F69: Pipe Welding Challenges

Stainless Steel Welding Consumable Quality Caused a Premature Pipe Failure
In petrochemical plants, any crack in the pipes or equipment could result in a complete shutdown due to the high restriction of environment, health, and safety reasons. A premature failure happened in a short operating time for the pipelines that are constructed of austenitic stainless steel. All welds of hundred meters long-pipeline were cracked and resulted in a complete plant shutdown. Samples from the welds were collected for detailed metallurgical examinations. The metallurgical failure analysis for the welds samples was performed using optical microscope, SEM, and XRF testing to determine the damage mechanism. Recommendations to avoid a similar failure occurring will be provided.
Ali AlShawaf – SABIC

Pipe Welding the World of the Imperfect Preparations
Welding spool pipes presents unique challenges compared to welding structural beams. Unlike beams, pipes feature an open root that requires real-time control of the penetration depth. Additionally, the imperfections inherent in pipes mean that preparations are always a compromise, rendering each weld to be slightly unique. Achieving perfection in such conditions relies on the ability to dynamically adjust to these inherent irregularities. Real-time control over the weld pool is essential to achieve this. Trying to approach this problem by finding a way to make perfect and repeatable preparations has been unsuccessful. Instead, the solution lies in using a welding robot equipped with adaptive welding control. In our discussion, we will delve into the specific parameters that require to be analyzed and controlled in real time to succeed in this task.
Stamati Georgaris and Christian Trudel – Tecnar