The company has successfully implemented a pilot project at a field in Eastern Siberia in a seismically active zone. Within its framework, TMK NGS specialists molded 400 pipes with a diameter of 219 mm using new equipment and assembled them at the facility. The total length of the pipeline was 4.5 km. Special hydraulic tests during the project confirmed the strength and tightness of the joints.
Photo: TMK Neftegazservice.
The comprehensive service has become available to TMK NGS customers ("part of the Pipe Metallurgical Company") thanks to the launch of a new technological option — the construction and installation of pipelines using the cone-socket type of non-welded assembly technology.
It provides a quick-assembly and completely hermetic connection of pipes in a pipeline with an already applied internal and external anticorrosive coating. The assembly is carried out by pressing the pipe into one another using a mobile hydromechanical press.
Compared with traditional welding, this method has a number of advantages — a higher construction speed with less labor, as well as the absence of the need for non—destructive testing of the joint or the use of additional protective devices such as protectors or bushings. The service life of the connection is equal to the service life of the pipeline — from 10 to 20 years, depending on the pipe material, type of coating and operating conditions.
The experience of installing pipelines using this technology confirms that the connection characteristics are not inferior in reliability to traditional assembly methods, and in many aspects significantly exceed them.
Evgeny Gaas, CEO of TMK NGS, noted that when using this technology, customers have a single center of responsibility for the entire construction cycle of pipeline systems with an installation speed 3-5 times higher than traditional methods.
According to TMK NGS analysts, the demand for rapid pipeline assembly technologies in Russia exceeds 900 kilometers per year. The company plans to expand the geography of services by scaling the "cone-bell" method in all regions of its presence.
