Insulating your pipes

Cuming Corporation has been granted a patent for its C-THERM syntactic foam insulation cast-on-pipe technology from the United States Patent Office. This new invention addresses a key challenge of the offshore oil and gas industry - pipelines that plug as hot oil or gas comes into contact with cold water.

C-THERM insulation makes long flowlines in deep water both technically and economically feasible by protecting against the formation of paraffins or hydrates.

Shell's King Subsea Project in the Gulf of Mexico is the first major subsea piping system to incorporate this patented technology. Over six miles of flowline were coated with syntactic foam in Cuming's New Iberia, Louisiana, facility for the project. The flowline was tested and rated for twenty years of service at a depth of 3,300 feet and a temperature of 170º F.

C-THERM may be used to insulate other subsea equipment as well, with the capability of forming a complete deepwater thermal barrier. For the King project, Cuming also insulated the PLEM sleds that terminate each length of flowline.

C-THERM syntactic foam offers certain advantages over competing materials. It provides 30 percent greater insulation than unfilled polyurethane or polyolefin and 42 percent greater insulation than polyolefin foam. It also withstands far higher oil temperatures than either of these competing technologies.

Web address: www.cumingcorp.com