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Elastopipe: Safety Pipe for Oil Rigs
Elastopipe: Safety Pipe for Oil Rigs
Trelleborg AB
Trelleborg has developed a product, that can withstand a jet fire – the cause of the Piper Alpha disaster. The product, elastopipe, is already in use on several platforms, primarily in the North Sea.
It was 9:31 p.m. on July 6, 1988 when the alarm sounded. The Piper Alpha oil platform off the British coast was burning. The fire was intensive and spread rapidly. Within seconds, the entire platform was ablaze and had split in two. A total of 167 persons lost their lives. The cause of the fire was a leak in a pipe that started what is called a jet fire. This is a very explosive fire that can reach a temperature of 1,300°C within a few seconds. The flame, which was as hot as a welding arc, quickly burned out the water circulation system, making it impossible to save the platform.
Since this accident, Trelleborg has developed a product, Elastopipe, that can withstand a jet fire, while offering a number of other unique benefits. The product is already being used on several platforms, primarily in the North Sea. The product was developed by Trelleborg Viking A/S located in Mjondalen, Norway, about -50 kilometers west of Oslo. Development manager Kyrre Sjotun has lived with the development of Elastopipe for just over ten years. “In 1990, we started a project together with several other stakeholders to develop a non-combustible material that would also be toxin-free and not produce any smoke,” relates Kyrre. “Six years later, we had developed the basic principles for the material used to produce Elastopipe, was subsequently improved and continues to be refined.”
Norwegian government financing
The principal financiers of the project are the Norwegian government and the Statoil, Hydro, BP/Amcon and Phillips oil companies. With so many participants, each with different priorities, development work needed to take many different requirements and objectives into consideration. The initial requirement, which was that the material should be able to with-stand a jet fire, was supplement-ed by a number of others along the way. However, Elastopipe, Kyrre Sjotun and Trelleborg Viking succeeded in meeting all of these requirements.
To rationalize development work, Trelleborg Viking built a test rig in Norway that is considered one of the most advanced of its kind in the world. Several hundred tests have been conducted on this rig, which remains in use for continuous testing each week, mean-ing that it will play a key role in ongoing development. The rig allows many different possible, as well as completely impossible, scenarios to be simulated. Exactly the desired combination of flame speed, temperature and heat flux parameters can be created for testing.
Must withstand temperatures of 1,400°C
“Through testing, we have determined that the material should withstand a gas flame with an initial speed of 270 meters per second, an entry speed in the material of 110 meters per second and a temperature of 1,400° C,” says Kyrre Sjotun. “Naturally, we are not willing to reveal the secret behind Elastopipe’s unique characteristics, but I can say that an important property is that the material `sweats,’ which means that it will not start burning,” continues Sjotun.
To date, some NOK 7 million in development costs- has been invested annually. These costs are shared by the project sponsors, comprising the Norwegian government and a number of oil companies. Continued development is not expected to be as costly and will focus more on handling other derivatives, such as gas and oil, and possibly being able to offer a material in other colors for customers who wish to customize their equipment using their own color schemes.
Simpler, more efficient installation
“Elastopipe is based on synthetic rubber. Basically, it is a method for transporting water, a pipe, that at the same time must meet a number of different and very stringent requirements, of which the most fundamental is that it must with-stand the special form of fire called jet fire. Today the product can replace the steel and titanium pipes that are used on many of the world’s oil platforms. We can now compete with all the materials and dimensions used in this market,” notes Kyrre Sjotun.
“Another very important competitive advantage of Elastopipe is that installation is simpler than for competing materials,” continues Sjotun. “It is faster, in part because the pipe is easy to bend, but also because it is not necessary to stop production while installation is in progress, since no `hot work,’ such as welding, is required.”
Significant potential in a fast-growing market
Erik Leknes, president of Trelleborg Viking is very optimistic about Elasto-pipe’s prospects. “It’s always risky to make promises, but we see tremendous potential for Elastopipe, which is clearly our company’s most important product right now,” says Leknes. “We also already see that the product’s unique properties mean that it can play an important role and has a significant competitive advantage.”
How will the product be developed in the future?
“The basic application will remain the same, meaning transporting water even when a fire as violent as a jet fire erupts. One possible line of development that I foresee is that we may be able to develop a material that is thinner. We are also working to develop additional dimensions for the pipe. Currently, we offer dimensions from one to six inches. Our ambition develop an eight-inch pipe,” says Erik Leknes.
Safety standards drive the market
Customers are primarily major oil companies, including Statoil, Hydro, BP and Phillips but also companies, such as Kvaerner, Brown & Root and ABB, which provide maintenance for various types of deep–sea platforms. Customers are distributed geographically according to how high safety requirements are in their particular environments. Today’s customers are thus found in North Sea, where safety standards are high, followed by Australia, Great Britain and the Gulf, or Mexico, in that order.
Elastopipe is currently used on some 20 oil platforms primarily in the North Sea. These platforms are located in fields well known in the industry, such as Statfjorfelt and Elkofisk, the oil field where Norway’s oil adventure began.
