Manufacturing & Installation Process

Our Smartpipe^® portable climate-controlled factory is mobilized to manufacture Smartpipe either on the job-site or in close proximity to the right-of-way—the only composite pipeline manufacturing and installation process of its kind. It manufactures and simultaneously installs very long segments of high-pressure reinforced composite pipe. Smartpipe^® is pulled into a failed or failing pipeline with only minimal excavation at the entry and exit points, or laid into a trench as a direct lay pipeline. Continuous manufacturing and installation produces Smartpipe at approximately one mile per day, reducing downtime. Pre-manufacturing and layout on the project site allows for much faster installation speeds, increasing the 24-hour installation lengths when downtime is critical.

In order to maximize the ID of the Smartpipe^® system being inserted into a host steel pipeline, the Smartpipe^® is C-formed prior to the insertion. This reduces the circumference by approximately 30%. After the pull through, the C-formed pipe is re-rounded to become a close fit inside the host pipeline. Using the portable factory, Smartpipe^® can be manufactured in long continuous lengths of up to several miles. This means that the complete pipeline length does not need to be dug up to replace the pipeline. The long continuous length means that the number of termination and in-line couplings are minimized, exponentially increasing pipeline integrity.

As the only high-pressure solution of its type in larger diameter composite pipe, the current portable factory manufactures 4-inch to 14-inch internal diameters. The next-generation factory is being designed to make larger diameter pipe, up to 20-inch ID.