Due to the large expenditures associated with laying new land pipelines, vigorous efforts are being made to identify measures for reducing costs. Opportunities for cost saving may be available in several areas, including terrain evaluation, pipeline design, material properties, procurement of material and services, construction and operation. Within this framework, the options for reducing the costs associated with the welding operation are also being examined. Recent work identified that in the short term, incremental improvements to existing arc welding technology, such as tandem gas-metal arc welding (GMAW), presented opportunities for cost savings. With a three to five year horizon in mind, four alternative processes, fully automated GMAW, electron beam welding, friction welding and laser beam welding were investigated. Of these, it was considered that laser welding offered the greatest promise. Hybrid laser-arc welding involves the coupling of the laser beam and arc in a single process zone. The use of a Nd:YAG laser together with a GMAW torch enables the fibre optic delivery of the laser energy to be combined with a consumable and extra energy to produce good quality, deep penentration welds in a single pass at relatively high welding speeds. In this way, the hybrid process overcomes many of the limitations of the individual processes. The deep penetration welds present opportunities for pipe-laying companies to replace several GMAW field welding stations with a single hybrid welding station when installing land pipelines. Cost savings can thus be made that could influence the economic viability of remote gas fields. The paper describes weld procedure development work in a typical pipeline, with material and dimensions characteristic of gas transmission land lines.
A new technique for girth welds in land pipelines: Hybrid laser-arc welding
Eine neue Technik des Rundnahtschweißens in Land-Pipelines: Laser-Lichtbogen-Hybridschweißen
2003
4 Seiten, 6 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 3 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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