Process piping is responsible for transporting important resources like water and energy that allow our societies to function on a daily basis. These process pipes are crucial and are necessary at all hours of the day. Therefore, it’s vital that process piping services treat them with the utmost care during maintenance. Let’s consider the dos and don’ts of process piping maintenance.
Do: Consider Stress Load and Capacity
Before you start working on the pipeline, you should have a sense of how much fluid you’ll be working with to ensure that the piping can endure the stress and capacity flowing through it. Pipelines endure a great deal of constant stress, and altering that pressure—whether increasing or decreasing it—can further damage the pipelines if you’re not careful. Furthermore, when redirecting the flow of resources, you want to ensure the pipes you’re redirecting to can withstand the stress and pressure themselves.
Do: Rely on Professionals
Maintaining process piping requires a great deal of precision and care, so you should always have a professionally trained team handling your municipality’s pipelines. Careless mistakes, whether from inexperience or ignorance, can lead to greater damage in the pipes that may end up depriving hundreds of resources, including water, energy, or sewage.
Don’t: Interrupt Service
The biggest “don’t” of process piping maintenance is interrupting the flow of the resources within. While the natural thought process for maintenance may be to shut off and drain the pipeline before working on them, this will deprive many people of the necessities they rely on in daily life. Instead, processes like wet tapping isolate the pipes that need maintenance while redirecting the flow of resources so that they’re still servicing their intended destination. This requires the skill and equipment of professionals and can lead to lots of damage or leaking if people do it haphazardly.
