New and improved steel pre-treatment

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

Shawcor Norway AS has a leading global position in coating 13% Cr and super duplex pipes for the oil and gas industry with more than 390 km of pipelines coated the last 10 years. This is historically achieved by using chromate as adhesion promoter, which has proven to be important for the quality of the coating on these particular steel grades. Due to new EU-regulations, chromate will be practically banned for use at the end of 2018 which means Shawcor can no longer guarantee the same quality of coating as achieved historically . The industry requirements are based on decades of experience and is believed to be minimum requirements to guarantee safe installation and operation of pipelines both onshore and offshore. A coating failure on a pipeline in operation can be catastrophic both in a production viewpoint, but especially with respect to potential environmental contamination. When pipes are installed in biologically rich and fragile areas, it is essential to be able to guarantee that these areas are protected against any unnecessary contamination. Shawcor will use the project to test new adhesion promoters and improved surface treatments for the steel pipe. This development project is an important and essential step for Shawcor to continue to supply high quality coating which is applied in a safe and environmentally friendly way.