it up.
That principle has guided the company’s testing program ever since.
Today, the Primus Line system – liner and connectors as an integrated unit – is supported by a comprehensive body of independently verified test data.
The friction coefficient of the Primus Line system has been independently verified through a dedicated testing program at a German university, rather than relying on published reference values.
All test results, certificates and approvals – including those for drinking water applications – are available to customers.
The system currently holds 16 hygiene certifications worldwide, including AS/NZS 4020 for Australia and New Zealand.
Global standards recognition: decades in the making
The testing work that Rädlinger Primus Line has conducted over 25 years has increasingly been reflected in formal international standardisation.
In 2018, trenchless rehabilitation methods using ’lining with a circular woven reinforced textile’ were formally included in the updated edition of DIN EN ISO 11295 ‘Classification and information on design and applications of plastics piping systems used for renovation and replacement’ – the key reference work for professionals designing and applying trenchless technologies.
Since this edition, ‘Lining with inserted hoses’ has its own dedicated chapter. Most recently, the US standard ASTM F3708, ‘Standard Specification for Aramid Fiber Reinforced Flexible Fabric-Reinforced Pipe (FFRP) for Loose-fit Non-Interactive Pressure Pipeline Rehabilitation’, was published in July 2025.
This standard formally defines the category of flexible, factory-manufactured, aramid fibre-reinforced pipe liners for non-bonded, loose-fit installation in pressure pipe rehabilitation.
Like other ASTM standards, it is already recognised beyond the United States.
The Primus Line testing program also adheres to API SPEC 15S for the oil and gas industry, and to UBA-BWGL in Germany for potable water applications.
For over 25 years and in more than 60 countries, the German-made Primus Line system has been deployed in applications spanning oil, gas, potable water, wastewater, brine, diesel and jet fuel.
In each case, the prerequisite has always been the same: adequate, independently verified test data must exist before an installation can proceed.
This standard has never been relaxed.
Whether described as ‘lining with inserted hoses’ in Europe or ‘flexible fabric-reinforced pipes’ in the United States, products like Primus Line are gaining formal recognition thanks to the introduction of standards that were absent for much of the technology’s history.
For municipalities, utilities and engineers evaluating alternatives to traditional cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) and conventional sliplining, this recognition is important: it means independent verification, comparable specifications and clear accountability.
Rädlinger Primus Line remains committed to participating in these regulatory and educational processes.
The standards that now exist for aramid-reinforced pressure pipe relining are, to a large extent, the result of the company’s efforts over more than two decades.
This commitment to testing, transparency and the highest engineering standards is what the label ‘Engineered and Made in Germany’ is intended to represent.
For more information, visit www.primusline.com
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