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SEDAL produces plastic headworks to reduce the brass

SEDAL produces plastic headworks to reduce the use of brass

Our plastic headworks have been produced with high quality technical plastics to approach in robustness, outperform brass in other features and comply with NSF, ACS, WRAS and KTW* health regulations.

At the end of 2021, Joe Biden, President of United States, obtained approval in Congress for the largest infrastructure plan in the United States. It includes an item of 55,000 million dollars for the improvement of the drinking water supply in the country in order to ensure lead-free water for all citizens, a serious problem today in many areas. All this preceded by the approval of the law known as the California Assembly Bill (AB 100) that will come into effect in the same state in January 2023 and that will extend to the rest of the country in January 2024. This new law forces faucets and components to reduce their amount of lead from 3 μg/l to less than 0.25 μg/l.

So much so that one of our largest customers in the United States has changed all its headworks to plastic headworks in order to comply with the new regulations.

On the other hand, Europe has its own regulation on the quality of water intended for human consumption, Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union approved on December 16, 2020. It includes that the WHO recommended that the value of lead in water should be 10 μg/l for 15 years after the date of entry into force of this Directive. As a maximum at the end of said transition period, the parametric value for lead must be 5 μg/l.

Lead can be found in the materials used to make taps and their components, as well as inside the pipes in older homes and buildings. This element is one of those that is present in brass alloys, since it facilitates the shaping and machining of parts. Ingesting this metal in large quantities can cause serious health problems.

30 years of experience in plastic

SEDAL has been producing plastic headworks for nearly a decade, precisely to “adapt to the needs of customers and each of the markets in which it operates. In addition to continuing to develop products that help preserve the environment and people’s health”, says Joan Porquer, Sales and Marketing Director at SEDAL Group.

Thanks to 30 years of experience designing, injecting, and handling plastic parts for the faucet sector, SEDAL has developed a plastic headwork comparable in performance to a brass one. Rafael Bello, Technical Director at Sedal Group, assures that “technical plastics have been selected to be able to guarantee the requirements of the product and meet the highest quality standards. This type of material is used in the most demanding applications due to its high performance, mechanical resistance, resistance to high temperatures and high durability”.

Certain types of plastic in permanent contact with water deteriorate, losing their properties and causing them to fissure and even break. Our technical plastics are characterized by having a very low degree of water absorption, so we ensure that in circumstances in which the product is completely submerged, it does not deteriorate over time or change its geometry. This gives it a higher durability without loss of mechanical properties. In addition, the plastic prevents the deposition of certain particles, such as lime, which favors not blocking the flow of water or causing the faucet to malfunction.

The Project Manager responsible for the production of plastic headworks during these ten years, Sergio Navales, highlights the simplicity of the production process, as well as the reduction of its phases: “The production process of brass it’s much more complex than for plastic. It has to be melted, subjected to the die casting process and then machined”. The simplification of this process provides shorter production times.

Another alternative is the low lead brass headworks, but they add more cost to the product due to the material with which they are produced, in addition to presenting more difficulty in machining. SEDAL also has this option, although the most recommended is to opt for the plastic headwork.

19MCP 90º
19MCP 90º
19MCP 90º LS
19MCP 90º LS
19MCP 180º
19MCP 180º
19MCP 180º LS
19MCP 180º LS

NSF and ACS certified

Likewise, at SEDAL we ensure that all our products meet the highest international quality standards by subjecting them to tests that certify their healthiness and high performance in extreme situations. Our plastic headworks are NSF certified for the United States and ACS, WRAS and KTW certified for Europe. “Having the certifications of different independent laboratories with an international reputation that validate our product with impartial tests is the only way to guarantee the highest quality for our clients,” says Marc Boix, Quality Director at SEDAL Group.

In addition to reducing the amount of lead in the headworks and thus achieving a lead free product, another of the company’s objectives was to decouple the value of copper from that of the headworks. The cost of this type of material varies at times due to its high volatility caused by the fluctuation of the alloy that brass has. The most notable drop since 2005 in copper stocks, the war between Russia and Ukraine, added to the upward trend in brass, and other raw materials, due to the high demand derived from the growth of construction after the pandemic, are the main reasons of the price variations of this raw material.

To receive further information or technical details of this product, please contact your sales manager or send an email to us.

*KTW ready: our plastic headworks and the materials they are produced from meet the standards required for the faucet to meet the German KTW certification.


If you would like to have more information about our cartridges or electronic mixing water systems and talk with our Sales or Technical Department, do not hesitate to contact us at sales@sedal.com. Our team is always happy to help you.

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