MACHINERY | PIPE WELDING


advantage of the technique is that it is minimally invasive – and heats only the interface of the two parts to be joined. For this reason, the need for ‘cool down’ periods will be shorter – potentially allowing faster weld times. The next steps are to gain feedback to under- stand whether there is demand for such apipe- joining system.


It is actively seeking development partners – with the aim of developing the method for com- mercial introduction by 2028.


Peek performance Separate to this, Chris Worrall, a consultant at TWI, told delegates at last year’s Oil and Gas Non-Metal- lics conference – organised by AMI – of an innova- tive way of joining reinforced thermoset resin (RTR) pipes together.


“Many thousands of kilometres of RTR are


installed,” he said. “These are in short lengths, requiring many joints.” In collaboration with the Non-Metallic Innova-


tion Centre, it has devised a way to join these pipes together – using Peek plastic rather than adhesives. This is achieved by using Peek as the


joining material, then using either rotary friction (in the factory) or induction welding (in the field) to join the ends of the material (in this case, glass- reinforced epoxy, or GRE). Peek-coated GRE was welded, then inspected by


microscopy. This led to an apparent lap shear strength of 14MPa. The pipes also went through other tests, including X-ray CT inspection, a push-out test and fracture surface analysis. n Polymer Engineering for Energy – the new name for the conference – runs in London on 5-6 December. For more details, contact Cristina Fernandez (cristina.fernandez@amiplastics.com) on +44 (0) 117 314 8111.


CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: � www.leister.com � www.bluegreengroup.no � www.ritmo.it � www.mcelroy.com � www.pinweld.com � www.ukri.org � www.twi-global.com � www.amiplastics.com � www.non-metallic.com


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