March 22, 20101. Dura-Bond Pipe, LLC2 March 22, 2010Dura-Bond Pipe, LLC3 Dura-Bond Pipe, LLC was...

March 22, 2010 1

March 22, 2010 Dura-Bond Pipe, LLC 2


• Dura-Bond Pipe, LLC was founded in 2003 – Purchased former Bethlehem Steel Corp., Steelton, PA – UOE Mill facilities on the location of Dura-Bond’s Fusion

Bond Coating Plant.– Completely refurbished the forming, welding and finishing

equipment. Extensively modified welders. Installed laser controlled seam tracking on the ID welders.

– Upgraded Ultrasonic Equipment and Radiographic Equipment

– Installed a complete destructive testing laboratory and sample preparation machine shop

– Achieved API Q1 licensure October 2004– Produced over 240,000 Tons 2006 through 2009


• Manufacturing Process – UOE Double Submerged Arc Welded Long Seam Pipe

• Forming and Welding Equipment– Double Sided Single Pass Planer– End Planer– Long Seam Double Sided Edge Crimper– U press – 7,000 tons– O press – 20,000 Tons– ID/OD Welders

• 3 - ID Berkeley Welder 2-Wire Continuous Feed Machines– Lincoln Power-Wave Welder System– Laser guided wire feeder heads

• 3 - OD AC/AC 2- Wire Continuous Feed Welder

– Longitudinal seam welding is a “Continuous Welding System” and does not require tacking and run-on or run-off tabs.


• Finishing Equipment– Hydraulic Expansion and Hydrostatic Testing • 5,000 psi capacity

– Double Ended End Beveling Machine

• Hydraulic Expansion is the point of today’s discussion


• NDT– Weld seam 100% Fluoroscopic inspection prior to

expansion– Ultrasonic Inspection• Long seam system is an 11 channel machine with 7

probes and provides 100% inspection of the weld– Considering replacement with phased array

system in 2011• Pipe Body UT system has 4 wheel probes with a 4

channel transducer array in each wheel which provides helical inspection of 100% of the pipe surface.

– Weld Radiographic• X-ray of pipe ends with up to 17” of film• Capable of 100% long seam weld x-ray


• Destructive Testing Lab– Tensile Testing– Charpy Testing– Drop Weight Tear Testing– Vickers and Rockwell Hardness Testing– Machining facilities for sample preparation– Spectrographic analysis is performed off-site


• Size and Grade Capability– Low Strength pipe• A252, API 5LB, API 5L X42

– 24” OD to 42” OD– thickness to 1.000”

– High Strength Pipe 24” OD to 42” OD• API 5L X52 – thickness to 0.850”• API 5L X60 – thickness to 0.825”• API 5L X65 – thickness to 0.800”• API 5L X70 – thickness to 0.775”• API 5L X80 – thickness to 0.750”• Wall thicknesses beyond listed max may be considered.


• Energy Transfer, 42” & 36” X70• Exco Energy/Regency Gas, 36” X70• Dominion 30” & 36” X70• Northern Natural Gas 30” & 36” X70• El Paso Energy 30” X70• Kern River Gas Transmission 36 “ X70 & X65• Colonial Pipeline 30” X52• Texas Gas 26” & 30” X70• Williams Gas 42” X70


• Energy needs for North America have been increasing over the past 10 years

• Many new pipeline projects, primarily natural gas, have been built especially in the past 3-4 years

• Economics of gas transportation have resulted in a desire for increased operating pressures of natural gas lines.

• The increased operating pressure goal has resulted in more stringent requirements being placed on the pipeline builders by regulators to assure pipeline safety. – Field hydrostatic testing of in-service pipelines can determine if the

line can operate at increased pressures. – After field hydrostatic testing , an inspection pig can be run through

the line to determine if deformation (bulging) took place as a result of the test.

– If too much deformation has occurred, the situation must be addressed by the operator before approval is granted to operate at a higher pressure.


• It has been reported that in the process of field testing of pipe, that pipe with lower than expected yield strength has been discovered.

• The Question is … How can the owner be sure of the yield strength of every foot of pipe in the line? Plate/coil mills and pipe mills utilize the required sample testing methodology to ascertain compliance with the production specification standard (API 5L).


• The problem of deformed pipe being discovered after field hydrostatic testing revolves around strength issues.

• API 5L strength testing is a single random tensile test per 50 or 100 pipe test unit (lot) size. A tensile test unit requires 1 test per 100 pipes in the test unit. Typically a test unit is a “Heat” if it meets the test unit criteria.

• Other API 5L required tests have different test unit sizes i.e. weld tensile, guided bend, weld charpy etc.


• The result of tensile test unit sampling is a statistical representation of skelp and pipe results assuming that the processing of the skelp for pipe applications has good process control and the changes in properties from forming are considered.

• However, statistically, it is possible that pipe with lower yield strength could “slip” through the system undetected. This possible “slip” could result from a low tensile testing sample frequency of 1-4% depending on test unit size.

• Is there a way to detect such an event in production without destructive testing?


• All JCO and UO long seam mills have expansion capabilities for dimensional control.

• The two types of expansion methods are:– Hydraulic expansion – pressurized water is used to

expand the entire pipe length at once. A set of sizing clamps contains the pipe during the expansion process and helps give the finished pipe its dimensional properties.

– Mechanical expansion – uses mechanical “shoes” to expand the pipe. The sizing mandrel expands the pipe incrementally along the length.


• For hydraulic expansion, the pressure system is set up based on the product’s specified minimum yield strength, the diameter and wall thickness.

• A unique characteristic of hydraulic expansion is that to fulfill the pressure requirement in this single step process (versus other multi-step systems), the yielding behavior of the entire pipe is monitored with a graphic recording display. This cannot be replicated with a multi-step expansion process.


• What hydraulic expansion means to customer confidence is that the yielding behavior (yield stress) of EVERY pipe can be seen, recorded and documented.

• This means that every pipe has a “tensile test” and graphic records can show variations in yield strength from pipe to pipe.


• If a pipe yields lower than the minimum or higher than the maximum values allowed, it can be detected at the hydraulic expander.

• An added benefit is that data from expansion records can be used to reveal the Bauschinger Effect on the end product.


• Dimension and Shape– Properly installed and maintained expander dies

make exceptionally straight pipe with uniform dimensions along the length of each pipe segment.

– Possible field cuts along the pipe length will offer excellent fit to mill finished ends.

– Uniform dimensions and shape provide efficient and productive double jointing and fusion bond coating processes.


• Hydraulic expansion shows the yielding behavior of every pipe expanded.

• Strength variations from pipe to pipe can be seen in the hydraulic expander process.

• In a sense, every pipe has a “tensile test” performed and documented.

• Bauschinger Effect can be evaluated for different chemical compositions and skelp/plate rolling practices.


• More work needs to be done to study expander yielding behavior and actual pipe strengths to develop correlations.

• Potentially, hydraulically expanded pipe can act as a screening mechanism for low strength pipe.

March 22, 20101. Dura-Bond Pipe, LLC2 March 22, 2010Dura-Bond Pipe, LLC3 Dura-Bond Pipe, LLC was...

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