In the petrochemical industry, a leak is synonymous with risks to health, human life and the environment.
Manufacturers are therefore subject to very stringent standards. Each of the dozens of welded joints in the pipe assemblies they produce must pass ultrasonic and X-ray tests, as well as pressure resistance tests.
Each joint must have its own detailed traceability history, including the identity of the welder, when the weld was made, the identity of the inspectors, the dates and times of the inspections, plus all the reports and technical measurements of these inspections. It should be noted that our customer used subcontractors, and that the software involved would inevitably also have to be used by these subcontractors.
Our solution
A "barcode token" was used to identify each joint in a structure that became increasingly complex and bulky as the joints were welded. The tokens were each made of a barcode label, printed on vinyl and glued to a few centimeters of sheet metal, itself attached to the pipe by a twisted metal pin. The whole unit was reusable and sufficiently resistant to heat, dust and handling by welders and inspectors*.
At his workstation, the welder had the AutoCAD 3D diagram of the pipe assembly to be produced. He would first associate the joint number from the diagram, itself associated with a customer order, with one of the bar-coded tokens taken from his token box, and attach it to the pipe at a reasonable distance from the joint to be welded.
Then, when welding, the employee identified himself, read the token of the joint to be made and started his welding work, which was noted as "Welder - # Joint - Date.Hour.Minute (Start & End of welding)". When the joint was completed, the welder read the token again and declared "Joint completed". This updated the List of Welded Joints to be Inspected, and the inspectors took over, in turn producing corresponding entries in the joint history file. The same process was used by subcontractors for complete traceability.
Benefits
All the manual operations required to meet petrochemical standards in this company of 45 employees, which amounted to over 100,000$ per year, were eliminated at 90%. The production cycle was reduced by 17%, enabling us to increase the production rate by the same amount, thus increasing monthly deliveries, reducing the lead times seen by customers and offering them traceability files unheard of in the field, reducing the risks for everyone - our customer, his subcontractors and the end buyer.
* The tokens had a lifespan of several months and cost around 2.75$ to produce in quantities of 1000.
