TPi July 2016

13 / 64

July 2016 Tube Products International 11
business & market news
Denys and Selmers win IPLOCA
New Technologies Award
Selmers has announced that the
company, together with Denys, has won
the 2015 IPLOCA New Technologies
Award sponsored by BP. The award
was presented during the IPLOCA
annual convention held in Singapore, by
Michael Hiam, engineering manager, BP
Integrated Supply and Trading.
The award is given in recognition
of a significant achievement in
the development of new pipeline
technologies. The IPLOCA New
Technologies committee, with Jean
Claude Van de Wiele as the chairman,
decided to present the award to Denys
and Selmers, represented Johan van
Wassenhove (Denys), Bart Appelman
(Selmers) and Luc Hoppenbrouwers
(Denys), in recognition of their work on
their onshore automatic vacuum field
joint blasting.
The adjudication committee selected
this entry because the new tool
improves HSE conditions for workers
in the field; it is a development coming
from a contractor and a manufacturer
working together; and it is an example
of technology transfer from the offshore
to the onshore industry.
Denys specialises in the onshore
construction of oil and gas pipelines,
and has used this field joint blaster in
day-to-day work. Together with Denys,
Selmers was able to evaluate the field
joint blaster when used in the field.
With the outcome of the evaluations,
the working of the field joint blaster
was optimised.
Conventional field joint blasting is
typically a time-consuming manual
operation, and carries some safety,
health and environmental risks, since
the process produces a lot of dust
and thus also potential pollution. The
quality assurance also demands effort
and discipline.
Being informed about the performance
of the Selmers joint vacuum blaster, used
in the offshore industry, Denys made
contact with Selmers. The companies
agreed that the joint vacuum blaster
could be adapted for onshore pipeline
construction, and would remedy the
shortcoming of manual joint blasting.
The Selmers field joint vacuum blaster
is developed to improve cycle times
and produce identical blasted joints
considering roughness and cleanness.
The design of the Selmers blaster is
dust-free, and the abrasive is re-used
in the integrated abrasive reclaim
system.
Advantages of the operator-friendly
closed-loop vacuum blaster include
internal grit recovery; high blasting
capacity; and a clean, automated
and remote-controlled process with
minimal abrasive loss.
Selmers BV – Netherlands
Jean Claude Van de Wiele, Johan Van Wassenhove,
Bart Appelman, Luc Hoppenbrouwers and Michael Hiam
Dedicated supplier
of seamless steel tube
and pipe!
• EN 10294
• EN 10305
• EN 10216
• EN 10297
• EN 10210
• API 5L
• ASTM A106
• ASTM A179
Member of the ITA
Contact:
Tel: +44 (0) 2084 530046
Emails:
0.8A Europa Studios
Victoria Road
London
NW10 6ND
The award-winning onshore automatic vacuum
field joint blaster designed by Selmers