Spooling and Checks

Pipe spool generation makes sure that all pipe spools include the necessary adjustments to be suitable for production in an automatic and configurable manner. The following must be considered:

• Spooling must be part of design and pipe production.

• The limit of pipe spool can be manually set.

• Pipe production checks must be a one step application, available interactively via a window and also in bulk mode for any list of pipe spools built from an explorer level. For example, blocks and areas.

• A spool can contain the following pipe components:

  • Welded Flanges

  • Lap joint flanges and stub ends

  • Caps

  • Bended pipes

  • Stub in branches, for example OLET or SET-ON TEE

  • Branch build via extrusion

  • Welds

  • Couplings

  • Any other manually welded components.

• The bending logic addresses the complete pipe bending process information in a comprehensive manner in order to make sure all design configurations can be effectively produced. Machine welding and extrusions are tested in the same way.

• The following general errors can occur:

  • Minimum distances for bending not met

  • Collision with bottom, bending machine or other constraints defined by collision planes

  • Height for extrusion machine does not allow extrusion

  • Minimum distances between welds not fulfilled.

• All errors display an error message. The error message must be meaningful and combined with visualization. Guided changes are possible, for example, for additional excesses or switches to manual bends.

• The dimensions and constraints of fabrication machines are stored in configuration tables in the Fabrication Machine World. The Fabrication Machine World can be attached on a branch, a pipe or for a complete zone. A link can be set from the piping specification to the Fabrication Machine World and is used during piping.

• If flanges are welded before bending there is an impact on the bending process. The bending machine must have a clutch, which can grip a flanged end, this influences the maximum pipe length for bending.

• During bending, welding and extrusion checks, a custom configurable optimization can be applied to minimize costs or waste of material. You can assign an individual order for the optimization, this is then considered by the pipe fabrication check algorithm. In each case the algorithm checks both bending directions, if both are possible, the optimization criteria is used to decide the welding and bending process.

• You can override fabrication checks and optimization. For example, you can manually define a clutch piece or an explicit feed length. When a manual override is entered, the bending check algorithm considers the override and only tests, for example, the predefined working direction.

• The most cost effective way of fabrication, is mechanical fabrication in a workshop. For welding, bending and extruding, pipe production checks must be carried out to verify machine specific dimensions. If this is not possible, the pipe length is estimated and cut to an exact size at a later date.

• Additional cuts are allowed:

  • A bended elbow can be cut down to the radius.

  • For flanges at the end of a straight pipe, with an extrusion, the pipe is oversized to allow for extrusion and cut prior to flange welding.

  • Between two elbows, a feed excess must be added to allow for grip length. The excess is cut to an exact size at a later date. The resulting two pieces are welded together, leading to an additional weld.