Making a stand
Published by Sara Simper,
Editorial Assistant
World Pipelines,
The Proline Pipe Equipment yellow plastic stackable pipe stands, or pipe cones, have been a huge success since their inception by Proline over 25 years ago. The 2 - 8 in. plastic pipe stands handle pipe of various wall thicknesses from 2 - 8 in., the 8 - 12 in. will handle pipe from 8 - to 12 in., and so on. Proline has also designed a star-shaped pipe stand that will accommodate a 12 - 24 in. pipe. Proline’s stand capacity increases as the pipe diameter gets bigger, to match increase in the increased weight. However, just because you’ve invented something to speed up right-of-way placement of the pipe for welding, coating, repair, storage etc., doesn’t mean that you should stop innovating. With that in mind, Proline came out with another version of the popular stackable plastic pipe stands. With our yellow pipe stands being a big hit, we decided to go further with a version for hotter ambient temperatures.
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. While travelling around the country visiting customers, our salesmen saw other plastic pipe stands in the field that looked like they’d seen better days. They were coloured stands; some were black, some were orange, and they seemed to sag under the heat of the sun and weight of the pipe. This can be a concern, especially if someone is lying under the pipe welding. With this predicament in mind, we wondered if Proline could make something better. What we came up with was a new high temperature (HT) stand. More resin was added so the stands were thicker and would have greater strength in hot conditions. However, the weight increase was negligible. It was decided that if these stands were going to be made to withstand hotter climates, then Proline would do something about the colour too. We decided to make them white, since that colour does not attract the heat as much as other stands or pipe cones; they were a huge success in the tropics and countries that sustain heat all year.
In 2019, seeing bigger inch pipelines being built, and contractors asking for something bigger than 24 in., Proline decided to upgrade the size of one stand. With 24 in. the largest plastic pipe stand Proline had, it was decided to investigate moving to a larger size. One stipulation was that we wanted the new size to be the same price as the 24 in. stand, and just as safe. After some designing and a few samples made to test, we moved forward.
Why and how we made these stands
We wanted a new plastic pipe stand to have the same versatility of the regular stands, and something that wouldn’t sag as easily in high heat environments under ideal conditions ...
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Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/equipment-and-safety/08072022/making-a-stand/
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