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Dry vs Wet Underwater Welding Compared |
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Written by Al Dashuman
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Wednesday, 08 April 2009 01:15 |
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Just about any industry that needs to perform underwater repairs permanently should be concerned about underwater welding. Whether it's oil and gas, shipping, defense, or marine infrastructure, underwater components need to be functional and stable.
by AlDashuman
Just about any industry that needs to perform underwater repairs permanently should be concerned about underwater welding. Whether it's oil and gas, shipping, defense, or marine infrastructure, underwater components need to be functional and stable.
Underwater welding is an important part of maintaining any metal structure existing in full or in part below the water. However, most conventional underwater welding systems have a number of problems. They're expensive, can provide only temporary repairs, dangerous, and/or hard to move around.
Dry underwater welding systems like the Neptune System have a significant number of advantages over wet welding methods. They permit workers to make high quality dry welds without the amount of time or money needed for making a large hyperbaric chamber.
Oil and gas operators will be particularly pleased by the time and cost savings that this sort of underwater welding offers. As platforms and infrastructure age, the demand for appropriate inspection, repair, and maintenance services will increase. That means that an easy, fast, comparatively inexpensive underwater welding solution is important.
Oil rigs, subsea pipelines, platforms, and just about any other underwater structure with metal construction will benefit from high quality underwater welding options. You can create a customized habitat and configure it to work in almost any situation where underwater welds might be required.
Ship operators and owners will also enjoy the savings available using portable dry underwater welding. This keeps them from having to dry dock their vessels before the time planned, since the dry welds produced cost about the same as a wet weld, but are much stronger. Previously, you could only effect a convention repair underwater - the alternative was putting a vessel in dry doc prematurely.
The biggest problem with wet underwater welding is that it produces a quick fix. While these welds can be cheaply and quickly made, it's necessary to continually rework the weld, causing it to cost a lot over time. The weld must be frequently inspected, too.
Temporary wet welds must all be removed eventually, and the vessel must be dry docked to have a quality repair performed. Wet welds just can't rival the original integrity and strength of the hull. Since dry docking is extremely expensive and time consuming, it could cause serious problems with your operation.
Using a technology like Neptune's NEPSYS dry welding system lets you maintain your ship in the water and still get a permanent repair. It's possible to fix tears, holes, pitting, cracks and corrosion, and you can even insert plates completely into the hull with full penetration.
Since this technology can be rapidly deployed and is extremely portable, it's also useful for military operations that require permanent underwater repairs and in marine infrastructures. In any subsea industry where repairs are necessary, dry underwater welding is an important technology.
If wet underwater welding has previously been your only option for below water repairs, consider a portable, affordable dry welding option. Just about any underwater repair application can benefit from this technology, from pipelines to ship hulls.
Information:
The Neptune Marine Under Water Welding System has enormous advantages over conventional repair methods used, chiefly in its ability to affect high quality dry welds. |
