A pilot project of Wolftank Austria, carried out in Austria with its local partner RTI Austria, has showed that its coatings can be successfully applied in natural gas pipes.
Wolftank´s wide portfolio is the result of years of innovation, research and development. The company has long experience in petrochemical applications for extraordinarily challenging conditions, such as high pressures and extremely corrosive environments.
With a highly innovative approach, Wolftank is able to provide an excellent solution for pipe coating in field and refurbishments. Even in the case that these have very sharp curves!
The scope of the project
The pilot project consisted of two parts implemented in two different locations with totally around 200m of pipe and diameters around 200mm:
- The first part took place in a workshop. The objective was to apply inside and outside coating.
- The second part was on field directly in a natural gas pumping station. It is part of the gas distribution network in Austria.
The bigger challenges were especially related to the surface preparation by blasting and the highly precise robotized lining equipment to apply a specific coating thickness all over the pipe.
The solution
Wolftank Austria used an innovative robotic unit which is able to go inside the pipes and proceed with the coating while being externally controlled by a software.
The sophisticated equipment consists of two tubes (one for the component A and one for the component B), a pump and a compressor. The components in the tubes are finally mixed and spread through the whole surface.
The software also includes a control panel, which can calculate all application conditions (temperature, flow, thickness etc.) and monitor the parameters. Including here the flow, the thickness of the coating (in this, case, 0’4 millimetres) and the speed of the performance. In addition, it has a camera which perfectly shows the whole coating process from inside the pipelines.
The outcome
The quality of Wolftank´s coatings together with the innovative equipment achieved the goal of renewing all pipelines. And it was possible only in a few days.
All the pipelines are now in perfect conditions, including especially difficult areas like the 90° angles in some of them. Thanks to the flexibility of the robot and its rotation, also these challenging parts properly received the necessary coating.
Furthermore, on the outside Wolftank Austria applied a 3-layer corrosion protection system with a total thickness of at least 225µm. For the basic layer, the company used Adapur HS, a primer which is especially suitable for heavy corrosion defence.
In conclusion, this project applied in Austria is the best evidence that hight quality and technology mean real solutions applicable in any kind of facilities. This is the basis on which Wolftank Austria is built, and this is the basis of its success, not only with tanks but also with pipelines!
More information about Wolftank Austria coating products, available here.
