Case study using APDMS and RPEMS for SAWL pipes and benefits for offshore pipelay
T. S. Kathayat A * , Atul Srivastava B , Jan de Boer C , Bhavin Mapara A and Mahesh Gajjar BA
B
C
Mr T. S. Kathayat is a Mechanical Engineering Graduate, currently working as Global Operation Head – Pipe Business, Welspun Corp Ltd (facilities in India, USA and KSA). He has been with Welspun Group for the last 28 years in various positions. He is a Technical member of various National and International bodies. He has been conferred various awards and recognitions, national and international, namely – ‘India Achievers Award’, ‘Quality leadership Award’, ‘Corporate Excellence Leader of the Year’ and ‘Outstanding Leader of the Year- Quality Segment’. Under his leadership, Welspun has received many national and international awards such as ‘FICCI Quality System Excellence Award for Manufacturing’, ‘NACE International Corrosion Awareness Award’, ‘Golden Peacock National Quality Award’. He has chaired various national and international pipeline conferences and delivered various technical lectures for oil and gas for onshore and offshore at several international conventions. |
Mr Atul Srivastava has over three decades of work experience in the field of steel manufacturing from mid size to mega size integrated steel plants, currently working in the pipe industry with Welspun Corp Ltd. He has worked exclusively on the development of steel for application of line pipe, structural, defense, construction and mining etc. He is currently working on the development of several new products including carbon manganese pipeline for transportation of hydrogen. He has also participated in several national and international conferences on the subject of the development of steel manufacture and its usage. |
Mr Jan de Boer is the Principal Material Engineer for Allseas Engineering BV, a pipeline installation company with the engineering office located in the Netherlands. Jan has more than 25 years’ experience with Allseas in technical assistance in line pipe manufacturing and specification and has been involved in almost all the installation jobs performed by Allseas. |
Mr Bhavin Mapara has more than two decades of experience in the field of line pipe, coating etc., working with Welspun Corp Limited. He also has experience in the field of manufacturing pressure vessels, heat exchangers and more. He has a detailed understanding of client specifications, international and national standards, as well as handling client audits. He is a certified Lead Auditor for ISO 9001: 2015 and a ‘Certified Welding Inspector’ awarded by the American Welding Society. He recently co-authored a paper titled, ‘Performance Of Longitudinal Saw Pipes – Api 5l X65ms Psl2 For Transportation Of 100% H2 Gas’. |
Mr Mahesh Gajjar has over 27 years of experience in Quality Assurance and Control Functions of the Pipe Manufacturing Industry. He started working with Welspun Corp Ltd in 1996, and is presently Associate Vice President – Quality Assurance and Control, responsible for the Quality Assurance and control of SAWL, SAWH, HFW and HIB Plant. He has hands on experience with ASME Section IX and IIC, API 5L, API 5CT, ISO 3183, DNV-ST-F101, SHELL DEP and other national and international standards. He has implemented a Continual Improvement Program in the Organisation and is responsible for Supplier, Steel and Welding Consumables, Quality Monitoring and Development. |
Abstract
This paper reviews an Automatic Pipe Dimension Measurement System (APDMS) and a Robotic Pipe End Measurement System (RPEMS) which can measure 19 and 9 parameters with the help of 72 and 6 measurement sensors respectively. APDMS and RPEMS are integrated into one optical measurement system, using laser triangulation, coupled with Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing (SAP) integration and its own calibration modulus which provides an accurate solution to all pipe measurements. Two longitudinal submerged arc welded offshore projects were executed for an offshore pipe lay with close dimensional tolerances measured using the APDMS for one project and RPEMS for the other project. The radii data, assessed from the newly calculated common centre of all cross-sectional data, was used to line up the two adjacent pipes in a faster and more accurate way. By knowing the shape of the pipe ends based on this radii data, the best relative rotation of these two pipes can be determined and any misalignment will be verified and will stay within the requirements. The extensive database available for each pipe helped to match the line pipes with similar or close out-of-roundness at pipe ends resulting in good fitment of the pipes and ultimately quality welds, together with more pipe joints per day, resulting in a faster completion of the project. This paper shows the significance of using both systems.
