Method of making a fluid conduit
AssigneeSubsea 7 Limited
InventorTrevor West
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of making a fluid conduit includes at least one tubular metal fitting in fluid communication with metal tubing. The conduit is apt to be incorporated into a subsea umbilical. The fitting is made by cold-forming a workpiece in a spinning operation. The workpiece material initially has a yield strength below that of the tubing material. The invention corrects or reduces this mismatch between the yield strength of the tubing material and the initial yield strength of the workpiece material by: assessing the yield strength of the tubing material; assessing the increased yield strength of the workpiece material by virtue of the spinning operation; and before welding the fitting to the tubing, comparing the increased yield strength of the workpiece material with the yield strength of the tubing material.
Claims13
A method of making a fluid conduit that comprises at least one tubular metal fitting in fluid communication with wrought metal tubing, the method comprising:
- providing a metal workpiece that has been forged and cold-forming the forged metal workpiece in a spinning operation to make the tubular metal fitting, the material of the forged metal workpiece initially having a yield strength below that of the material of the wrought metal tubing;
- increasing the yield strength of the forged metal workpiece by virtue of the spinning operation that forms the tubular metal fitting from the forged metal workpiece;
- and
- welding the tubular metal fitting to the wrought metal tubing and producing the fluid conduit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.