TPi October 2010

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A vital lifeline
Welcome to the latest issue of Tube
Products International.
Tubes and pipes are offering a vital
lifeline to the Chilean miners who are
trapped for months below ground.
The thirty-three miners trapped 2,300
feet below ground are depending on food,
medicine and supplies being dropped to
them through a 4-inch-wide tube.
What comes out of that tube will have to sustain the men both
physically and mentally for a long time – perhaps four months,
experts say – while a shaft wide enough to pull a man through
is drilled.
Chilean rescuers at the mine that collapsed last month
have already started sending down five-foot long tubes called
palomas, or “doves” in Spanish, to the miners. Rescuers have
packed the tubes with rehydration tablets and a high-energy
glucose serum to nourish the miners’ starved and fragile
digestive systems.
Reports also indicate that a long hose was used to line the
bore holes with a “metallic gel” to reinforce them and lubricate
the passage of the palomas. A hardening material such as
gunnite, which sees service in shoring up weak walls in mines,
is often used for the same purpose creating what is essentially
an ‘instant tube’.
Mine workers often also “case” straight up-and-down bore
holes in the US and elsewhere, meaning they insert steel piping
down the shafts to insure them against crumbling and to provide
a smooth delivery canal to people below.
With three bore holes now functioning, the government
has baptised the three tubes. “The first is ‘Hope’, the second
‘Perseverance’, the third ‘The Hand of God,’” saidWalter Herrera,
the manager of Geotec, a firm which has been instrumental in
the drilling. “It was almost impossible to get to the point where
we are, we had many problems with [drill holes] deviating. It was
God’s will that guided us.”
The drilling of these holes in order to pass pipes down is an
incredibly precise business, with even a tiny deviation meaning
that the whole and the pipe would emerge many feet from where
the miners are located.
The operation, which could take three to four months, will be
using the state-of-the-art drill Xtrata, especially brought in from
South Africa.
The machine is making an initial hole with a diameter of
around 25 centimetres, which will later be enlarged to 66
centimetres. That space would be enough to pull the miners up
to the surface.
But drilling that vertical 700-metre hole only solves part of the
problem. Rescue teams also have to finish drilling three further
holes to fit more tubes into, about 10 centimetres wide, through
which they are to provide the miners with further food and water
to keep them healthy during their ordeal. We wish them luck.
I hope you enjoy this latest issue of the magazine and please
make sure that you send us your latest news for the next issue.
The editorial closing date is 26 October. We have features on
OCTG and pipeline products, profile materials for tube making
and a show feature on Boru 2011 as well as all of the latest
industry and technology news.
Rory McBride
Editor
2010
26-30
October
EuroBLECH
International Exhibition
2-4
November
Fabtech / AWS Welding Show
International Exhibition
30 November –
2 December
Valve World Expo
International Exhibition
2011
8-11
January
Tekno / Tube Arabia 2011
International Exhibition
11-14
January
SteelFab (Sharjah, UAE)
International Exhibition
3-6
March
BORU 2011
International Exhibition
23-26
May
Tube Russia
International Exhibition
13-15
September
Tube Southeast Asia
International Exhibition
19-24
September
EMO Hannover
International Exhibition
4-6
October
Tubotech (Brazil)
International Exhibition
13-16
November
Fabtech / AWS Welding Show
International Exhibition
TBA Tolexpo (Paris)
International Exhibition
For further information on any of the above events
please contact INTRAS Limited UK office
(address and contact details on page 4)
6 Tube Products International October 2010
events
calendar