Welding energy pipes – much more than joining metals

Thanks to its multi-wire submerged arc welding (SAW) facility, OCAS is able to develop welding guidelines for the most demanding applications in the energy sector. All data on steel properties and weldability are recorded to generate detailed product files.

OCAS is in charge to provide a fully documented submerged arc welding catalogue for selected energy pipe products. Priority is being given to heavy gauge linepipe grades, with chemistries complying with either European (former EN, now annex of ISO) or American and International (API / ISO) standards.

Welding guidelines matter

With the multi-wire welding station OCAS is capable to simulate exactly the welding configurations of the various spiral pipe mills. However, in-house welding results often outperform results obtained by the mills using non-optimised conventional procedures. Attention is also given to consumable selection. This service is highly appreciated, as was expressed for example by an international Oil Major operating an offshore pipeline in West-Africa.

Recently, OCAS presented spiral welding simulation results at a leading international pipeline conference. The fact that this attracted a lot of interest from the participants proves the relevance of this type of research – and it also gave OCAS an opportunity to highlight our expertise in this field. In the meantime, OCAS has also launched girth weldability evaluation on industrially produced pipes in order to provide technical data to the end-user for laying pipe in the field. Collaborating with external customers also enables OCAS to gather valuable feedback from in-the-field applications. The resulting guidelines will facilitate handling customer requests in short lead-times, providing spiral pipe and girth weld simulations for given chemical compositions and in-use conditions.

Preparing for new challenges

Today’s oil and gas industry must tap fossil-fuel sources in environments that are more demanding than those in the past. Particular attention has to be given to the welded joints of the pipes. OCAS will launch a research project to gain better insight into the influence of welding parameters on the sour corrosion mechanisms.

 

“Welding energy pipes is much more than joining metal. We must ensure on-pipe and in-the-field performance of linepipe steel grades for utmost safety.

Our in-house welding capabilities open doors. Thanks to our expertise, our customers not only trust our welding guidelines, they will also involve us at an earlier stage in their projects – a real win-win situation.”

Özlem Esma Ayas Güngör, Senior Research Engineer Welding, Applications & Solutions department, OCAS