IBP306_03

Pipeline Coatings & Joint Protection:

A Brief History, Conventional Thinking & New Technologies
Author: Robert Buchanan1

Copyright 2003, Brazilian Petroleum and Gas Institute - IBP

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Rio Pipeline Conference & Exposition 2003, held in October, 22-24, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro.
This paper was selected for presentation by the Event Technical Committee following review of information contained in an abstract
submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by the IBP. Organizers will neither translate nor
correct texts received. The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any position of the Brazilian Petroleum and Gas Institute, its
officers, or members. It’’s Author’’s knowledge and approval that this Technical Paper will be published in the Rio Pipeline Conference &
Exposition 2003 ““brochure””

Abstract

Pipelines have been in use since oil was discovered and the need to move it efficiently from
the well head to secondary transportation, refinery or market was first realized. Early
pipelines were obviously crude, but corrosion was understood as being a problem which
resulted in the need for corrosion preventive coatings. As coatings technology developed,
pipeline coatings became better and longer lasting but also needed to advance as pipeline-
operating conditions became more severe.

High performance pipeline coatings, such as the 3-layer polyethylene (3LPE) and, more
recently, multi-layer polypropylene (MLPP), have been developed to meet the more
demanding applications in today’’s market. Coatings are generally applied under well-
controlled factory conditions but weld joint systems need to be applied by contractors under
unpredictable field conditions and yet provide performance and quality consistent with plant
applied coatings.

Polyethylene heat-shrinkable sleeves are the most commonly used corrosion protection
system for field joints on 3LPE coated pipelines today due to their compatibility, ease of
application, reliability and extensive track record. However, there has been an absence of a
more universally accepted field joint solution for MLPP coated pipelines. This paper
ultimately describes the evolution and development of the latest generation of heat-shrinkable
sleeves for 3LPE plus a breakthrough technology in MLPP field joint coatings that has been
tested, specified and successfully used in the field on many global projects by leading
engineers and contractors, including in Brazil.

Introduction

The selection of pipeline coatings over the years has followed development of corrosion
protection materials and application technologies. From hot bituminous coatings ““granny-
ragged”” over the ditch in the early years, to epoxy and polymer based materials applied in
highly sophisticated coating plants that operate today, the technology has come a long way.
Field applied coatings for the weld area have also advanced to meet the performance of the
mainline coating and give pipeline owners confidence in having a continuous corrosion
1
Product Manager, Canusa-CPS
 IBP306_03

protection layer. This paper provides some of the history, a chronology of mainline coating
development and how today’’s field joint coatings are keeping pace.

A Brief History

Pipelines have been in use since oil was discovered in the mid-to-late 1800’’s and the need to
move it efficiently from well heads to markets was realized. Initially wooden barrels on
carriages and rail cars with wooden tanks were used but, eventually, the pipeline was invented
and, as happens when any new market opens up, entrepreneurs enter the picture. In this case,
the pipeline contractor was born. Initially, pipelines were made of wrought iron and rivets,
but that was replaced by more durable steel with welding techniques developed around 1930.
It was discovered that ferrous metals would corrode and that coatings could stop that process,
so oil based coatings, lead, jute and a variety of materials were initially used. Asphalt and
coal tar based materials were an advancement in technology, but these products were
typically applied over the ditch, took time and varied in quality dependant on the skill of the
workers.

Taking a look at our company’’s history, ShawCor’’s predecessor company started off in the
1930’’s as a general contractor that expanded into the pipeline contracting. The corrosion
coating technology continued to require over-the-ditch application but, in the 1950’’s, the
company saw the advantage of pre-coating pipe in a plant, which is now a large segment of
ShawCor’’s business.

Historically, mainline and joint coatings have been the challenge for contractors who
invariably negotiate with the pipeline owners and specifiers over what to do and how
efficiently it can be done. Times change, but some things stay the same.

Conventional Thinking

We can skip forward a half a century or so from the times when rags, asphalt and coal tar
were trucked to the right-of-way and field applied, to the more technologically advanced
coatings of today which are applied in state-of-the-art plants under ideal conditions. Figure 1
shows the advancment of coatings over the last 60 years.

