91ÌìÌÃÔ­„“

The pipeline industry is the backbone of energy and resource transportation, requiring high precision and reliability to meet stringent safety and durability standards. Pipelines, both onshore and offshore, involve complex assemblies, long project timelines, and a demand for highly skilled labour. Traditionally, welding – one of the most critical stages in pipeline construction – has relied heavily on manual skill, especially when fabricating pipe spools that involve intricate connections and specific geometries.

Companies are increasingly turning to automation as the industry faces pressure to reduce project timelines and costs, along with a shortage of skilled welders. Orbital welding machines, widely adopted for the main pipeline welds, have been instrumental in improving weld quality and consistency. Now, a new wave of automation is focusing on pipe spool welding. One example is Bin Quraya, a construction firm in Saudi Arabia, which has expanded its automation efforts beyond pipeline welding to embrace the benefits of automated pipe spool welding with Tecnar’s Rotoweld 3.0 and its welding intelligence technology, PerfectPass-iQ.

Challenges in pipe spool welding

Unlike the long, uniform sections of pipelines, pipe spools require custom configurations and precise fittings to connect various pipeline segments. These connections often involve complex joints with fitting and pipes that often differ slightly in geometry. Furthermore, the fit-up always needs to respect a strict finished dimension, and the welding joints are usually where there is room to adapt, making each joint unique. Skilled welders must maintain high-quality welds while contending with potential misalignment, ovality, gap variations, and the need for consistent root penetration. Given these demands, maintaining productivity and quality is a challenge, and any errors result in costly rework and project delays.

In response to these challenges, pipeline projects have increasingly turned to automation for mainline pipeline welding. Orbital welding machines have become a mainstay, ensuring precision and efficiency by automating the welding process along the continuous lengths of pipelines. Although pipe spool prefabrication in the construction and industrial sectors has embraced automation for more than 15 years, this sector of activity of pipeline fabrication has mostly still relied on manual welding, especially in Asia. However, companies like Bin Quraya are leading the way by recognising the advantages of automation for pipe spool welding.

Automation in pipeline welding and orbital welding

Bin Quraya’s journey in welding automation began with a focus on the mainline pipeline welding process. Partnering with an established provider of orbital welding services and equipment, they introduced orbital welding machines for pipeline construction. The switch to automated welding for pipeline segments streamlined their operations, reduced weld defects, and improved overall productivity.

Having successfully implemented automation for pipeline welding, Bin Quraya then turned its attention to pipe spool fabrication. This shift required a solution tailored to the unique challenges of spool welding, and they found the answer in Tecnar’s Rotoweld 3.0.

Enter automated spool welding

The Rotoweld is a pipe spool welding station that was pioneered in the 80s by Tecnar founder François Nadeau. The product became famous for being the first to deploy four-dimensional synergic welding to control the root pass with Lincoln Electric’s STT process. In 2016, Tecnar launched the third generation of the product, the Rotoweld 3.0, which truly democratised pipe spool welding automation in North America with its highly mature semi-automated welding process and extremely rugged design. Furthermore, the notion of maximised arc-on-time was put forward with the twin bay design that allows the welding robot to weld almost all the time on the active welding bay while the unactive welding bay is getting loaded with the next spool.

Nowadays, Tecnar makes the Rotoweld 3.0-iQ. This new model, introduced in 4Q23, is now a fully automatic welding station incorporating Tecnar’s welding intelligence technology, PerfectPass-iQ. This solution was designed with the specific requirements of pipe spool welding in mind, providing unparalleled consistency and speed. With PerfectPass-iQ, the welding process is fully automated, including real-time monitoring and adjustment to ensure optimal weld parameters are maintained at every step.

After acquiring the Rotoweld 3.0-iQ, Bin Quraya managed to qualify their welding procedures with Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s leading energy companies, in just a few weeks. The streamlined qualification process and rapid onboarding enabled Bin Quraya to go into production less than a month after receiving the machine. In just a few months, over 800 welded joints were completed, with a remarkably low reject rate of less than 1.6%, with only minor issues arising as operators adjusted to making fully penetrated Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) root tacks at the fit-up stations. As operators become more adept with the system, Bin Quraya aims to further reduce the reject rate to below 1%.

To access the full version of this article and get a free trial subscription to 91ÌìÌÃÔ­„“ Pipelines, sign up here!

Read the article online at: /special-reports/03032025/the-future-of-pipe-spool-welding/