What do our Customers get?

Global Support and Experience

• Furmanite employs more than 500 Leak Sealing Technicians and more than 30 Engineers and Designers globally
• Furmanite operates a leak sealing service in more than 15 countries (and many more via licensees)
• Market leader in many of those countries
• Worldwide presence enables overseas support
• Major Engineering Centers in the United Kingdom and United States
• Experience is gained on a global basis and disseminated throughout the group

Furmanite’s Leadership in the Leak Sealing Industry is widely recognized:

• Key part of ASME Task Group Working on Post Construction Standard for Leak Sealing
• This work will form part of a future version of the ASME PCC-2 standard
• Invited to make presentations at conferences and seminars organized by learned bodies such:
• Institution of Mechanical Engineers
• Institution of Chemical Engineers

 Some of the process industries we service:

• Thermal, Hydro and Nuclear Power Generation
• Refining
• Chemical
• Oil and Gas
• Pharmaceutical
• Iron and Steel
• Pulp and Paper
• Water / Gas Distribution
• Food Production
• Power Distribution

 Leaks from pressurized process plant may:

• Waste energy
• Damage the environment (pollution)
• Create a hazard
• Flammable fluids
• Toxic fluids
• Poor visibility
• Excessive noise
• Damage the plant
• Joint Faces
• Valve Spindles
• Affect the structural integrity of the plant

Shutting down to repair leaks may cause significant financial losses due to lost production and cause more leaks due to thermal and pressure cycling. Furmanite Leak Sealing services allow repairs to be made without interruption to normal plant operation. No down time, no production losses, a temporary repair, effective until the next scheduled or convenient shutdown / turnaround.

Hierarchy of Leak Sealing Applications

Standard Applications

• Bolted flange / gasket leaks
• Leaks from pipes and piping components
• Leaks from valve glands

Special Applications

• Specific repair techniques for particular plant components
• Techniques are known, technicians are trained, procedures exist

Engineered Solutions

• One-off repair procedures
• Driven by Furmanite engineers

Defect types and failure mechanisms addressed:

• Local wall thinning, pitting, blisters, pinholes, etc.
• Note that for very extensive wall thinning, composite repair may be the more appropriate repair technique
• External Corrosion
• Environmental corrosion
• Crevice corrosion
• Galvanic corrosion
• Corrosion under insulation (CUI) / Under lagging corrosion (ULC)
• Corrosion under pipe supports
• Internal Corrosion / Erosion / Erosion assisted Corrosion
• Leak sealing repair will not prevent further propagation of the defect
• Full extent of the defect is not obvious and may be much more extensive that it would appear
•  Cracks
• Weldments, Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) and Parent Metal
• Special care is required for the repair of cracks, which have the possibility to propagate very rapidly
• Longitudinal cracks may propagate beyond the bounds of the repair
• Circumferential cracks may propagate to cause complete pipe separation inside the repair
• Mechanical Damage
• Dents
• Gouges
• Note that enclosures over non through-wall defects, will need to filled with hard setting resin or grout, if they are to provide hoop reinforcement to the enclosed pipe
• Leaks at Gaskets
• Incorrect gasket selection
• Incorrect stud pre-load
• Flange misalignment
• Gasket seating face defects
• Leaks at Gland Seals
• Scored spindles
• Corroded spindles
• Loss or hardening of packing material

Products Sealed Worldwide

A very wide variety – including:

• Steam (most common)
• Water
• Oil
• Natural Gas
• A wide variety of gaseous and liquid chemicals
• “Chem-check” manual contains more than 300 entries
• Acids and alkali’s
• Solvents, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes
• Lubricants
• Heat transfer fluids

Process Conditions

Pressure:

• Very High (> 300 bar, 4500 psi)
• Oil, Gas, Water injection systems (offshore oil and gas production)
• High (> 100 bar, 1500 psi)
• Steam (HP), power plants
• Boiler feed water, power plants
• Moderate
• Steam (MP), power plants, refining (service)
• Low
• Vacuum

Plant Components

Plant components repaired by leak sealing include:

• Flanges
• Valves Glands
• Bolted Valve Bonnets
• Pressure Seal Bonnets
• Straight Pipe
• Elbows
• Tees
• Valve Bodies
• Expansion Joints (bellows)
• Heat Exchangers
• Pressure Vessels
• Nozzles on Vessels
• Ball Valves
• Transformers
• Wellheads
• Turbines (half joints)
• Floating Tank Roofs
• Insulation Joints (electrical)

Design Capability

Furmanite Clamp Design Software is rigorous in its application of the ASME VIII Division 1 Code rules:

• Automatically determines NDT requirements
• Automatically determines Post Weld Heat Treatment requirements
• Automatically determines Notch Toughness (Charpy Impact Test) requirements
• Parent Metal, Weld Metal and HAZ
• Rules are programmed for Carbon, Low Alloy, Cr-Mo and Austenitic Stainless Steel
• Rules are programmed for temperatures from -196°C upwards

Safety Issues

Leak Sealing is a potentially hazardous activity.

• Leak Sealing involves working on live pressurized plant that may contain hot, flammable, explosive and/or toxic fluids
• Leak Sealing also involves working on pressurized plant that is known to be defective in some way
• The nature and the extent of the defects are not always be known
• A cautious and conservative approach is required when assessing the potential hazards and the methods to be employed to mitigate those hazards
• When considering a leak sealing applications, all the “what if…” questions need to be asked and answered
• Where reasonable doubt exists, the worst case must be assumed

Flange Fastener Integrity

Factors associated with flange injection and fasteners

• Injection of compound into the flange void places some additional loads on the flange studs
• Injection Procedures minimize the additional loads
• Vessel and piping codes use large safety factors for the determination of stud bolt size and numbers
• ASME VIII Division 1 and ASME B31.3 uses a design stress based on the lower of 1/4 of specified minimum yield stress and 1/5 of specified minimum tensile strength*
• Provided that the studs and nuts are in sound condition, a significant overload can be tolerated without risk of failure
• The condition of the flange studs is critical – especially for re-injection

* These criteria apply to the most common high tensile heat treated bolting material grades such as B7, L7 etc.