Post Weld Heat Treatment Services

Post Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) services help reduce residual stresses caused by welding in components. PWHT involves heating, soaking and cooling to minimize stress on weld joints.

PWHT is often mandated by industry codes for materials like carbon steels, stainless steels and work hardened steels; however, its implementation can be costly and time consuming due to the requirement of specialized equipment and skilled labor.

Pressure Vessels

Pressure vessels allow chemicals and gases to be pumped under high-pressure into containers in order to separate, purify or blend materials. The sizes and materials vary for these vessels designed for extreme conditions – everything from diving tanks to industrial boilers can use pressure vessels – whether portable containers or towering multi-story towers.

An improperly maintained pressure vessel can cause extensive damage if left neglected, with explosions being the most evident risk. Chemical burns, suffocation, poisoning and fragmentation damage due to the equipment itself or from leaked vapors/liquids can also pose risks.

Regular inspections by trained personnel can help avoid these potentially damaging consequences of vessel operation. Inspections should include full examination, thickness evaluation, stress analysis of structure as well as hydrostatic or pneumatic testing to detect leakage.

Additionally to regular inspections, these vessels must also be repaired and altered according to codes governing their design and construction, such as API 510 which serves as an inspection code for in-service inspection, repair, alteration and rerate activities on pressure vessels as well as pressure relieving devices protecting them as well as providing a framework for issuing single ASME certification marks such as U, V and UM.

Pipelines

Pipelines are an integral component of transportation networks in nearly every nation, moving water from treatment plants directly into homes and businesses or transporting oil/natural gas wellheads directly to market areas for consumption. Oil pipelines play a particularly vital role in global energy, often playing an influential role in geopolitics as well as international security issues.

Oil pipelines are not only an economic boon for their respective countries, but they are also a cause for controversy due to their use of fossil fuels. Beyond environmental concerns, pipelines also frequently leak and spill oil onto nearby creeks or farmland – as seen during an incident caused by ruptured pipe in Kansas in 2022 which resulted in evacuation of thousands of people and release of millions of gallons into creeks and farmland nearby.

Most hazardous liquid and gas pipelines are located underground within a right-of-way (ROW), which consists of multiple property easements owned or granted to the pipeline company that allow maintenance personnel access without infringing upon private property or interfering with utility lines. This allows them to conduct regular inspections without impinging upon private property rights or interfering with utility lines.

Pipeline systems employ numerous safety and maintenance measures, such as inspections, cleanings and using devices known as “pigs.” Pig-launcher stations use these roving robots to launch them down their respective pipelines for various functions like clearing away wax deposits or inspecting its condition.

Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear power plants use fission to produce clean electricity. As atoms of uranium in their reactor cores split apart, they produce heat which turns water into steam which in turn spins propeller-like blades to turn a generator producing electricity – accounting for 20% of American power.

Nuclear plants follow stringent safety protocols to protect both their employees and surrounding communities. To do this, they sample air and water around the plant while also setting up fixed monitoring stations in the area to track changes in radiation levels over time – sending this data directly to state and federal regulators. Should radioactive materials leak from within their plant’s walls, emergency response plans must be activated within 10 miles where direct radiation exposure could occur or within 50 miles if contamination could threaten food supplies, crops and livestock.

Driving past a nuclear power plant, you may have witnessed large towers that appear to be emitting smoke – these are cooling towers and not exclusive to nuclear plants; most power plants and other generating facilities also utilize cooling towers. Their high temperatures create environments conducive to pitting corrosion and stress cracking of tubes used for providing steam or coolant to reactors, and are monitored using Eddy Current Testing (ECT), helping prevent these failures by periodically checking tubes for imperfections and monitoring its progress.

Structural Engineering

Structural engineering involves the design of load-bearing structures. As a discipline it can often be categorized under civil engineering but encompasses mechanical, aerospace and marine engineering as well. Structural engineers specialize in using materials and mechanics to implement large complex systems essential to daily life such as buildings, bridges and dams.

Structural engineers use their expertise in materials science, physics, applied mathematics and engineering mechanics to predict how structures will perform under various loads and stresses imposed by wind, seismic activity and natural forces such as snowfall or ocean waves.

Calculations used in structural analysis determine the amount a structure deforms under force, or changes shape. Structural analysis requires much mathematics; engineers must possess a deep knowledge of this subject as it involves much mathematics. Furthermore, engineers need CAD software such as AutoCAD, StaadPro or ETABS in order to create detailed models of their designs that meet engineering standards and accuracy.

Structural engineers play an essential role in overseeing construction processes to ensure structures meet specifications. Additionally, they may assist with retrofitting or strengthening existing structures.