xray truck

Date 03-23-2007 09:48

Way to go, SD!
It's good to know there are some around who always stick to their principles.
Quality first.
you get what you get for production.
Well done.

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 03-23-2007 12:21

See quality work makes the NDT guys very happy, because they can shoot, develope and move on. The paperwork is cut tremendously when the work is found to be clean. You not only did yourself a favor, but everybody that follows in behind you....Good Job!

I have some healthy columns that I'm UT'ing this morning 45*, 60*, and 70* scans and so far everything is coming out great! This cuts my time spent with these rascals considerably. All this makes the production managers here very happy, because you know it's "my fault" when I'm holding up a piece of material that needs to get on the truck to be shipped out, while in reality if the piece is clean, there is no delay...so quality first pays big in the end!

By makeithot (***)

Date 03-23-2007 16:21

SD,
Well done, at the end of the day sometimes all you have is your pride. like you it is something that I'm not willing to compromise always good to hear when it pays off.

By IRWelder (*)

Date 03-27-2007 01:31

Right on, Sourdough. I have encountered the same or similar scenario many times. They say "we're not gonna shoot those ones .." and then the next thing you know the x ray techs show up. I agree that one should always make a qaulity weld no matter what code they are interpreting to or what the piping is for. In the past few years 100% x ray seems to be the norm around here, even for normal service "sweet gas" stuff. But of course that all depends on the oil company specifications and the type of fliuds encountered. Many of the wells produce sour gas (H2S) so the code is tougher. Around here, 2" and 3" Sch. 160 and XXS are very common for above ground wellhead flowline piping, but not usually for buried flowlines.
When doing completion work do you fabricate most of the piping on the jobsite? Do you roll as much of it as you can? Just curious as to how you guys do it down in the states.
Do they interpret the welds to B31.3 or some other code? Just curious. Asme B31.3 is the most common code that I encounter, interpreted to normal service, what many call "sweet gas code", and Severe cyclic, what is often referred to as "sour gas code" up here.
Pipeline welds are generally interpreted to Z662 a Canadian standard that I think is close to your API specs.

Note that what I have written is a generalization and may contain errors.

By Sourdough (****)

Date 03-28-2007 00:36

I roll what I can at the shop but 90% of it is on site. Not much h2s down here in the west, or most of us welders would be dead by now. We root, hot, and fill most times with 5p+. I cap with 70+ on anything schedule 80 and under. It depends on the expected pressure what fill and cap we use on the thicker stuff. If I know for sure that the application is for serious pressure or big time abuse I'll hot, fill and cap with lh.

So many times we're dealing with overkill pipelines, (under 3000psi, sch. 160 or more). In those instances I feel perfectly comfortable with only using the lh for the cap. I might get kicked right off this forum for saying....... that it really is a matter of good judgement and experience when you're working on tight schedules and budgets. I know what I feel comfortable with, and I don't ever have any quams telling a person of authority that "I am going to do it this way, or not at all!" 9 times out of 10 they respect my judgement. The ones that don't, I don't want to work for anyway.

By IRWelder (*)

Date 03-28-2007 01:41 Edited 03-28-2007 01:55

Thanks for the honest answer Sourdough. Do you use XX10 rod when capping above ground pipe as well?? Just wondering cause on some of the U.S. welding websites I have noticed xx10 caps on above ground piping. Can't say that you see much of that up here.
Most above ground procedures that I deal with allow up or down bead with 6010, (5p+ being the rod of choice) and up or down 6010 hotpass again with 5p+. We are only supposed to deposit a minimum of 6010 and any fill passes are supposed to be 7018 as well as the cap. (Sometimes the 6010 hotpass is heavy. LOL.) Much of the piping is low temp A333 so they are looking for notch toughness, which 7018 helps to acheive. Maybe we aren't allowed to cap with xx10 rod above ground because the piping will see some cold temps and can only make charpy tests with xx18????? Or maybe it's just the Engineers overkilling everything as usual.
We fabricate 90% of the above ground piping in the shop and usually the underground risers, etc. The company that I subcontract to in Grande Prairie, Alberta has some excellent fitters so most of the time things fit.

{ Years ago I asked an old pipeliner how to make the bottoms look like the top and he replied, " that's easy, just f*** up the top." }

By Sourdough (****)

Date 03-28-2007 19:28

That's funny. Most old timers are full of good ones like that. Our lines are 6 ft+ deep. Once they're in they're in. No frost can get that deep, unless you have a freight train constantly running over top of it. All underground lines are also either insulated, or accompanied by hot glycol tracer lines, or both. Back home in Alaska, we could never get away with what we do here in the western slope. Up there the permafrost would devastate anything above 10 ft deep.