Capturing data relating to welded pipelines
AssigneeSubsea 7 Limited
InventorsPhilip Geoffrey BANKS, Anton Alan LANDON
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of tracking pipeline weld information comprises recording weld information, such as weld flaw data or a unique weld identifier, associated with a weld made at a pipe end during fabrication of a subsea pipeline. As the pipeline is advanced longitudinally in post-fabrication operations such as spooling or installation, time-stamped images of a pattern marked on the pipe end are recorded. One or more spatial characteristics of the pipeline at the weld, such as angular orientation of the pipeline about a longitudinal axis, are determined from the recorded images.
Claims35
-36. (canceled)
A method of monitoring flaws in pipeline welds, the method comprising:
- marking a pattern on a pipe end;
- recording, in a dataset, weld information associated with a weld made at the pipe end during fabrication of a pipeline, the weld information comprising weld flaw data;
- recording images of the pattern in the dataset as the pipeline is advanced longitudinally in post-fabrication operations;
- and
- from the recorded images, determining one or more spatial characteristics of the pipeline at the weld,
- wherein the spatial characteristics comprise angular orientation of the pipeline about a longitudinal axis, and
- wherein the step of determining one or more spatial characteristics of the pipeline comprises determining the angular orientation of the pipeline by measuring angular orientation of the pattern.
A system for monitoring flaws in pipeline welds, the system comprising:
- a weld information database for recording weld information associated with a weld made at a pipe end during fabrication of a pipeline, the weld information comprising weld flaw data;
- and
- imaging equipment for recording images of a pattern marked on the pipe end in the weld information database to determine, from the recorded images, one or more spatial characteristics of the pipeline at the weld including angular orientation of the pipeline about a longitudinal axis, the imaging equipment being positioned to capture the images as the pipeline is advanced longitudinally in post-fabrication operations.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.