McElroy India has completed its first large-diameter HDPE pipe project and its success — along with an appreciation letter from the client — gives them every reason to believe that this is only the beginning of the large-diameter projects they will accomplish in India.
Against competition from local vendors, McElroy India and Dura-Line India were selected for an industrial project after a quality team inspected a TracStar® 900 machine at McElroy India’s office in Bangalore.
The TracStar® 900 allows operators to make consistent, high-quality joints. One of the many advantages is the fusion carriage which is mounted on a rugged track system that is a self-propelled, all-terrain vehicle. Because the TracStar is self-contained with an onboard generator, the need for a separate power source on the jobsite is eliminated. The carriage can also be easily removed and converted from 4 to 3 jaws for a smaller unit to fuse pipe in close quarters or in the ditch.
The client, Paradeep Phosphates Limited, is a leading fertilizer company with a 12,000,000 metric-ton capacity. The pipeline carries gypsum in slurry from the plant to the catchment area which is about a 3.5km (2.2 miles) distance.
McElroy India provided onsite technical assistance for the machine operation. They were able to complete the project in 62 days with zero failures in the joints. This was a vast improvement on a similar job that was done previously using a traditional machine which took six months to complete the job. This built confidence in the client who instructed the fusion team to change most of their flange joints to butt joints. They were also able to increase the pipeline pressure to 7kg/cm2 from 3kg/cm2 used in previous pipelines. This allowed them to double their production of gypsum slurry.
The entire project was also enhanced with the McElroy DataLogger® which recorded each step of the fusion process to demonstrate traceability and joint consistency and quality along with GPS stamping of fusion locations.
Regional Director Bharath Rao of McElroy India said this job no doubt gives them an edge in the fusion market. His team looks forward to working with the client on future projects as well as more large-diameter projects in India.
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