Held on 24 and 25 November 2009, PIH in association with Tremco Pipeline Equipment, demonstrated the automated liquid field applied coating system at APA Group’s headquarters in Dandenong, Victoria.

The demonstration day kicked off with a presentation and video of PIH’s automated coating system.

PIH Business Development Director Carl Vincent introduced the event, while Technical Sales Manager David Bell provided a detailed explanation of the automated field coating process and the properties offered by the liquid applied system.

Mr Bell explained that the application system uses multi-component liquids technology, which can be either solvent-free epoxy or polyurethane.

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Attendees then witnessed the automated coating process in action. Field technicians Gary Kokoska and Grant Smith then gave a practical demonstration of the application technique.

A heat induction coil was applied to heat up the section of pipeline to be coated. Once the required temperature was reached, the coil was removed and the coating spray ring was located at the joint area.

The coating head then rotated around the welded joint area a number of times to coat the pipe. The automated joint coating was complete in just over two minutes.

The coating is applied to the customers’ requirements within a close tolerance, thus preventing over or under thickness on the field joint area, which can cause integrity problems.

The application thickness is related to the number of rotations of the machine, which means that once the procedure is proven during pre-production testing, the machine can be pre-programmed for a repeatable application to each joint area for the project.

Attendees inspected the coating, finding that it had been applied thoroughly and dried very quickly.

The system provides an even coating while reducing worker fatigue. PIH estimates that the system can perform up to 250–300 field joint coatings per day on a good right-of-way.