Expansion of reliable network of fuel supply and water supply point towards surging demand for pipeline welding in India.

Pipeline activity is an integral part of the development of gas, oil, water and infrastructure. The pipeline industry in India is likely to get a boost in the next few years on the back of emphasis on large-scale infrastructural development spurring activities in the sector spread across the country.

Expansion program of India’s existing petroleum refineries for enhancing capacity is likely to fuel growth of pipeline activities. Frontline players like ONGC, Oil India Limited and Gail, have plans to make arrangements to distribute both compressed Natural Gas and the Liquefied Petroleum Gas through pipelines to all parts of the country in line with the program of the government to make cooking gas and green fuel reach all the users. This activity is likely to create a substantial room for pipeline welding.

Substantial demand
“Millions of kilometres of gas pipeline and distribution line with adequate storage capacities at the hubs will create a substantial demand for the pipeline welding. In addition to the oil and gas pipeline, there is likely to be lot of industrial pipeline activity at the downstream sectors will also be happening,” according to R. Srinivasan, President, Indian Institute of Welding.
The infrastructure industry will boost distribution of high pressure water pipeline business in the country. The cross country pipeline for liquids and gases transportation is another major sector, which is likely to grow at faster pace.

With the country touching record steel production in the fiscal year 2018-19, the industrial activity islikely to touch new heights. Indian Industry will be having lot of activity in the development of grass root refineries, and pipeline welding will be a very crucial activity, believes Srinivasan.

Oil and gas will remain large
The oil and gas sector plays a major role in influencing decision making for all the other important sections of the economy. India’s economic growth is closely related to energy demand; therefore the need for oil and gas is projected to grow more, thereby making the sector quite conducive for investment, says Aniruddha Vilekar, Chief Technical Officer & Head- Marketing, Ador Welding Limited.

Gas pipeline infrastructure in the country stood at 16,771 km at the beginning of September 2018.At present, about 16,788-km natural gas pipeline is operational and about 14,239 km gas pipelines are being developed. These are under the CGD project. These pipelines have been authorised by petroleum and natural gas regulatory board (PNGRB) and are at various stages of planning/execution/pre-project activities.

These are out of a total of 98,000 km of pipelines planned that will cover 26 states and UTs and more than 280 districts. Rupees one lakh crore of investment in the CGD sector.

Safe and economic solutions
Pipe welding is predominantly done in the applications for oil and gas industry. Fossil energy carriers, such as crude oil or natural gas are the current discussion on future energy conceptions, yet expected playing a major part both in medium-and-long term.

The international pipeline industry and contractors aim at supplying safe and economic solutions for transmitting liquid or gaseous media from their source of origin through the location of consumption, says V. V. Kamath, Managing Director, Fronius India Private Limited.

Depending on the aims either ‘onshore’, i.e. ‘on land’, or ‘offshore’, i.e. ‘on sea’ transmission pipelines are required to be constructed. Globally, seen a considerable number of pipe laying projects are executed each year, whose total length comprises many thousands of kilometres.

Sustainable infrastructure imperative
India is a rapidly growing economy with highest growth rate in the world. The growth is fuelling requirement of sustainable infrastructure, fuel demand, and mega cities, smart cities etc.To cope with this demand, a reliable network of fuel supply or water supply is rapidly increasing in India. Due to this demand,pipeline industry is also growing substantially in India.

For pipeline welding, apart from conventional welding techniques, new technologies like robotic automation, D-ARC welding process for high deposition welding are now available. These technologies increased the productivity, and quality of the fabrication and supplier can execute the project in short time, says Kiran Thamankar, Dy. Gen Manager, OTC Daihen India Pvt Ltd.

Tremendous growth potential
API grade pipelines are used all over the world for cross country transport of natural gas, crude oil, petrochemical and petroleum products at high pressures over long distances.Cost of transport per unit of the product conveyed is far less than the transport by trucks, railways, water and airways, says Amrityoga, Sr Manager –Marketing, Panasonic Welding Systems India.

Welding of cross country pipelines is mainly welded by Manual Metal Arc process in India and the type of electrode used is cellulosic electrodes.

“There is tremendous growth potential for cellulosic electrodes in India mainly spurred by government’s intention to move towards gas-based economy,” he adds.

Advanced solutions in the pipeline welding segment
Low hydrogen electrode with excellent impacts
The Celwel series E6010, E7010 and E8010 are cellulosic coated electrodes, Ador Welding has recently launched Tenalloy 80P2 conforming to E8045P2H4R, a low hydrogen electrode with excellent impacts at sub-zero temperature with an excellent force that can be used for downhill welding required for cross country pipelines.

