Controlled heat treatment of seamless pipes

Cambridge, UK – Pipes used in the oil and gas industry need to withstand high pressures. Manufacturers must verify temperature uniformity during heat treatment which is performed in a special furnace while the pipes are rotated. Depending on the thickness and grade of the steel, a cycle lasts up to 90 min at about 950 °C with maximum temperatures reaching 1,000 °C. Since rectangular thermal barriers designed with conventional thermal protection cannot be installed in the pipes due to size and performance constraints, an entirely new approach was required. Based on its unrivaled experience in the development of specialized thermal protection solutions, Datapaq has designed a cylindrical vapor phase barrier for this application. The TB4095 thermal barrier is combined with a Tpaq21 data logger, and the Furnace Insight software. Through thermocouples placed at various points across the pipe surface, temperature uniformity of the product can be proven. After the system had been in operation for a short time at a pipe manufacturer’s site, changeover time for differently sized pipes was reduced and process faults within the furnace were identified and corrected, thereby reducing waste.

Figure 1: An original Datapaq design: the high-performance TB4095 thermal barrier withstands 950 °C for up to 90 min



Figure 2: 130,000 data readings over 10 selectable channels make the Tpaq21 data logger the most powerful, accurate, and in-depth analysis tool available

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