Waupisoo Project
Transcript
CANUSA-CPS WAUPISOO PROJECT
ENBRIDGE PIPELINE
WAUPISOO SPREAD A
LEDCOR PIPELINE
Andrew Barry, Coating Inspector, Enbridge Spread A
We’re on the Spread A Project which is located near Conklin Alberta. This pipe is going to transport bitumen from Fort McMurray.
Aaron Geiger, Senior Product Technician, Canusa-CPS
We’re supplying the GTS 65 sleeve and it’s our global transmission sleeve.
Andrew Barry
This coating we are using today is a Canusa system. It’s a shrink sleeve system, it compliments the HPCC coating which is on the pipe right now. We’re using a front end crew. We preheat the pipe with torches, we have a front end prep crew that goes along and cleans up the actual welds themselves. Sandblast truck comes in behind that and sandblasts the weld to get a near white finish and to get the proper profile that we need as per specifications as we get on the pipe.
After the sandblasting the first coil comes in, preheats the steel, bring it up to about 50 degree Celsius temperature. After that the paint crews move in. They apply the epoxy. After they move on, the next coil comes in and they force cure the epoxy out. They bring that temperature up to about 100 degrees Celsius. Once they move on, the next crew comes in and they apply the sleeve. Then the next truck comes after that and they shrink it down. Behind heat shrinkers we have the rollers and they roll the air out.
Mike Airey, Coating Foreman Ledcor – Spread A
Canusa’s support is incredible. As far as the training end of it goes Aaron has a wealth of knowledge and he makes sure that before he leaves that what is going on in the pipe is quality work.
Andrew Barry
The advantages that I’ve found with the dry system compared to the wet system is that using the two coils you’re able to maintain a lot more heat in the steel. It’s not superficial heat, it’s heat deep in steel. As you move your way down the main line coating crew and they get back to the rollers in the back end, it’s easier to remove the air from the sleeve itself because of the residual heat.
Right now this is a good day. When we’re in temperatures up to minus 40 degrees Celsius it gets very challenging, very difficult for the workers. The equipment definitely works slower but for the most part they are able to adapt and overcome all the environment. We’re using a dry system for the winter work. We’re using two coils so the epoxy is initially going on a colder surface, it’s still heated to up to 50 degrees Celsius but it’s still on a cooler surface, but then it’s force cured in place before the actual sleeve goes on. Even though perhaps you have an extra three operators for the extra coil, running a dry system the production has increased from the summer work.
On a really good day, a sunny day, the key is no snow. If we can go into full production we’re probably at upwards of 180 welds per day covering maybe five kilometers of production.
ENBRIDGE PIPELINE
WAUPISOO SPREAD B
TECHINT/SOMERVILLE
Dean Coulter, Coating Inspector, Enbridge Spread B
We’re on the Waupisoo Spread B for Enbridge, we’ve got 550 welds left to do and main line will be done sleeving completely. There’s approximately about 3,760 welds on the job.
Andy Macwatt, Coating Foreman, Techint/Somerville Spread B
It’s gone really well. Canusa’s field technical support has been outstanding. They’ve helped with the training of the personnel and familiarizing us all with the qualities of the product. They’ve been a huge help and it’s gone well. They a good crew, a good bunch of people.
Chuck Moulton, Sr. Coating Inspector, Enbridge Spread B
You have your painters, you have your mixers in between, so the painters are always working. Then behind your painters you have your sleeves, they just shrink them on; and after the sleeves have gone on you have a set of rollers behind them rolling the air out. Then you have somebody like me coming behind and inspecting it to make sure you’ve done it all.
Andy Macwatt
The coating system they are labour intensive to do the thing properly. We’re going to sand blast, we have epoxy mixers, epoxy applicators, people heating, people rolling out, this sort of thing so it’s a substantial crew and that’s only because the owning companies recognize the importance of the finished product. Certainly production is a huge factor, but quality is in no way secondary, quality is the first job, production comes with it in time.
When I took on this job last summer we were using a wet cure whereby the epoxy was applied and then the sleeve was applied over it, and the epoxy cured as the sleeve was heated and shrank on. It worked that way, there were some complications, potential for contamination. I felt there was a potential to compromise the thickness of the epoxy. So what we’ve gone to now is a forced cure where we preheat the pipe, apply the epoxy, heat the epoxy with an induction coil and cure it. Harden it up, then we apply the sleeve. And the forced cure has helped with the sleeve shrinking and the rolling out and the other issues because we’re retaining heat, we have a reservoir of heat in the steel for the rest of the process. I much prefer it. It’s easier to work with and I think we end up with a better product.
Chuck Moulton
For the repair rate, I keep track of that and so far we’re sitting at 0.8% for the entire line. We’re at 0.8% we’re not even 1% and we’re almost over 3000 miles so that’s just outstanding.
Andy Macwatt
We experienced an increase in production going with the dry cure, with the forced cure. The places that we managed to speed up were on the back end where there was this residual heat for rolling out. There’s no doubt in my mind that the forced cure is a superior way of applying product to a large degree because it eliminates a lot of potential contamination issues.
Chuck Moulton
As long as the crew has been trained, it’s outstanding and everything keeps rolling along. The numbers that we’re getting now are phenomenal. Between both crews we’re averaging 6 kilometers a day and that’s pretty good for this type of application.
Dean Coulter
I don’t know if Ditch is going to like that there but I think when we checked this morning they’re close to 40 kilometers behind us. So if Murphy came along and blew a couple of our compressor units on us, we could be down for a week and still be ahead, so it’s been good that way. Not good for Ditch but its been good for us.
Chuck Moulton
When we were running the wet system in the summertime this was with summer heat we were roughly two weeks to two and a half weeks behind the pipe gang and Ditch and R&M were waiting on us.
Andrew Barry
Enbridge wants the best sleeve system applied to their pipeline so we don’t have to come back and fix it down the road. So that’s the ultimate goal here today.