CISBOT

Last updated

CISBOT
ManufacturerULC Robotics
CountryUnited States
Price$1 million
Type UGV
PurposePipeline repair

CISBOT (cast-iron sealing robot) is a cast iron pipe-repair robot that seals the joints in natural gas pipelines from the inside, thus extending their use for up to fifty years without unearthing the joints. [1]

Contents

Background

Many cast-iron pipes installed over a century ago have joints of jute sealed with lead that deteriorate over time and are often the causes of cast-iron pipe failure. [2] Jute was an effective joint sealant when the pipes carried coal-based town gas, but natural gas, used since the 1950s in New York [3] and the 1970s in the UK,[ citation needed ] dries out the jute. A fifty-year life expectancy of the new seal has been proven in studies by Cornell University. [1]

Description

CISBOT is 12 inches (300 mm) in diameter, is 35 inches (890 mm) long, weighs 85 pounds (39 kg), and is deployed with a truck containing the control unit, which is attached to the robot with a tether for the power, communication, and control cables, as well as sealant tubing. It is capable of repairing 16–36-inch-diameter (41–91 cm) pipe. [2]

CISBOT is introduced into a pipeline through a 5-by-5-foot (1.5 m × 1.5 m) hole and can repair the joints with an anaerobic sealant for a distance of 1,500 feet (460 m) while the pipe is still in operation. External repair without the robot would require the arranging of temporary gas supply to customers through tanks, purging the pipeline of gas, then digging up each joint, usually every 12 feet (3.7 m), repairing the joint, and re-covering the pipeline. [3] The cost of internal robotic repair is approximately 25% of manual resealing and 10% of total pipeline replacement. [2]

The robot was developed by ULC Robotics of Hauppauge, New York with cooperation from Con Edison and National Grid and costs approximately $1 million. [2] ULC announced the robot in 2015;[ citation needed ] however it has been in use since at least 2010 [4] and by mid-2012 had sealed over 5000 joints. [5]

CISBOT has been used in the United States in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Rhode Island, and Boston. In Europe, it has been used in London and Glasgow by SGN. [1] [2]

Operation

A flange is first attached to the pipe, through which CISBOT drills an access hole. It then rolls into the pipe and propels itself on two wheels down the pipe. It can travel up to 17 feet (5.2 m) per minute. [3] Upon reaching a joint, it rotates 360° within the pipe to apply the sealant, using its third perpendicular wheel. It drills holes into the joints through which it injects the sealant. [3] It is controlled by two operators monitoring through six cameras. [2] It is equipped with lights and other sensors. [3]

In New York City, CISBOT has discovered foreign objects within gas pipelines, including a baseball and stiletto shoes. It found a 1939 newspaper under Boston's Berkeley Street. [3]

In 2015, CISBOT received a "game changer" award from Robotics Business Review because of its significant improvement in the process used to fix pipe joints. [3]

Related Research Articles

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Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications. Plumbing uses pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, and other apparatuses to convey fluids. Heating and cooling (HVAC), waste removal, and potable water delivery are among the most common uses for plumbing, but it is not limited to these applications. The word derives from the Latin for lead, plumbum, as the first effective pipes used in the Roman era were lead pipes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gasket</span> Type of mechanical seal

A gasket is a mechanical seal which fills the space between two or more mating surfaces, generally to prevent leakage from or into the joined objects while under compression. It is a deformable material that is used to create a static seal and maintain that seal under various operating conditions in a mechanical assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caulk</span> Flexible material used in construction to seal joints

Caulk or, less frequently, caulking is a material used to seal joints or seams against leakage in various structures and piping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drain-waste-vent system</span> Plumbing fixture

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">National pipe thread</span> U.S. national technical standards for threads on pipes and pipe fittings

American National Standard Pipe Thread standards, often called national pipe thread standards for short, are United States national technical standards for screw threads used on threaded pipes and pipe fittings. They include both tapered and straight thread series for various purposes, including rigidity, pressure-tight sealing, or both. The types are named with a full name and an abbreviation, such as NPT, NPS, NPTF, or NPSC.

