Does a Heat Shrink Sleeve Overlap Onto Itself?

 How Much Overlap is Needed Onto Adjacent Factory Applied Coating?

    When installing shrink sleeves; there are two very important bits of information to never lose site of:  OVERLAP and OVERLAP.  Let me explain:

    So the first important overlap:  The sleeve must wrap around the pipe and then OVERLAP back onto itself.  The sleeve does not 'butt up' to itself --- it overlaps onto itself.  This is critically important.  In this manner we can be certain that the sleeve will have enough shrink in it to properly seal to the pipe.  In addition at the area where the sleeve overlaps onto itself, the sealant will flow and fill during proper installation and fill any possible leak path there (with a belt and suspenders solution we will also roll that overlap with a silicon roller as one of the final steps of the installation process.

     The second important overlap discussion:  a sleeve needs to be wide enough to coat all bare steel and overlap onto the adjacent factory applied coating by at least 3" per side.  This makes certain that our seal extends out onto already proven (and jeeped) coating.  Now we will have at least a few inches of seal separating our bare steel from the outside world - leading to an excellent field joint coating that will properly prevent corrosion on that field joint for the life of the line.