How Much Coating Repair Material Will I Need?

     Question:  I have a PE coated pipeline.  I've been told to have repair material on site.  How much polyethylene repair material will I need?

     Answer:  Unfortunately, it is almost impossible for me to know!  There are so many different ways that a pipeline can be damaged and so many varying degrees that I cannot ever predict how much you will have on your pipeline.  As a couple examples; here are some photos of damaged PE that I've seen:

Damage to the PE jacket outside of insulation caused by improper pipe storage

Damage to a PE outer jacket.  notice that the ROCS sleeve is untouched just a few inches away

Another area of PE damaged by a forklift

     In the real world, it is possible that PE coated pipe is loaded on a barge and every single joint of pipe is damaged to some degree.  It is also possible that a pipe is loaded without a single joint being damaged.  There is never any way for me (or the customer) to really know. 

     That is one reason that we keep so much PERP material in stock.  Very often, it isn't known how much damage a pipe has received during transit until the pipe is actually being strung up and welded.  In cases like that, it is very simple for us to throw a few rolls of PERP material - and the accompanying Perp Filler rolls onto a truck (or UPS) and have them at the job site in a day or two.

     You don't want to have to buy materials that you don't really need.  I don't want to sell you materials that you don't really need.  The fact that we keep this material in stock assures that we both get what we want.