IMPIANTI OMS S.p.A.

PIPE COATING SOLUTIONS SUPPLIED TO BREDERO SHAW

In mid-2008 Bredero Shaw, a subsidiary of ShawCor Limited, was awarded the contract to produce 40 kilometres of coated insulated pipeline.

 

Required to satisfy the needs of Sabah Shell Petroleum's Gumusut-Kakap Deepwater Project, these 18" (457mm) diameter pipes are protected with Fusion Bonded Epoxy (FBE) and Bredero Shaw's ThermoFlo D glass syntactic polyurethane insulation coating which is designed for water depths up to 1,200 metres. The Gumusut-Kakap Deepwater Project is located in the South China Sea some 120 km offshore the island of Sabah.

 

This large scale project is being handled through Bredero Shaw's facility in Kuantan, Malaysia which, with over 600,000 square metres of plant and pipe storage area available, makes it the largest pipe coating facility in the world. Already acknowledged as a world leader in pipe coating solutions Bredero Shaw has extensive facilities to ensure pipe coating contracts can be fulfilled on a local basis anywhere in the world.

 

To complete the Gumusut-Kakap coating process a special purpose Impact 300S metering unit has been supplied by OMS Group and installed at the Kuantan facility. The machine has a total maximum output of 300 kg/min and features a special twin pump arrangement to enable syntactic formulations containing either polymer or glass microspheres to be processed without risk of damage to the delicate speres. This is absolutely essential to ensure the required insulation and buoyancy properties of the finished pipe are maintained.

 

In order to ensure absolute precision of the moulding process throughout the lengthy pouring cycle, the machine is fitted with mass flow meters and closed loop control of output and ratio to guarantee accurate control over mix quality. A special software program enables the start and end of pouring to be on a controlled ramp up / ramp down basis thus helping the operator to build up and reduce delivery rates at the start and end of the moulding process.

 

Materials are stored in temperature conditioned day tanks of 2000 litre capacity for Isocyanate and 5,000 litres for Polyol and both are fitted with thermoregulation unit, automatic level controllers and agitators to ensure the materials are always processed at the correct temperature.

 

Having previously been chosen to supply Bredero Shaw's machinery requirements elsewhere in the Group, it was particularly pleasing for OMS Group to be selected again for equipment to fulfil this arduous and exacting project.