The pipe and tube applications include offshore drilling, onshore above ground pipe lines and underground transmission piping for gas and water.

Customers use our laser vision systems to improve productivity and quality by doing joint tracking, adaptive control, verification of part fit-up prior to welding and real time weld inspection.

Transmission spiral pipe

Our systems are used for the complete range of spiral mill welded products including piles, water, slurry, oil and gas pipelines.  Many of our customers are working to stringent API, ASME, AWWA and AWS welding standards and rely on laser seam tracking to ensure that high quality is maintained.

We have extensive experience with all types of spiral pipe mills, including conventional (under slung and over slung) and two stage mills.

U-O pipe welding

Many of these installations involve multiple electrodes in conjunction with the Submerged Arc Welding process that are capable of fabricating a variety of pipe diameters and lengths with varying joint preparations. 

The tracking system maintains precise wire position both in the joint and with respect to the stand off distance from the surface of the pipe which insures a consistent wire stickout.

In addition, the measurement of the joint gap and volume is fed back to the welding machine to automatically modify the welding parameters (travel speed, current and voltage) to optimize the weld quality.

Offshore oil rig riser tube welding

To improve the weld quality for these tubes, laser vision tracking and inspection systems have been utilized for both the inside and outside welds. 

The circumferential welds involve root, fill and cap passes which are made with a combination of GTAW and either GMAW or SAW.  The placement of each pass and layer as well as the final weld shape is critical to achieve optimum weld strength and fatigue life.