The family business will produce more than 12 kilometres of GluBi® pipes in manufactured lengths of 12 metres, as well as pup pieces, for customer welding tests and certifications. BUTTING will also deliver fixed GluBi® pipe lengths (0.7 m, 2 m and 3 m), which the customer requires for laying the pipeline. The pipes will be supplied in pipe size 323.9 x (15.9 + 3.0) mm. For technical reasons, the customer decided on the material combination of DNVGL SMLS 450 SFPD for the outer carbon-manganese steel and UNS S31603 for the corrosion-resistant liner. The inner ends are weld clad with UNS N06625.
The glue bonded mechanically lined pipes will be used in the HOD project. The HOD oil field is located in Block 2/11 in the southern part of the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The field was discovered back in 1974 and oil was extracted from 1990 to 2012. Now the HOD oil field is being redeveloped using new technology. An unmanned platform, which will be connected to the Valhall Central Complex, will be used for this.
Christian Bölter, Head of Project Management for Clad Pipes, is evidently proud: "Our customer was won over by the advantages of GluBi® pipes: these mechanically lined pipes can be laid using a reel-lay process, without using inner pressure or increasing the wall thickness of the corrosion-resistant liner. This allows installation costs in the project to be reduced and potential material cost savings to be exploited at the same time."
Thomas Schüller, Managing Director of BUTTING in Knesebeck, adds: "We have planned the production of our first GluBi® order in detail and can implement the project-specific requirements thanks to our many years of experience with clad pipes. We have also given our employees very intensive training in recent months and passed what the development team has learnt from the certification programme on to our production employees. I am delighted that our courageous investment in this innovative product has been rewarded by this order from the market."
GluBi® pipes
After many years of development work, last year BUTTING brought to market a glue bonded mechanically lined pipe, which can be installed using the reel-lay method. Since the end of 2019, this product has been certified in accordance with DNVGL-RP-A203 as a "Statement of Qualified Technology". The principle behind the pipe is ground-breaking: it is based on a mechanically lined BuBi® pipe that features an additional special adhesive between the carbon-manganese steel and the corrosion-resistant liner. The pipes can be produced in sizes ranging from OD 168.3 mm (6") to OD 457.2 mm (18").
BUTTING – Progress by Tradition