Progressive Pipeline Management

a sense.” BVM: What is the process for installing the Starline product? Wickersham: “The company that owns the pipe (PSE&G for example) prepares it for us; they excavate, make access, and shut down the gas. Then PPM comes to the job site. The pipe repair could be 500 feet or 1000 feet. We just completed another world record in March, doing the longest single inversion of 36 inch gas mains at 890 feet. When we show up to the pipe, we put a camera in and do a pre-inspection, then use an abrasive cleaning system and blast that pipe down to near-white metal, following a NACE 2 standard. Next, we prepare for the lining. using a two-component epoxy mixed onsite and applied inside the liner. The liner has two parts – a fused-on polyurethane/polyethylene blended seamless coating on the outside of the liner when we start, and inside the liner is a polyester sock. The epoxy is then put inside the sock, saturating the polyester completely. That’s called our wet-out process. “The liner is then wound onto a large pressure vessel or drum that is rolled over or driven to the excavation. It’s hooked up through hose units from the drum to the pipe; we then pressurize the drum. Air goes through the pipe and the liner is pushed inside out on itself, which is called an inversion. Now the wet polyester side of the liner is turned inside out, coming in contact with the clean pipe, and we’re pushing that liner through the stretch of pipe that needs to be lined. It’s done under pressure and when it hits our desired end of the pipe, the liner comes out and is caught in a braced-off catch fitting. We let the liner cure, ambiently, and when it’s ready we cut it flush to the pipe end and give it back to the utility to pressure test and tie in.” BVM: Why is cast iron pipe so prone to remediation work? Ragula: “Large diameter cast iron is very thick,