Task Description
The project required 1 RPR Induction Disbonding unit, a water-cooling unit and a 2-man team. Working together the team used the RPR unit to heat the pipe while mounted on an automatic roller system to peeled strips of Poly Ethaline
We began by cutting 120mm strips into the Polyethylene coating using a 5-inch cutting disk. This made it much easier and faster to remove the coating.
The pipes were placed on rotators which completed one rotation approximately every 3 minutes. This allowed us to completely remove one strip per rotation. We were able to fully strip one pipe in around 4 hours.
Small parts of FBE undercoating were left behind on some of the pipes. This was later removed with abrasive blasting.
Conclusions
Due to the efficient usage of the RPR unit we managed to set up, complete and de-mobilise the job in 5 days.
When compared to other coating removal methods, we’ve found the use of induction Disbonding is far superior when tackling this coating. Abrasive blasting and UHP water blasting would have proven ineffective and impractical in this instance.
This is before considering the time and financial savings made using this method. There was only a small amount of sweeping to tidy up the job at the end of each day, no water or garnet to remove or dispose of.
Overall, a fantastic job completed by the ACR Tech team.
