How Do I Coat Pipe Bends?

Corrosion Prevention on Pipe Bends

          Coating a pipe bend can be a challenging application.  Sometimes, standard heat shrink sleeves will not work without some amount of skill in your installer.  Instead of installing normal 11", 17", 24" or 34" wide shrink sleeves and lobster tailing them (as you would here:)

 

We find it is often simpler, and more technically sound to coat those bends using a heat shrinkable, spiral wrapped product.  Good news, we have a couple of options for that application:

 

First - you can use our WPC100M Tape product.  Made from our normal WPC100M, this product is easy to install, forgiving in terms of surface prep and has a long successful use history.  Available in just about any custom width; WPC100M Tape is often the ideal choice for pipelines that will operate at elevated temperatures. 

 

A second option is our Flexclad, heat shrinkable tape.  Flexclad doesn't have quite as high of a temperature rating as the WPC100M tape, it is rated for use at 50C; but as a specially designed heat shrinkable tape, it utilizes a lower shrink ratio backing with a hybrid mastic/hot melt adhesive sealant to form a homogenous coating over the length of your bend.  Sold in 50 feet long rolls, Flexclad also has quite a long use successful use history.

 

In both cases, we have material on the ground, ready to ship at a moments notice.  We understand that pipeline coatings are often the very last things purchased for a pipeline project, and we keep stock accordingly!

How Much Flexclad Tape Do I Need To Coat a Bend?

Question:  How do I figure out how much Flexclad Heat Shrinkable Tape I will need to coat a bend or a length of pipe?

An installed section of Flexclad.  Isn't this a good looking installed product?

Answer:  If you'd asked me three months if I'd ever be writing about mathematical formulas on this blog - I would have laughed in your face!!  But here I go.  In all cases; we are calculating based upon the Flexclad tape overlapping onto itself by 1" during the spiral wrapping process. 

 In order to calculate how many feet of tape you will need for your section of pipe; you need to know the OD of the pipe and you need to know how many linear feet of pipe you will need to cover.  In the case of the 90 in the picture above; you need the OUTER most length in linear feet (the outer curve is longer than the inner curve).  So assuming you have those:

With 2" Flexclad:  Pipe OD X 3.14 X Linear Feet of Coverage Required = the footage of Flexclad you will need.  All Flexclad is sold in 50 foot rolls; so if you require 85 feet; you will need to purchase 2 rolls.

With 3" Flexclad:  (Pipe OD X 3.14 X Linear Feet) / 2 = the footage of Flexclad you will need.

With 4" Flexclad:  (Pipe OD X 3.14 X Linear Feet) / 3 = the required footage of Flexclad.

So, there you go.  A pretty simple formula really (I think I still have nightmares about High School Physics and some of those formulas!).  If you need help; just give us a call and we'll help you figure it out!