With its non-destructive testing service, GF Piping Systems is ensuring the integrity of welds and plastic piping.
Here’s an obvious but critical fact about pipelines: they’re a lot easier to service before they’re buried.
Underground pipelines can happily function for over 50 years, but a single leak caused by a dodgy weld or poorly constructed pipe is a veritable financial headache. On top of that, leaks can have serious consequences for the surrounding community and environment, which, in addition to causing serious harm, also attracts heavy fines from regulatory bodies.
All of this is to say that project managers need certainty that what they’re putting in the ground will stand the test of time.
Fortunately, GF Piping Systems is providing exactly that.
Utilising its ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) field services, the installation company or end customer can quickly, reliably, and cost-effectively provide long-term pipe condition assessments in the field. This allows the company to check the integrity of butt welds and electrofusion welds for issues such as dirt, sand, or lack of bonding.
GF Piping Systems also offers Ultrasonic NDT services within its global network of pre-fabrication workshops to meet customers’ requirements, such as that all pre-fabrication spools are checked and a certificate is issued as part of the overall quality documentation of the finalised component.
Ultrasonic NDT solutions are also able to ensure the structural integrity of polypropylene and polyethylene pipe material by detecting impurities and air bubbles, which can cause the pipe to rupture over time or when pressurised.
GF Piping Systems National Service Manager Bruce Dyne said the most important thing NDT brings to a project is certainty.
“Our NDT service is giving asset owners long-term assurance that their joints and pipes are rock solid, which is critical when you’re dealing with something that’s going in the ground for decades,” Dyne told The Australian Pipeliner.
While testing is most commonly done at the beginning of a project’s life, before the pipe goes underground, Dyne said it was not uncommon to test existing pipelines that have previously had a leak.
Traditional destructive testing methods entail cutting a weld out of the pipe, stress-testing it in a laboratory, and rewelding the joint.
“There are limitations to this method, the obvious being that these rewelds might not be up to the same standard as the test,” Dyne said.
“NDT testing eliminates this uncertainty, allowing asset owners to test as many joints as they want while also keeping the pipeline in one piece.”
This includes testing of the critical ‘golden weld’, which connects two existing pieces of piping and is notoriously difficult to test.
“The golden weld is the last weld in the chain that hasn’t been tested, because it’s the cut piece at the end,” Dyne said.
“You can’t pressure test or destructive test it – that weld must be tested by NDT.”
NDT is standard in steel pipeline projects, but Dyne said it’s almost unheard of in the plastic pipelines space.
“NDT for plastic pipelines is making projects much safer,” he said.
“It’s protection for everyone – the company, asset owner, contractor, all of us – because we’re minimising future issues with the pipeline and subsequent liabilities that could arise.
“By driving down these kinds of issues, we’re preventing environmental harm, outages in utility services, costly restoration works, and much more.
“A little preliminary work with NDT goes a long way in safeguarding time, money, and the environment.”
With over 25,000 NDT scans completed since GF Piping Systems first launched the service, there is clearly an appetite for this kind of peace of mind.
“Our NDT service has seen terrific traction across a range of industries,” Dyne said.
“We have large-scale semiconductor customers, nuclear power facilities, major water and gas authorities in Europe all buying into it.
“No system is infallible, but NDT gives you the best results you’re going to get.”
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This feature also appears in the September edition of The Australian Pipeliner.