Keywords: APDMS, calibration, girth welds, integrated measurement system, laser triangulation, line pipe dimensions, RPEMS, SAP integration, SAWL, sensors.
Mr T. S. Kathayat is a Mechanical Engineering Graduate, currently working as Global Operation Head – Pipe Business, Welspun Corp Ltd (facilities in India, USA and KSA). He has been with Welspun Group for the last 28 years in various positions. He is a Technical member of various National and International bodies. He has been conferred various awards and recognitions, national and international, namely – ‘India Achievers Award’, ‘Quality leadership Award’, ‘Corporate Excellence Leader of the Year’ and ‘Outstanding Leader of the Year- Quality Segment’. Under his leadership, Welspun has received many national and international awards such as ‘FICCI Quality System Excellence Award for Manufacturing’, ‘NACE International Corrosion Awareness Award’, ‘Golden Peacock National Quality Award’. He has chaired various national and international pipeline conferences and delivered various technical lectures for oil and gas for onshore and offshore at several international conventions. |
Mr Atul Srivastava has over three decades of work experience in the field of steel manufacturing from mid size to mega size integrated steel plants, currently working in the pipe industry with Welspun Corp Ltd. He has worked exclusively on the development of steel for application of line pipe, structural, defense, construction and mining etc. He is currently working on the development of several new products including carbon manganese pipeline for transportation of hydrogen. He has also participated in several national and international conferences on the subject of the development of steel manufacture and its usage. |
Mr Jan de Boer is the Principal Material Engineer for Allseas Engineering BV, a pipeline installation company with the engineering office located in the Netherlands. Jan has more than 25 years’ experience with Allseas in technical assistance in line pipe manufacturing and specification and has been involved in almost all the installation jobs performed by Allseas. |
Mr Bhavin Mapara has more than two decades of experience in the field of line pipe, coating etc., working with Welspun Corp Limited. He also has experience in the field of manufacturing pressure vessels, heat exchangers and more. He has a detailed understanding of client specifications, international and national standards, as well as handling client audits. He is a certified Lead Auditor for ISO 9001: 2015 and a ‘Certified Welding Inspector’ awarded by the American Welding Society. He recently co-authored a paper titled, ‘Performance Of Longitudinal Saw Pipes – Api 5l X65ms Psl2 For Transportation Of 100% H2 Gas’. |
Mr Mahesh Gajjar has over 27 years of experience in Quality Assurance and Control Functions of the Pipe Manufacturing Industry. He started working with Welspun Corp Ltd in 1996, and is presently Associate Vice President – Quality Assurance and Control, responsible for the Quality Assurance and control of SAWL, SAWH, HFW and HIB Plant. He has hands on experience with ASME Section IX and IIC, API 5L, API 5CT, ISO 3183, DNV-ST-F101, SHELL DEP and other national and international standards. He has implemented a Continual Improvement Program in the Organisation and is responsible for Supplier, Steel and Welding Consumables, Quality Monitoring and Development. |
References
DNV (2021) DNV-ST-F101 Submarine Pipeline Systems. Standard. Edition August 2021, amended December 2021. (DNV) Available at https://www.dnv.com/oilgas/download/dnv-st-f101-submarine-pipeline-systems.html
ISO (2019) Petroleum and natural gas industries – Steel pipe for pipeline transportation systems. ISO 3183:2019. (International Organization for Standardization) Available at https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:3183:ed-4:v1:en
Patel J, Chauhan G, Raghuwanshi D, Mohanan A (2017) The Automated System for Line Pipe’s Dimensions Measurement. In ‘ASME India Oil and Gas Pipeline Conference’. 10.1115/IOGPC2017-2431
