Explain the following words and word combinations.

Liquid epoxy, field-joint coatings, shop applied coatings, polyurethane foam, to be poured (into), spray-applied foams, the field-injected insulation, induction coils and a propane-fired oven.

Choose the necessary word and complete the following sentences.

False, true.

1 Pipe with defects were set aside and changed.

2 Pipe free of holidays was cleaned of any foreign matter that would interrupt adhesion of the foam to the FBE.

3 Shop-applied foams are quicker reacting in order to prevent the foam running off the pipe.

4 The bond between the PE tape and extruded PE was achieved by heat fusion.

5 Finally the pipe was stacked four tiers high on sawdust-filled bags.

Text 16

Construction

Part I

Field application of a three-layer coating system is quite involved.

To ensure that field-joint coating proceeds smoothly, prospective contrac­tors must understand the entire scope of work, the properties of all coating materials, and the overall job complexi­ty during the bid stage.

Awarding of the" contract should be followed by a period meeting at which the contractor demonstrates the field-joint application on a number of girth welds. This meeting makes certain that all installation details have been worked out and improves the chances of a suc­cessful job, from the perspective of both the contractor and the owner. Field training, provided by the manu­facturers of each coating layer, is indis­pensable.

Pipeline construction on the Mac Kay River Pipeline began in mid September 2001 and was nearly completed by mid October. In field training at the beginning of construction, each worker in­volved in the field-coating process was trained and certified by the coating manufacturers. Only workers with cer­tification were allowed to apply the field joint coating.

The steps in the field-joint coating process consist of:

- Preheating the girth weld with an induction heater or propane method to remove moisture.

- Preheating the girth weld to an ap­propriate preheat temperature by means of an induction coil.

- Applying liquid epoxy and allow­ing curing.

- Performing holiday detection and repair as necessary.

- Injecting foam and allowing curing.

- Abrading the PE overlap.

- Preheating the PE overlap with propane torches.

- Applying the shrink sleeve accord­ing to manufacturer's instructions.

Welders were required to use pads to protect the FBE from damage caused by weld spatter. Such damage can be difficult to repair especially if it is next to the polyurethane foam.

Welders were encouraged to protect the polyurethane foam during preheat­ing and welding.

Determining the length of the polyurethane foam cutback must con­sider the width of heating device used to preheat the girth weld area. If the ex­posed girth-weld area is shorter than the width of stan­dard heating equipment, spe­cially designed heating devices may have to be constructed or an alternate heating system used.

Induction coils and catalytic heaters offer a number of advantages over a propane torch.

These include elimination of damage (charring) to the polyurethane foam and FBE, prevention of contamination of the substrate before liquid-epoxy ap­plication, reduction of flash rusting, and assurance that the pipe preheats temperature is evenly distributed around the pipe circumference.

Questions:

1 What do the steps in the field-joint coating process consist of?

2 Were only workers or the manufacturers allowed to apply the field joint coating?

3 What must be constructed if the exposed girth-weld area is shorter
than the width of standard heating equipment?

4 Who was trained and certified by the coating manufacturers?

5 When were welders required?

16.1 What does this article focus on?