2
 IBP306_03

Owners and specifiers have a wide range of choices when deciding what coating to apply to
their pipeline and, ultimately, the decision is based on performance, economics, durability and
construction limitations to name a few. In the oil & gas industry, plant applied coating
products like asphalt and coal tar have been largely replaced. Field or plant applied tape was
also popular for a long time, but that has also virtually disappeared in favour of epoxy and
polyolefin technologies. These coatings are now some of the best ever.

With the perfectly coated pipe delivered to site, this is where joint protection system becomes
critical. It is commonly recognized that when the pipe is coated in, probably, an ISO
registered plant, the steel surface is perfectly prepared and the coating is applied and tested to
be of the utmost quality. Should that then be the expectation on the right-of-way? The
reality is that once the contractor takes responsibility to weld the pipe string together and
complete the continuous corrosion coating with a field applied system, application efficiency
is paramount to reduce cost and increase speed, especially for offshore projects. Therefore,
the joint protection system must be engineered with this in mind.

Referring back to that earlier figure, the development of coatings has continually moved
forward, but where has development of joint protection systems gone? Research of joint
protection coatings obviously needs to stay in step with mainline coatings, and has, as seen
here in Figure 2.

The development of polyethylene cross-linking technologies in the 60’’s lead to currently

available heat-shrinkable sleeves, which are the most common type of field joint protection
on pipelines today. Advances in cross-linking technology moved from the use of chemicals
and inconsistent moisture curing processes to the current, more consistent, irradiation cross-
linking processes used by the major producers.

Initial adhesive technologies for heat-shrinkable sleeves were butyl mastic based, but higher
operating temperature pipelines required adhesives that would resist these temperatures
better. Also, the development adhesive technologies to create products that not only stick to
the pipeline coating and steel cutback, but also offer corrosion protection, was a critical
element. Through the 80’’s and early ‘‘90s, the types of adhesives used for sleeves, were either
3
 IBP306_03

low shear mastic or hard, hot melt based adhesives that were used in conjunction with 2-
component liquid epoxy primers.

New Technologies –– Field Joint Coatings

Following the mainline model, early joint coatings like asphalt, coal tar and cold applied tape
has been largely replaced by commonly available heat-shrinkable sleeves, field applied fusion
bonded epoxy (FBE) and, more recently, multi-component liquid applied coatings. The latter
two technologies primarily being used on FBE coated pipelines.

Relative to heat-shrinkable sleeve technology, in the mid 90’’s Canusa developed a hybrid
adhesive that had the benefits of mastics, i.e. adhesion at reasonable pre-heat (installation)
temperatures, plus shear and peel resistance offered by a hot melt adhesive.

As discussed above, another aspect of a high-performance joint protection system is an epoxy

primer. This is used to provide primary corrosion protection, as is common for 3-layer
coatings. For many years a ““wet”” primer system was used, which basically meant that the
sleeve would be applied over the joint with the uncured primer acting as a bonding layer for
the sleeve to the cutback and mainline coating. This technology had many drawbacks so
Canusa also designed a force curable primer to go with the new adhesive technology.

These advances in adhesive and epoxy primer technology have been well accepted by the
marketplace and the system shown in Figure 3 has proven itself on thousands of kilometers of
pipelines, in many Countries around the world.

Now we step into the 21st century, where drilling technologies and exploration of oil and gas
reserves are driving deeper. Since these natural resources are flowing at much higher
pressures and temperatures than ever before, operators are demanding coating performance at
much higher pipeline-operating temperatures, exceeding the limits of many historical coating
types. Polypropylene coatings have been proven to withstand pipeline-operating temperatures
of over 130qC, plus offer enhanced chemical, mechanical and thermal performance at various
thicknesses and densities. Multi-layer polypropylene coatings (MLPP) have become the
natural choice on many global projects, both onshore and offshore.
4
 IBP306_03

For many years the benefits of MLPP, over more traditional 3LPE and FBE mainline
coatings, has been well known. However, the economics and difficulties associated with
installing a field joint protection system that offered equal performance to the MLPP mainline
coating has limited the use of this exceptional coating to only a few high performance
pipelines. Today, many specifiers and owners are looking at MLPP for the previously
mentioned thermal performance, but also for its chemical resistance and mechanical
performance. As example, some offshore lay contractors are demanding MLPP rather than
3LPE or FBE since it offers a virtually damage free coating, allowing quicker pipeline laying
on expensive lay vessels.

