news
Explosion in Oklahoma was caused by badly welded pipe
A US gas company has admitted that a cracked polyethylene gas pipe – caused by poor welding – was to blame for an explosion in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Natural Gas
(ONG) agreed to pay more than $1m in fines, according to the
Kfor.com news channel. A report by ONG concluded that a gas leak in the 4-inch pipe – which led to the
explosion that injured three people – was due to a crack in a butt fusion weld, caused by poor workmanship. The crack was more than 3in on the outside and 2in on the inside. A further factor behind the
explosion was the fact that the pipe had never been pressure tested in the 33 years since it had been fitted, it added. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, in its own report,
said there was inadequate fusion in the interior mid- portion of the joint. “Contributing to the incident
was ONG’s failure to analyse the previous eight joint failures on the 4in PE main,” it said. “Based on repair records, all previous joint failures occurred in the fusion butt joints.” OCC added that ONG’s
failure to carry out a proper leak test was also a factor in
Braskem expands UHMWPE capacity in North America
Braskem has commissioned a new plant in the USA that will make its Utec Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) resin. The facility, at its site in La
Porte, Texas, is scheduled for start-up by the end of this year. “This new plant brings us
closer to our clients with advanced engineered polymers, as well as creating additional high-quality engineering and production jobs in La Porte,” said Christopher Gee, Braskem’s global business director for Utec. Earlier this year, the
company enhanced its research and development capabilities for Utec at its innovation and technology centre in Pittsburgh. Braskem says these new capabilities enable it to expand its technical leadership in UHMWPE by providing
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instrumentation for testing, application development and new product research. Utec is an engineered
polymer with excellent mechanical properties including high abrasion resistance and impact strength,
and low coefficient of friction. It is eight times lighter than
steel and lasts 10 times longer than HDPE – so is used to make specialist pipe for applications in the offshore industry, for example. ❙
www.braskem.com/utec
Utec pipe is used in the offshore industry
the explosion. “Had Technician 1 followed
ONG procedures, the precise location of the leak would have been identified, resulting in additional information being made available to judge the severity of the situation,” it concluded.
OCC said that eight previous
leak failures had been reported over a 20-year period, in the same area as the explosion.
Meet AMI editors at 2016
Pipe and Profile Extrusion – and its sister magazines from Applied Market Information – will be at K2016.
During the eight days of
the show, editors from all our magazines will be reporting on the show via our @PlasticsWorld feed on Twitter. We will also have a
presence on AMI’s stand (Hall 7, Stand C11), where visitors can learn about our portfolio of digital maga- zines and apps, as well as about our latest industry directories, market reports and conferences. After the show, we will
review the best of the new introductions from K2016 in our forthcoming issues of our magazines. ❙
www.amiplastics.com
October 2016 | PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION 5
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