Protecting Your High-Value Factory Coating During Bundled Road Bores: Why the BBS System Matters
When you invest in a premium factory-applied coating system — dual-layer FBE, or FBE with a Powercrete-DD ARO — you expect it to perform for decades. These coatings are engineered, tested, and certified to deliver world-class corrosion protection under some of the harshest conditions in the industry.
But there’s a critical moment in a pipeline’s life where even the best factory coating is extremely vulnerable:
Bundled directional drilling.
Dragging multiple pipelines through a bore hole simultaneously exposes them to crushing contact forces, shear, abrasion, and unpredictable movement. Even minor coating damage can compromise long-term performance, complicate cathodic protection, and create long-term liabilities that no asset owner wants buried underground forever.
And the reality is sobering:
Factory coatings often sustain damage before they ever reach the right-of-way — in pipe yards, on trucks, during offloading, and during handling. Add a multi-pipe pull through mud and rock… and the risk multiplies dramatically.
This is where Joint Specialists’ BBS (Bore Bumper System) changes the entire conversation.
The Core Principle: Protect the Coating You Already Paid For
You’ve already invested in a premium factory coating.
You shouldn’t have to damage it just to protect it.
Unlike other solutions that require aggressive surface prep, grinding, blasting, adhesive removal or other invasive steps, the BBS system is intentionally simple:
Your pipe surface only needs to be free of dust, dirt, oil and grease.
No blasting.
No profiling.
No heavy-handed prep work.
Just a clean surface — and the system bonds and performs exactly as designed.
That means your high-value factory coating stays intact and untouched throughout installation.
What Makes BBS Different?
The BBS system was designed from the ground up for bundled directional drilling, using only components specifically engineered to survive the destructive forces of a road bore. No shortcuts. No repurposed materials. No “wrap some tape around a rope” improvisation.
According to the field manual, the BBS system includes:
-
A high-durometer bumper material engineered for compressive and impact loads
-
A high-shear, abrasion-resistant sleeve that locks the bumper in place through the entire bore (and beyond)
-
A wear cone/leader strip to prevent peel-back and resist shear at the leading edge
-
An epoxy primer bonding agent
-
No metal bands, no makeshift materials, no components that introduce new corrosion risks
The result is a clean, streamlined installation process that typically takes 3–5 minutes per bumper and delivers repeatable, reliable performance.
Field-Proven: What Happens When the Bore Goes Wrong
One of the most compelling proofs of performance came during a Texas project where four pipelines (16", 16", 12", 10") were being pulled simultaneously through a long bore path.
About 400 feet into the pull, the pulling mechanism snapped — an extremely rare failure. The pipe bundle was forced to travel:
-
400 feet forward into the bore
-
400 feet backward out of the bore
-
Then 1700 feet forward again through completion
This is the kind of event that destroys even heavy-duty protective systems… and normally no one ever gets the chance to inspect the pipeline mid-bore.
But in this case, inspectors had the rare opportunity to examine every bumper after the brutal 800-foot round trip.
The result?
100% retention.
0 missing bumpers.
0 displacement.
0 failure.
Every BBS installation looked exactly the same as it did pre-bore — just covered in mud.
This level of performance isn’t theoretical. It’s documented.
Why Asset Owners Choose BBS for Bundled Bores
1. Zero damage to your existing coating system
Your FBE or Powercrete-DD ARO stays uncompromised because no destructive surface prep is required.
2. Purpose-built for severe directional drilling loads
The system is engineered to resist shear, impact, penetration and abrasion — the real enemies of bundled HDD.
3. No foreign materials or metal bands
Some competing concepts use metal clamps or materials never designed for road-bore forces. BBS is built only from materials already proven in HDD environments.
4. Fast installation
Contractors appreciate the simplicity — clean, preheat, place bumpers, apply epoxy, shrink — done.
5. Visible, verifiable protection
When inspectors can run their hands along the bumpers post-bore — and feel them exactly where they’re supposed to be — confidence is earned, not assumed.
If You’re About to Perform a Bundled Road Bore…
You’re about to drag multiple coated pipelines through mud, rock, debris, and unpredictable subsurface conditions — all while they’re colliding, rubbing, and shifting against each other.
If you’ve invested in top-tier factory coatings, the worst thing you can do now is damage them during installation.
BBS exists to prevent exactly that.
Clean surface.
Fast install.
Coating preserved.
Pipelines protected.
Risk minimized.
And unlike improvised systems, the BBS solution is documented, photographed, and field-proven.
No comments:
Post a Comment