Portable forge bonding is safer, faster, more reliable and more cost effective than traditional solutions for repairs and upgrades regularly required in refineries, terminals and storage facilities containing combustible fluids.
Mat Rybicki, President and CEO, ForgeTech
Aging, leaking tanks must be continually patched. Valves are typically repaired using drill and tap methods that provide only a temporary fix and introduce a safety hazard.
Luckily, we have seen forge bonding products enter into the market. Over the past six years, hundreds of forge bonding repairs and upgrades have been performed at major refineries in North and South America. This article describes the difference between forge bonding and traditional repair methods using the example of a typical storage tank leak repair.
Traditional repair methods
Repairing and maintaining hydrocarbon processing equipment are typically performed using two very different methods. The first method is to plan and schedule equipment off-line and out of usable service. This includes steps such as purging, cleaning and vapor freeing activities prior to making the actual repair itself. Oil refineries, chemical plants, storage facilities, paper mills and loading terminals schedule planned outages on their process equipment based on specific criteria: equipment fouling; inspection data; thermo-cycling, known metal fatigue; lifecycle analysis and regulatory/safety requirements.
The second method is to make unscheduled repairs to the equipment. This is achieved by either performing an unplanned outage on the equipment or by initiating repairs while the equipment remains in service. Making repairs without first removing the equipment from service is commonly referred to as making an on-line repair. Unscheduled repairs are a result of conditions leading to a need for repairs that were foreseen, overlooked or deferred until a later date.
Off-line repairs and upgrades are performed using traditional and specialty welding processes. Unscheduled repairs are typically performed online using liquid polymer cold patch solutions.
Forge bonding repair solutions
Forge bonding is a mechanically engineered repair alternative to cold patching. This repair is a mechanically bolted lap plate similar in design to welded lap patches identified by API standards. The attachment studs are forge bonded onto the vessel around the leak area using proprietary forge bonding technology in preparation for installation of the gasket and lap plate. The studs are spun onto the metal surface of the vessel by a compressed air motor, thereby eliminating the need for any external utilities at the repair site except for a 120-psi air hose. It takes approximately three seconds to install a stud.
The stud has superior holding strength over conventionally welded studs. By evaluating the leak area and utilizing computer- assisted stress modeling in the lap plate design, the repair actually performs as a doubler pad, thus returning structural integrity to the vessel to near original design. This equates to a repair far superior than polymer cold patching. In addition, the facility engineer is offered an engineered document of the repair for the fixed equipment records.
Benefits of forge bonding
There are several benefits to using forge bonding solutions instead of traditional solutions: Temperatures on the back side of a bond are a fraction of that of welding which allows safer handling; bonding can be performed anywhere in the facility within hours and the bonding process itself is completed in seconds; the resultant bond is stronger than the base metal and is more corrosion-resistant, making it more reliable than other methods of repair; and the cost to bond is comparable to welding or epoxy solutions. When taking into account avoidance of off-line service, savings grow.
When considering your alternatives for in-service repairs and safety upgrades at your facility, you should know there is now a safer, stronger and more cost-effective solution -- forge bonding.
For more information, visit www.forgetechinc.com or call (888) 854-8414.