“Our engine driven sets the silent challenger series with single and multiple welder options in 300,400 and 500amps variants have been developed to work in harsh environments at high altitudes at sub-zero temperatures. These are boon the cross-country pipelines industry. They have three further variants with the silent challenger available in skid, two wheel and four-wheel mounted versions,” says Vilekar.

TIP TIG technology is a revolutionary technology introduced by Ador Welding that promises to change the face of the Tig welding industry. “TIP TIG is designed to give a continuous GTAW wire feed into the arc making Tig welding extremely simple to learn. The TIP TIG process gives very low heat input to the base metal compare to conventional welding and works at speeds more than 3 times faster than the conventional process,” he adds.

Fronius SMAW equipment
Fronius supplies welding equipment tailored for both shop-and-field application, continuously proving thereby to meet particular needs. The company is closely co-operating with pipeline industry customers and companies to introduce its components (e.g. attributed to SMAW/GMAW/FCAW) to their specific welding systems.

Fronius SMAW equipment is produced in a way thus to fulfil this requirement from lower to the upper end of welding power. That is, all welding power supplies of the TRANSPOCKET series prove capable of processing cellulosic electrodes; accordingly marked through the printed denotation “Cel”, says Kamath.

The pipeline welding industry requires intelligent welding solutions that will help the process easier, solutions like TPS/I LSC Root Mode and CMT are the solutions that are required for this industry. With the development of the TPS/I power source platform, the dip/short-circuit transfer arc has been significantly improved. Now LSC raises the bar even higher. Less spatter and higher process stability, combined with the new stabilisers, enable extraordinary results.

High efficiency CO2/MAG welding system
DAIHEN Corporation Japan developed a unique welding technique called D-ARC welding. This is a high current, buried Arc transfer welding. Basically,D-ARC welding is an advanced high efficiency CO2/MAG welding system for joining thick mild steel plates welding up to 19mm in single pass. This process can be adopted for robotic / SPMs and semi-automatic manual applications, says Thamankar.

This will increase the efficiency of welding, deposition rate, and penetration level. Hence, overall welding cost and time by 80 per cent.

Main features of the process are; deeper penetration minimises the process of “filling” the groove, deep penetration enables non-groove or narrow-groove welding, amount of deposited metal is less for each penetration depth (or plate thickness), high-current welding system, high-output power source. welding current: max 650A @100 per centduty cycle and high-speed wire feed system, feed speed: max 30m per min.

Reliable providers
Panasonic Welding Systems India is one of the most reliable providers of welding equipment for cross country pipeline welding on field.YD-400AT3 is one of the most reliable welding equipment for welding of cross country pipeline, says Amrityoga.

Modern training techniques
At IIW and its authorised training centres in assistance from industries are in the process of offering complete modern training techniques and methods by using simulator and digitalised training methods to train the welders to meet the requirements.

Industry 4.0 has started in the country and this will give an opportunity to align with the demands of the Industry 4.0. Already few welding product manufacturers have indigenously developed advance welding power sources in GTAW to meet the stringent requirements of the pipeline welding requirements to increase the productivity under the Make in India initiative, says Srinivasan.

The introduction of Duplex and super duplex materials in the refinery is causing challenges to welding personnel. “The welding techniques have to be upgraded to face the challenges these material possess. This is exactly where the service sector and the professional training bodies play a key role in developing the personnel to meet these challenges,” he adds.

Millions of kilometres of gas pipeline and distribution line with adequate storage capacities at the hubs will create a substantial demand for the pipeline welding.
R. Srinivasan, President, Indian Institute of Welding

India’s economic growth is closely related to energy demand;therefore the need for oil and gas is projected to grow more.
Aniruddha Vilekar, Chief Technical Officer & Head- Marketing, Ador Welding Limited

The international pipeline industry and contractors aim at supplying safe and economic solutions for transmitting liquid or gaseous media from their source of origin.
V. V. Kamath, Managing Director, Fronius India Private Limited

D-ARC welding is an advanced high efficiency CO2/MAG welding system for joining thick mild steel plates welding up to 19mm in single pass.
Kiran Thamankar, Dy. Gen Manager, OTC Daihen India Pvt Ltd

There is tremendous growth potential for cellulosic electrodes in India mainly spurred by government’s intention to move towards gas-based economy.
Amrityoga, Sr Manager –Marketing, Panasonic Welding Systems India