State-of-the art welding techniques will speed up the construction of gas pipelines
Published by Lydia Woellwarth,
Editor
World Pipelines,
Automation, faster welding and lower consumption of additional material are the main advantages of the new welding technique approved by GAZ-SYSTEM. The Company used it for the first time during the construction of the Strachocina-Podgórska Wola gas pipeline.
Welding using the technology by CRC Evans is carried out automatically by six welding heads placed inside the pipe being welded plus by four external heads. The automatism of that method allows for high repeatability of the quality of the welds. The additional benefit is the speed of work. One weld on a DN 1000 pipe is completed about three times faster than in case of use of the old methods, said Andrzej Fedor, the Manager of the technical department of GAZ-SYSTEM Branch in Tarnów. Additionally, the technology by CRC Evans uses special bevelling, which reduces four times the consumption of the additional material necessary for welding comparing to standard bevelling.
The approval of the method, i.e. its acceptance by GAZ-SYSTEM, takes place in several stages. The most important one is making welds in precisely specified conditions and the control of their quality in a laboratory. The first stage was completed in May 2018 with the presence of the representatives of the technical department of GAZ-SYSTEM, the Technical Supervision Office, the team of CRC Evans, the investor’s supervision team and the contractors of building works on the Strachocina-Pogórska Wola gas pipeline. The approval of the 135 method technology of pipe coupling 1016 mm OD with wall thickness 22.2 mm took place at the Dutch seat of CRC Evans. The destructive and non-destructive tests of the welds were performed in June at Palab laboratory accredited by the Polish Centre for Accreditation and the Technical Supervision Office. The tests confirmed the correctness of welds, and the contractor of the building works has recommended the use of the method developed by CRC Evans during the construction of the Strachocina-Pogórska Wola gas pipeline.
The Strachocina-Pogórska Wola gas pipeline with diameter DN 1000 and working pressure 8.4 MPa will be located in Subcarpathian and Lesser Poland Voivodeships. Its completion will improve the technical conditions and the security of gas transport in the area of south-western Poland, said Artur Zawartko, the Vice President of GAZ-SYSTEM. It will also enable the transport of gas to Subcarpathia and Slovakia using planned inter-system Poland - Slovakia connection, as well as towards Ukraine, i.e. in the direction opposite to the current one. Gas will also be transported westwards, directly from the Underground Gas Storage Facility in Strachocin.
Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/16072018/state-of-the-art-welding-techniques-will-speed-up-the-construction-of-gas-pipelines/
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