Digital Platform for Defect-free Plastic Pipes Welding (DIGIPIPEWELD)

The DIGIPIPEWELD project will develop a suite of solutions eliminating existing areas of concern in the joining of plastic pipes, where new pipelines often experience premature failure during the installation phase or during service. Due to this failure model, contractors are obliged to carry out destructive testing and non-destructive testing (NDT) on a percentage of operational joints on-site as a route to ensure quality management. This is very costly, typically \>£500 per joint and \> £1000/day. The disruptive element of our project will deliver for the first time an ability to simultaneously weld a joint, while testing the results against known parameters and avoiding possible failures. Furthermore, the system will be autonomous and will eliminate risk associated with human error. DIGIPIPEWELD will offer manufacturing and self-testing of pipe welds in a right-first-time package, something that has never been done before.

The technology to be developed is a digitally intelligent controlled Pinweld plastic pipe welding system. The system will be designed to join polymer pipes without defects and will be coupled with sophisticated machine-learning algorithms, enabling the joints to be optimised and recorded, whatever the application and climate. The system will be developed with advanced sensing, data processing, and machine learning to achieve accurate process monitoring, autonomous quality inspection after welding, and real-time leakage detection. This would bring a level of control to plastic pipe installation never before available.

Consequently, a brand-new way to join plastic pipes that is highly controllable and reproducible and produces a joint of the same physical properties of the original pipe, offering a game-changing opportunity for any plastic pipe installation. Moreover, greater speed and efficiency, lower energy consumption, plus the added ability to monitor and report, through built-in sensors, will offer installers across the range of sectors a robust, safe, and secure process.