Introduction:
Superheat was awarded the contract to provide on-site heat treatment for a reputable American engineering company, on several large containment vessels. This project was a sizeable undertaking and noted as the client’s largest resistance post weld heat treatment in the company’s history. Superheat supplied the equipment, training, and supervision throughout the entirety of the project – ensuring everything met quality specifications and codes.
Background:
Superheat performed both the required pre and post weld heat treatments on a group of containment vessels using innovative Superheat SmartWay™ technology and Superheat SmartPoint™ equipment line. The Project Superintendent worked with Superheat’s technical team to engineer the vessels’ heat treatment plans and avoid any distortion. Superheat employees managed the project and supervised closely after training the client’s personnel on the practices of heat treatment and wrapping specifications. All installation had “quality” stop points to be inspected and signed off by Superheat, according to our Technical Execution Plan. This allowed us to supply the customer with a complete Superheat SmartReport™ package of all T/C placements, codes, certifications and charts as the operations progressed. After the first unit was successfully completed, the same engineering was repeated for the remaining vessels. At the peak of the project, 52 Superheat SmartPoint™ consoles were simultaneously in use.
Problem:
A variety of components requiring treatment were located in an isolated area within the vessels, making them difficult to access. This presented an interesting situation as welders were not able to conventionally weld the components to the wall due to the existing fillet welds. Instead, welders had to alternate from inside welding to outside welding. All eyes were on Superheat throughout this process considering the past contracted competition had mistakenly overheated the valves at the start of the post weld heat treatment cycles.
Smart Solution:
Using the Superheat SmartPoint™ equipment in junction with the Superheat SmartCenter™, all of the heat treatment information was monitored and relayed remotely – eliminating the need for excess workers in the confined space of the vessels. This solution minimized the overall project risk to personnel and provided a smaller foot print on the jobsite. Our innovative Superheat SmartView™ technology allowed the job to progress efficiently by displaying real-time weld status. This informed project leads of the welds on delay along with the corrective actions required to get them running again. Superheat SmartWay™ provided the right solution when faced with a heat treatment challenge, keeping workers safe, informed and allowing them to keep project quality top of mind.
Results:
By utilizing Superheat SmartWay™ technology and Superheat SmartPoint™ equipment, the project was successfully completed to the standards and requirements outlined within AWS & ASME. The client was impressed by the quality of the work and awarded Superheat with a future capital new-build project. The Smarter Way to do Heat Treatment is here.
