These are pics of 600' of 4" gas main line we installed. We used poly piping and fittings and used the butt fusion process to weld the underground section. We are also installing 200' of 4" steel gas line at the same location. I am the bigger guy standing in the dark colored sweatshirt and the slim fellow is an employee who has been with me for 20 yrs.
more pics of gas line job This is a continuation of the Gas Line job thread
That's neat, that machine forces the 2 pieces together, while the center section heats it? Is that a thermometer or pressure gauge in the middle? How hot does it have to get? How do you know you are pushing it together hard enough? Do you have to hold it together all during that cool down period? Thanks
this is exactly the same system used in England,UK.The whole process is automated and once set up is foolproof as long as all relevant proceedures have been done correctly.
Mitch, Yes the machine holds pressure on each pipe as the fusion process is done. The thermometer you see is actually on the heating iron that is inserted between the two pipes, the temperature is 450-500 F on each side of the heating iron. The fusion tool is used to hold slight pressure on each pipe as they are fused- too much pressure will cause an elongated weld and weak joint that could leak or come apart. A proper fused joint has a double rollback bead, my finger is pointing to the way the bead should look at completion. There is a lock device that holds the jaws locked once the correct amount of pressure is asserted, this is left locked in place until proper cool down time has elapsed. Prior to fusing the pipes, we also endface each pipe butt to create a proper fusing surface for each pipe. The enfacing machine is sitting on the ground behind me in the picture in a hot box carrier that also holds the heating iron when not inserted in the fusion machine.
That was nice of you to show this. We have used this for many years with great results; the machine can be rented for a day or week. On small jobs we use the MJ (mechanical joint) for say up to three connections, then we have to consider the rental cost offset. Not sure what the max size for MJ is. I like the fusion as the MJ needs the oring to seat on a smooth surface and sometimes the exterior gets scratched up in handling.
Nice job. Are you going to punch a mole for the section behind the outside tanks or directional bore it?
Thanks, I like learning about the way things are done.
CM, The section behind the tanks also has several underground storage tanks that will not allow us to bore that area. The 4" stub up that transitions to steel will be the section of steel line that will route up (vertical) appox 20' and then go horizontal for 160' and will be mounted to the outside of the buildings and then back into the ground and connect to the second loop of poly we installed under the outside slab. We did all the boring by directional drill but I do use moles quite often.
oceanbob, I was renting the fusion equipment a few years back at first, but we began to do quite a bit of this type of work, so I bought the equipment and have added to it over the years and have a small fortune invested in it now. It is very expensive for any component you need, the machine in the picture is around $6900.00 and there is not much to it when you see one. Then you need many inserts to go with it and other items also.... Just part of doing business- renting is unhandy for me it seems for I am always in a hurry with rental items..
Gotcha, is that what the pre-cast vault is for?
CM, the precast vault is a tank rentention for the upright tanks in the picture. The business is a large equipment reman company that rebuilds CAT heavy equipment, I will also post some pic;s of the steel section of line we are installing and attaching to the building. We used a scissor lift and our man basket for my rubber tire hoe & truck crane to install the line.
how much is 4" T&C black iron now? iv installed a few to many feet of that years ago. (when i was young lol) you have done a very nice looking job there
FSERVICE, the black steel pipe cost 9.00 / foot delivered to jobsite and was threaded and coated. We will pour the concrete back tomorrow, we completed all piping installation today, pressure tested the entire line then purged the air out and filled it with gas. All went well with no leaks... the owners are happy to have gas again.
Text book fusion welds sir. I get to do tons of fusion work. Usually 1 and 2 inch pipe. Ever do electro fusion?
WOW! I had to buy some a while back for a gas meter bollard (so no one would hit the meter at my house). A 20ft stick cost me over $300.
would not be text book for the UK though , do you debead internal and external for gas in the US you would not see a manual one in use nowadays here
It seems that manual anything is going away at a rapid pace. Manual tools require skill to use, and it seems like instead of teaching skill and pride in workmanship the current generation wants rules set up for any idiot to be able to do it, and then they have jobs for the idiots that do not seem to care if they ever learn a skill or not, as the magical black box makes it so they don't have to think. End of Rant! JBGash Nice work, thanks for sharing and explaining for those who have never seen it.
fusion sadly the case for automated is to stop the amount of failures in joints ,due to them not being done correctly by accident or intentional the latter is usually the case cutting cool times etc all our machines log everything ,and will not perform a joint if things are not 100% ,, the clients will want this information ,and it is all downloaded from the box for them to view if needed ,beads are debeaded and randomly checked also all the electrofusion box,s have a bar code scanner , each operator has a fusion card with their unique number on , fittings are scanned ,for heat cool time ,operators card is also scanned to allow use of box (so if you are not trained you can,t) alinement clamps have a chip fitted that the box picks up too and will not allow use if not present a joint performed outside in the UK "should" see a sheet on the ground underneath machine ,and also performed in a tent to stop contamination of the joints from any foreign objects airborne or otherwise the automatic machines take out the human error factor ,if heat ,soak and cool times along with pressure parameters are not keep in spec the joint is aborted nothing wrong with a manual machine in the right hands most of the welding i do is with one of these
d4, Debeading is not required for any of the gas companies or customers we have had. Mostly anything 8" and up would be self driven units. TO me it would seem futile & more work to tote around a non manual unit to fuse piping for anything 4" and down. Keep in mind here in the US double jointing (40') is very common vs a 20' stick of pipe - this requires a lot less field joints to be fused.
the machines we use will do from 63 mm up to 250 mm ,after that its usually the tracstar if there is enough pipe to weld we have sticks up to 18 metres /60ft for some jobs although it depends on room available as space is at a premium in the UK especially when working in towns /housing estates not much of a problem to carry an auto unit round ,we nearly always have a genny with us , and there is room in the van to fit the fusion gear easy enough surprised you do not have to debead though cheers graham
d4, what are the testing requirements & procedures in the UK for poly natural gas piping? Does the tracstar debead after the fuse? or is another tool required? Best Regards, Jeff
I am curious about the debeading as well. How do you debead the inside, and why is it needed?
the need for internal debeading on gas and water is for flow ,sewerage is to stop media build up on beads external beads are removed and check ,the width of a bead is checked and should be within parameters of the pipe being welded the bend back test will show up and cracking or failure within the bead and the subsequent joint internal debeader http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM6fZua63jI external http://www.advancewelding.co.uk/pro.../external-debeaders-63-900-mm-advance-welding much more info here http://www.pipeline-conference.com/sites/default/files/papers/ptc_2012_OConnor.pdf we very rarely bedead on water , but most of the gas is debeaded cheers graham
Thanks Graham I get it now.
Looking at the pictures.....I know right where your at......they have some BIG iron there. Mike
Nelsonequip, You are correct there is some very large equipment at that location and very good people.