Pipeline video inspection is a form of telepresence used to visually inspect the interiors of pipelines, plumbing systems, and storm drains. A common application is for a plumber to determine the condition of small diameter sewer lines and household connection drain pipes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pipe (fluid conveyance)</span> Tubular section or hollow cylinder

A pipe is a tubular section or hollow cylinder, usually but not necessarily of circular cross-section, used mainly to convey substances which can flow — liquids and gases (fluids), slurries, powders and masses of small solids. It can also be used for structural applications; hollow pipe is far stiffer per unit weight than solid members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Threaded pipe</span>

A threaded pipe is a pipe with screw-threaded ends for assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thread seal tape</span> Tape commonly used in plumbing

Thread seal tape is a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film tape commonly used in plumbing for sealing pipe threads. The tape is sold cut to specific widths and wound on a spool, making it easy to wind around pipe threads. Thread seal tape lubricates, allowing for a deeper seating of the threads, and it helps prevent the threads from seizing when being unscrewed. The tape also works as a deformable filler and thread lubricant, helping to seal the joint without hardening or making it more difficult to tighten, and instead making it easier to tighten. It also protects the threads of both pieces from direct contact with each other and physical wear and helps seal and prevent leaks from the connection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piping and plumbing fitting</span> Connecting pieces in pipe systems

A fitting or adapter is used in pipe systems to connect sections of pipe or tube, adapt to different sizes or shapes, and for other purposes such as regulating fluid flow. These fittings are used in plumbing to manipulate the conveyance of fluids such as water for potatory, irrigational, sanitary, and refrigerative purposes, gas, petroleum, liquid waste, or any other liquid or gaseous substances required in domestic or commercial environments, within a system of pipes or tubes, connected by various methods, as dictated by the material of which these are made, the material being conveyed, and the particular environmental context in which they will be used, such as soldering, mortaring, caulking, Plastic welding, welding, friction fittings, threaded fittings, and compression fittings.

In drilling technology, casing string is a long section of connected oilfield pipe that is lowered into a wellbore and cemented. The purpose of the casing pipe is as follows:

Directional boring, also referred to as horizontal directional drilling (HDD), is a minimal impact trenchless method of installing underground utilities such as pipe, conduit, or cables in a relatively shallow arc or radius along a prescribed underground path using a surface-launched drilling rig. Directional boring offers significant environmental advantages over traditional cut and cover pipeline/utility installations. The technique is routinely used when conventional trenching or excavating is not practical or when minimal surface disturbance is required.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orangeburg pipe</span> Type of pipe made from tar paper

Orangeburg pipe is bituminized fiber pipe used in the United States. It is made from layers of ground wood pulp fibers and asbestos fibres compressed with and bound by a water resistant adhesive then impregnated with liquefied coal tar pitch. It was used from the 1860s through the 1970s, when it was replaced by PVC pipe for water supply and ABS pipe for drain-waste-vent (DWV) applications. The name comes from Orangeburg, New York, the town in which most Orangeburg pipe was manufactured, largely by the Fiber Conduit Company. It changed its name to the Orangeburg Manufacturing Company in 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Inch</span> Petroleum pipelines from Texas to New Jersey

The Big Inch and Little Big Inch, collectively known as the Inch pipelines, are petroleum pipelines extending from Texas to New Jersey, built between 1942 and 1944 as emergency war measures in the U.S. Before World War II, petroleum products were transported from the oil fields of Texas to the north-eastern states by sea by oil tankers. After the United States entered the war on 1 January 1942, this vital link was attacked by German submarines in Operation Paukenschlag, threatening both the oil supplies to the north-east and its onward transshipment to Great Britain. The Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, championed the pipeline project as a way of transporting petroleum by the more-secure, interior route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline</span> Oil pipeline out of service

The Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline is a currently defunct crude oil pipeline from the Kirkuk oil field in Iraq to the Syrian port of Baniyas. The pipeline went into operation in April 1952 and was formally opened in November.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ductile iron pipe</span> Pipe made of ductile cast iron

Ductile iron pipe is pipe made of ductile cast iron commonly used for potable water transmission and distribution. This type of pipe is a direct development of earlier cast iron pipe, which it has superseded.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural gas pipeline system in the United States</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copper tubing</span> Type of metal tubing

Copper tubing is available in two basic types of tube—plumbing tube and air conditioning/refrigeration (ACR) tube, and in both drawn (hard) and annealed (soft) tempers. Because of its high level of corrosion resistance, it is used for water distribution systems, oil fuel transfer lines, non-flammable medical-gas systems, and as a refrigerant line in HVAC systems. Copper tubing is joined using flare connection, compression connection, pressed connection, or solder.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Robotic Technology Extends the Life of Gas Pipelines". North American Oil & Gas Pipelines. January 20, 2016. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Russell, Pam Radtkr (February 12, 2018). "Cast-Iron Repairing Robot Is Game-Changer for Gas Utilities". Engineering News Record . p. 33.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Barron, James (December 28, 2017). "21st-Century Repairman: The Robot in the Gas Main". The New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  4. "ULC CISBOT Utilized to Repair Gas Line Leaks Underground rather than Tear Roads up". robotglobe.org. May 22, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  5. King, Nathan (September 9, 2012). "ULC Robotics Doubles CISBOT Travel Distance". The New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2018.