Fibrex FRP Piping Systems

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPLYING WITH FRP SPECIFICATIONS Obviously, specifications serve an important function in the design and fabrication of custom engineered FRP equipment. Most are written by knowledgeable engineers who are tasked with ensuring that the equipment fabricated to these specifications performs well and has a long lifespan. Yet sometimes, specifications are not followed during the design or fabrication stages (or followed closely enough), and if noncompliance is discovered, not rectified sufficiently for complete compliance. Usually the FRP fabricator gets blamed, but other stakeholders suffer as well, such as project engineers, third party inspectors, installation contractors, and end users.

Not enforcing or complying with specifications can give the entire industry a black eye when FRP equipment fails as a result. In a corrosive environment, a failure can cause serious environmental and public relations issues and possibly injure people. Specifications should be taken seriously to help ensure these problems never occur.

Here's a partial list of some of the more common places where FRP equipment specifications are not met:

Insufficient Liner Thickness
Insufficient Structural Thickness
Incorrect Resin Selection
Insufficient Tee & Fl**ge Tabbing
Poor Secondary Bonding Procedures
Excess Void Content
FOD (Foreign Object Debris) in Laminate
Incorrect Physical Dimensions
Lack of Coupon Retention
Improper Installation
Insufficient Quantity or Non-FRP Specific Supports

With that in mind, sometimes a deviation from specification is in the best interest of the project. This can happen because a boilerplate spec was written for unknown future projects, and therefore not tailored to the circumstances of any one project. In such a case, the specification should describe a procedure to be followed for examination and approval of the appropriate spec change.

On any project, there are many different ways specifications can fail to be met, and some can lead to serious consequences and high repair costs. For more information, contact Diamond Fiberglass or Diamond Services.

Designing & Fabricating FRP Vessels for the Intended Use

Engineered FRP vessels are highly tailored products. That means that the particular resins, initiators and reinforcement fabrics used to fabricate these vessels were chosen specifically from dozens of choices, with one goal in mind; to provide the customer a vessel with the best performance and durability.

Diamond uses the information provided by the customer to select materials and fabrication methods, and if the information is incorrect or incomplete, then it is possible an FRP vessel may be subjected to a condition that wasn't anticipated, and the asset may not meet the goal of best performance and durability. Despite our extensive experience and best efforts to ask all relevant questions, sometimes vessels are used for different purposes once the vessel has left our factory and is "out in the wild".

Storage Vessel used as Reaction Vessel
Sometimes specifications will state that a tank is intended to be a "storage vessel" for a particular substance. But the specifications don't clarify that one substance is mixed with one or more different substances in the tank. The result could be a dilution of concentration, or a chemical reaction, neither of which was anticipated when the materials of fabrication were chosen. These reactions may result in a vessel exceeding its design conditions (such as temperature or pressure).

Atmospheric Vessel used as Pressure Vessel
Another issue that arises from time to time is a vessel rated for atmospheric service but at some point it is converted to a closed system that pressurizes the vessel. An example is when an owner re-routes the vent to a scrubber system which can create vacuum or back pressure on the vessel. Some standards such as ASME RTP-1 try to prevent this scenario by requiring atmospheric tanks to use fixed non-removable vents.

Operating conditions never anticipated
"Off spec moments" can also introduce conditions that are not anticipated in the original specifications. Such moments can be the result of an annual cleaning, human error or equipment malfunction. Other scenarios occur when owners "repurpose" vessels for different services than they were designed.
While the off spec moments may never be able to be anticipated, operating outside of the original specification design or repurposing a used vessel can be checked for acceptability by reaching out to the original vessel fabricator for guidance.

For more information, visit diamondfiberglass.com or diamondservices.com.

FRP Equipment Prices: Same Story As Almost Any Product Anywhere

Less than two years ago the US national average price of gasoline was under $2.00 per gallon, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Remember those days? As of this writing, it is close to $4.50 per gallon, and likely still going up. You probably don't want to think about that.

It's the same story across the board in fuels, metals, plastics, housing, cars and trucks, machinery... You name it, the price of it has climbed substantially in that last two years. Unfortunately, FRP tanks and pipes don't get a pass, due to the price increases of resin and fiberglass used in their fabrication. The prices for those materials, while 80%+ higher than they were 24 months ago, have not climbed as much as some metals, such as stainless steel. It's hard to feel thankful for that, isn't it?

Furthermore, the prices we see now will probably look attractive compared to what we may be seeing in the months to come. Predicting the future is always dangerous, of course, but when we put our ears to the tracks, we hear the rumblings of continued price increases, albeit slower than last year. Price stabilization is our current hope and near term price drops seem just like wishful thinking.

Headwinds to price stabilization/decreases include:

Raw material inputs continue to increase in cost, driven by basic chemicals, energy, labor.
Lack of competition in raw material supply (imports are down, port logistics are challenging).
Strong demand continues for composite fabricated products. The corrosion market for FRP pipe and vessels competes for raw materials with other products in high demand: wind blades, FRP infrastructure shapes, RV's, boats, industrial coatings, etc.
Lack of supply stability. Without sufficient safety inventory in the supply chain, any disruption upstream ripples through to the consumers.
Shortages for hazmat transportation (both import and inland) are raising delivery prices
Fuel for delivery of finished goods

The only way to see any upside in this market is that while prices are still not stable, the rate of increase has slowed from this time last year and we are seeing some improvements in raw material supply. We need to return to an environment where we can reliably forecast price increases throughout the lifespan of a project. Perhaps the recent slowdown in price increases is the first indication we are headed in the right direction.

For more information regarding FRP tank and pipe prices, please contact Diamond Fiberglass at diamondfiberglass.com.

FRP FLANGES: INSTALLATION MISTAKES
Years ago I took a call from the supervisor of an installation crew who was installing FRP pipe we manufactured. I could tell from the background noise he was in the field working with his team. And he was upset; I mean he was livid. He'd just discovered that most of the first dozen or so FRP fl**ges his crew had bolted up were cracked. And he was looking to pin the blame on the manufacturer of those fl**ges.
While I had him on the phone, I quickly looked at our QC documents. All spools had passed with almost no re-work. And I had a lot of confidence in my fabricating team and in-house QA inspector. So I started asking questions:
Is this installation job going worse than the last FRP pipe installation his crew did? "First time installing FRP pipe." Red Flag #1.
What tools are the crew using to tighten the bolts? "Impact wrenches". Red Flag #2
Has this crew installed steel pipe in the past? "No, new crew from a temp agency". Red Flag #3
There were more questions but you can see where this is going. After further discussion, he acknowledged that his installation team had not followed the correct procedures. But, while I could rush replacement fl**ges to him, they could only be installed on the pipe ends by a crew that had been trained properly. This was going to cost him money and a delayed installation.

Properly installing FRP fl**ges is easy when you know the procedure. End users might have their own site procedures and requirements but installers should always request the information (if it wasn't provided to you) by the equipment manufacturer.
One procedure that is often used is to tighten each nut until it makes contact with the fl**ge, then follow the proper bolting pattern (such as a star pattern) to tighten to 25% of the torque specification. Then follow the bolting pattern to reach 50% of torque spec, follow the bolting pattern to 75% of torque spec, and finally follow the bolting pattern to 100% of torque spec (not a bit more!). Ratchet wrenches are OK, but not impact wrenches.
But again, consult the procedure for each project and piece of equipment.
For more information, please contact diamondfiberglass.com