Fast, economical and easy-to install field joint protection systems for MLPP-coated pipelines,
has been the ““Achilles Heel”” of coating selection. Therefore, many companies have been
striving to answer this marketplace need, each taking their own path, be it system design,
installation technology, service, or a combination of all three. Figure 4 depicts two
fundamental field applied systems for polypropylene joint protection.

As a manufacturer of coating products used on pipelines, Canusa chose to take the path of
developing a finished product. Also, since Canusa was one of the leaders in developing the
cross-linked backings and corrosion resistant adhesives used in today’’s most advanced
polyethylene heat-shrinkable sleeve systems, they took the same path with a polypropylene
joint protection system.

Therefore, the joint protection system developed by Canusa consists of a cross-linked and
stretched polypropylene backing coated with a polypropylene adhesive. To ensure
compatibility with the mainline coating, both the backing and adhesive were based on the
same polypropylene raw materials as used for plant applied MLPP pipeline coatings. The
only difference was that additives were formulated into the backing to enable cross-linking
and the adhesive was formulated to be able to attain adhesion at reasonable installation
temperatures. The challenge with this technology came from the difficulty in being able to
cross-link polypropylene polymers, while maintaining their core properties. This
achievement was a significant breakthrough in the plastics industry.

5
 IBP306_03

Since heat-shrinkable sleeves need to transition from the coating on each side of the cutback,
protect the steel and cover the weld bead, the sleeve also needed to be engineered to
accommodate this. This was accomplished by balancing the cross-sectional thicknesses of the
adhesive and backing to be able to bridge the transitions. This is a slight departure to the
mainline coating design and other joint protection systems’’ approach, as they typically use a
thin layer of adhesive and very thick layer of topcoat, reference Figure 5. Fundamental
performance of the various approaches are similar, with each providing a joint protection
system that closely replicates the performance of the mainline coating.

In addition to the polypropylene heat-shrinkable sleeve, the 3-layer joint protection system
design required a 2-component liquid epoxy primer which needed to be formulated to
replicate the high temperature FBE primer used in the mainline coating. The challenge was to
develop a liquid primer that could perform at the elevated pipeline operating temperatures
demanded by the marketplace. This was accomplished using the same force-cure technology
that was discussed earlier.

The complete joint protection system, with the polypropylene heat-shrinkable sleeve and
force-cured, high temperature primer, has successfully passed key tests including Adhesion,
high temperature Cathodic Disbondment and Hot Water Soak tests.

In the research and development project, it quickly became evident that, aside from producing
an engineered product, the installation technology needed to be developed in order to provide
a complete package that could be successfully field installed. This was done through several
months of trials on different pipe diameters, pipe wall thicknesses and coating thicknesses,
and by working with suppliers of induction heating equipment. Installation of the system
utilizes induction heat to pre-heat the cutback and force-cure the primer. Once the joint is
heated, the installation follows typical heat-shrink sleeve installation methods.

Spinning off of the development of installation technology, it was determined that, since the
joint protection system was a manufactured component and installation was relatively simple,
the product could be applied with commonly available equipment, using the pipeline
contractor’’s own crews. Essentially, the installation challenges with field applied ““raw
materials”” was pre-engineered into the product, much like what occurred when pipeline
6
 IBP306_03

coatings moved off of the right-of-way and into the plant. Figure 6 is a series of photos taken
during installation of the polypropylene heat-shrinkable sleeve recently applied on the
Guanabara Bay PE 3 pipeline.

Conclusion

The development of next generation heat-shrinkable sleeves for 3LPE and the new
polypropylene heat-shrinkable sleeve for MLPP has taken several years of dedicated research
by several polymer chemists, engineers and technicians. Today Canusa’’s GTS-65, GTS-80
and GTS-HT systems are the most advanced in the industry for 3LPE and FBE coated
pipelines, while GTS-PP is the world’’s first cross-linked polypropylene heat-shrinkable
sleeve for MLPP coated pipelines. All told, these products have been specified and applied
on thousands of kilometers of pipelines, on projects around the world.