Denso Group Germany (Leverkusen, Germany) is now supplying corrosion prevention materials for ~3,000 steel pipe welded seams for the construction of the MONACO natural gas transport line east of Munich, Germany.
The MONACO line is designed to transport gas from and to large natural gas storage facilities in Bavaria and Austria, the manufacturer says. Completion of the work is scheduled for 2018, and the new pipeline is expected to be commissioned later that year.
As part of a project for the field-joint coating of the steel pipes, the DENSOLEN two-tape system will be installed on a 40-km stretch of pipeline with nominal diameters of up to 48 in (121.9 cm). Using the -N60 and -S20 models, the system is designed for use at consistently high operating temperatures, making it an ideal solution for this long-distance gas line—which can withstand pressures of up to 10,000 kPa.
The tape system has already been used in other major German pipeline projects, the company explains.
For this project, automation was said to be a very important consideration. To that end, the company says its petrol-fueled or electric DENSOMAT-11 wrapping devices will be used to guarantee application reliability for the tape while automatically maintaining a constant winding tension and overlap width.
On this job, three of these machines will be available for use on the pipeline. According to an official with construction contractor DENYS, the device is “easily twice as fast” as manual application equipment, the company explains.
Meanwhile, the DENSOMAT-KGR Junior—a separate, smaller winding device—is manually operated, light, and flexible. It will be used for coating short pipe bends or for use on difficult-to-access spaces, such as the steep slope that could present an installation challenge on this project.
With both the tape systems and the specially designed wrapping devices, the company says it is providing a complete corrosion prevention solution for the field-joint coating of the steel pipes on the MONACO gas line.