Business and commerce are totally dependent on electrical equipment and systems for energy, control and communications. These systems can be complex and the task to analyze failure consequences can be equally complex. Unrecognized consequence of failure, especially if the failure impacts personnel safety, can have unacceptable moral and legal implications as well as significant financial costs. Recent trends in workplace electrical safety shed new light on reliability needs for certain equipment in electric power and control systems. One trend is the increasing attention given to mitigating arc flash hazards in electric power systems.
Business and commerce are totally dependent on electrical equipment and systems for energy, control and communications. These systems can be complex and the task to analyze failure consequences can be equally complex. Unrecognized consequence of failure, especially if the failure impacts personnel safety, can have unacceptable moral and legal implications as well as significant financial costs. Recent trends in workplace electrical safety shed new light on reliability needs for certain equipment in electric power and control systems. One trend is the increasing attention given to mitigating arc flash hazards in electric power systems.
Significant engineering and test efforts
have been undertaken in the last few years into the area of arc flash/blast hazards in electrical equipment. The result has been a better understanding of arcing faults and how to prevent and/or minimize the hazards to personnel and equipment. This paper highlights some of the findings that may help in safety management and equipment selection. This paper concludes with some design considerations that will help reduce the hazards of arcing faults.
Significant engineering and test efforts
have been undertaken in the last few years into the area of arc flash/blast hazards in electrical equipment. The result has been a better understanding of arcing faults and how to prevent and/or minimize the hazards to personnel and equipment. This paper highlights some of the findings that may help in safety management and equipment selection. This paper concludes with some design considerations that will help reduce the hazards of arcing faults.
The challenge of managing the aspects of occupational health and safety (OH&S) in the workplace can often times feel overwhelming. There are many legal, moral and financial reasons for you to pay attention to OH&S obligations. With all of these challenges, it's important not to waste time, money or place efforts on things that simply don't work. In terms of successfully managing OH&S issues, the following Top 10 list includes some of the common errors that organizations make.
The challenge of managing the aspects of occupational health and safety (OH&S) in the workplace can often times feel overwhelming. There are many legal, moral and financial reasons for you to pay attention to OH&S obligations. With all of these challenges, it's important not to waste time, money or place efforts on things that simply don't work. In terms of successfully managing OH&S issues, the following Top 10 list includes some of the common errors that organizations make.
Monday, August 11th is the first day of this year’s OSHA Safe+Sound Week 2025. This is a nationwide, year-round campaign with the goal to encourage workplaces of all kinds to implement a successful safety and health program. It is a time to act, reflect on, and recognize efforts your organization has taken to improve safety through the year.
Monday, August 11th is the first day of this year’s OSHA Safe+Sound Week 2025. This is a nationwide, year-round campaign with the goal to encourage workplaces of all kinds to implement a successful safety and health program. It is a time to act, reflect on, and recognize efforts your organization has taken to improve safety through the year.
A confined space is defined as a workspace that is fully or partially enclosed, is not designed or intended for continuous human occupancy and has limited or restricted access, exiting or an internal configuration that can complicate provisions of first aid, evacuation, rescue or other emergency response services. Confined spaces can be found in almost all industries in Canada, which include tunnels, mines, grain silos, hydro vaults, shipping compartments, pump stations, boilers, chemical tanks and more. Every confined space is considered to be hazardous unless deemed not so by a competent person through a hazard identification and risk assessment.
A confined space is defined as a workspace that is fully or partially enclosed, is not designed or intended for continuous human occupancy and has limited or restricted access, exiting or an internal configuration that can complicate provisions of first aid, evacuation, rescue or other emergency response services. Confined spaces can be found in almost all industries in Canada, which include tunnels, mines, grain silos, hydro vaults, shipping compartments, pump stations, boilers, chemical tanks and more. Every confined space is considered to be hazardous unless deemed not so by a competent person through a hazard identification and risk assessment.
Reactive maintenance is here defined as all maintenance work that was scheduled less than 20 hours before it was executed. It makes sense that there is a strong correlation between safety incidents, injuries and reactive maintenance. In a reactive situation you might not take the time you should to plan and think before you take action. The urgency also call out the so common hero in maintenance crafts people and they take risks they should not take.
Reactive maintenance is here defined as all maintenance work that was scheduled less than 20 hours before it was executed. It makes sense that there is a strong correlation between safety incidents, injuries and reactive maintenance. In a reactive situation you might not take the time you should to plan and think before you take action. The urgency also call out the so common hero in maintenance crafts people and they take risks they should not take.
Due to a particularly harsh and active hurricane season, the US Chemical Safety Board is urging chemical companies to properly prepare facilities for extreme weather as soon as possible. With increasingly frequent and damaging weather on the rise due to climate change, it is important to have a plan in place for hurricanes and other natural disasters to protect the site personnel and people living in the surrounding area from harm and danger related to compromised production facilities.
Due to a particularly harsh and active hurricane season, the US Chemical Safety Board is urging chemical companies to properly prepare facilities for extreme weather as soon as possible. With increasingly frequent and damaging weather on the rise due to climate change, it is important to have a plan in place for hurricanes and other natural disasters to protect the site personnel and people living in the surrounding area from harm and danger related to compromised production facilities.
