Fast Manufacture of Thermoplastic Composite Pipes for use in Aggressive Environments

The oil and gas industry is a hugely important business within the UK. More than 89,000 km
of pipelines and control lines will be installed globally from 2012-2016
(http://tinyurl.com/7rw2hoh) but new oil fields are increasingly being found in more extreme
environments where traditional steel pipeline technology is reaching its limits.
Fully bonded composite pipes can be manufactured in continuous lengths and offer
advantages over steel pipes in oil and gas applications, particularly offshore, where their
resistance to corrosion, wax hydrates, fatigue and embrittlement as well as rapid installation
can significantly reduce installation and through-life costs. Other benefits of composite pipe
include improved spooling at small diameters, no or few joints leading to lower failure rates,
fully bonded systems with excellent collapse resistance, effective load transfer at joints
through solid construction, excellent rapid gas decompression resistance, reduction in top
tension through lower weight and improved thermal properties for flow assurance.
This project aims to build on existing research that has proven the feasibility to effectively
manufacture thermoplastic composite pipes with excellent mechanical properties and the
advantages described above. In order to take the technical feasibility towards commercial
reality it is necessary to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing cell both in terms of
throughput and energy use. This project will demonstrate an order of magnitude improvement
in the manufacturing rate of thermoplastic composite pipes through innovations in machine
design, heating and consolidation means and by doing so will demonstrate the commercial
effectiveness of such technology to economically compete against traditional steel and
flexible pipeline technology whilst improving on their capabilities.