Welding of pipe-lines, pressure vessels and

structures
By Anshuman Sehgal, Principal Engineer – Integrity, Quest Global Engineering Services Pvt. Lt d.

What is a pipe-line?
• A network of pipes set up to transport liquids, gases and even solids within a chemical plant, refining
unit or any other manufacturing unit. It is an assembly of pipes, pipe fittings, valves, instruments,
pipe supports etc. laid out to suit the application.
• These components are joined together using various techniques, welding being the most commonly
used.

What is pressure vessel?

• Pressure vessels are enclosed containers that hold liquids, vapors, and gases at a pressure
significantly higher or lower than the ambient pressure. They are widely used in various industries
such as petrochemical, oil and gas, chemical, and food processing industries. Equipment such as
reactors, flash drums, separators, and heat exchangers are examples of pressure vessels.
• The usually fabricated with metal plates welded together.

What is structure?
• Steel structure is a metal structure which is made of structural steel components (channels, I-
beams, pipes, angles etc.) connected with each other to carry loads and provide full rigidity.
• They are an integral part of any building, industrial installation, infrastructural installations,
monuments etc.
• The components are joined together either by using fasteners or welded together.

Welding
• As mentioned above, any fabrication of either pipe-line, pressure vessel or structure involves
“welding”.
• Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high
heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. In addition to melting the
base metal, a filler material is added to the joint to form a pool of molten material (the weld pool)
that cools to form a joint that, based on weld configuration (butt, full penetration, fillet, etc.).

Factors that adversely affect welding

• Weld design and geometry
• Chemistry control
• Detrimental changes in heat affected zone (HAZ)
• Filler material
• Welder skill
Welding in pipe-lines and pressure vessels
Welding quality requirements & codes
Pressure vessels and piping operate at quite severe operating conditions and carry liquids and gases at
high pressures. Welding therefore, must be extremely high quality to withstand working conditions.

• Since pressure vessels and pipe-lines carry chemicals and hydrocarbons and other hazardous fluid a
strong/ reliable weld is required to ensure that no loss of containment incident takes place.
• All the aspects of welding in pipe-lines and pressure vessels are well defined and covered by various
industry codes.
• Following are some examples of codes which provides guidelines for welding and controlling
welding parameters to ensure a reliable joint –
➢ ASME codes – these are design codes that covers all aspects of design and manufacture of
boilers and pressure vessels.

ASME BPVC Section I Rules for Construction of Power Boilers

ASME BPVC Section II Part C: Specifications for Welding Rods, Electrodes and Filler Metals.

Rules for Constructions of Nuclear Facility Components-Subsection

ASME BPVC Section III
NCA-General Requirements for Division 1 and Division 2

ASME BPVC Section IV Rules for Construction of Heating Boilers

ASME BPVC Section V Nondestructive Examination

ASME BPVC Section VIII Rules for Construction of Pressure Vessels Division 1 and Division 2

ASME BPVC Section IX Welding and Brazing Qualifications

ASME B16.25 Buttwelding ends

ASME B31.1 Power Piping

ASME B31.3 Process Piping

ASME B31.9 Building Services Piping

➢ AWS standards -published by the American Welding Society, these standards, guidelines and
recommended practices provides rules and procedures to ensure quality/ soundness and
integrity of welds.
 ➢ API standards – published by the American Petroleum Institute, following standards and
guidelines also provide guidance on control and management of welding to ensure the integrity
of welds.

Standard Number Description

API RP 577 Welding Inspection and Metallurgy

API RP 582 Welding Guidelines for the Chemical, Oil, and Gas Industries

API 1104 Welding of pipelines and related facilities

API 1169 Basic Inspection Requirements for New Pipeline Construction

• There are codes and standards from other countries/ regulatory bodies and Institutes. The list quite
long.
• The most important salient feature is that all these standards are connected and refer back to each
other. The rules are more or less same but the amount of conservatism varies. Most of the rules are
based on either industry experience and failures or based on laboratory tests conducted to
determine the properties of welds carried out using a well-defined/ documented procedure.
• Industrial welding does not include just the welding but documenting the steps/ procedures and
managing the documentation for future reference and records.
• The most commonly referred code is ASME Section IX, a set of rules, guidelines, and requirements
for Welding, Brazing, and Fusing Qualifications.
• ASME Section IX Code is set of rules, guidelines, and requirements for Welding, Brazing, and Fusing
Qualifications. It is a reference code that helps for BPVC Construction Codes for Qualifications of
Welder or Welding Operator, Brazer or Brazing Operator, and Fuser or Fusing Operator.
• Before commencing the actual welding, a well-documented weld procedure (WPS) is written down.
This procedure is based on the material of construction, weld type and geometry, thickness of
section to be welded, welding technique being used and the position in which welding is to be
carried out.
• WPS provides necessary information on all the essential and non-essential variables involved in
welding process.
• Once the procedure is written the same is used/ followed to produce test samples which are then
tested for various material properties and weld defects. The intent is to get an assurance that the
procedure when followed will result in production of sound weld with desired material strength and
other properties. All the test results are documented and preserved as procedure qualification
record (PQR).
• Each WPS has got a valid, supporting PQR. Any change in WPS or a new WPS call for another
qualification.
• ASME Section IX also provides guidelines on qualifications of welding operators and methods to
certify/ qualify them for production welds.
• It also provides guidelines for document management and recordkeeping.
Welding in structures
• As in case of pressure vessels and piping, welding in steel structures is also governed by stringent
guidelines provided by various design codes and standards.
• Following are few such standards –
Standard Title
Number

S/NZS 1554.1 Structural steel welding - Welding of steel structures

AS/NZS Structural steel welding - Stud welding (steel studs to steel)

1554.2
AS/NZS Structural steel welding - Welding of reinforcing steel
1554.3

AS/NZS Structural steel welding - Welding of high strength quenched and

1554.4 tempered steels

AS/NZS Structural steel welding - Welding of steel structures subject to high

1554.5 levels of fatigue loading

AWS B2.1 Specification for Welding Procedure and Performance Qualification

AWS D1.1 Structural welding (steel)

AWS D1.2 Structural welding (aluminum)

AWS D1.3 Structural welding (sheet steel)

AWS D1.4 Structural welding (reinforcing steel)

AWS D1.5 Bridge welding

AWS D1.6 Structural welding (stainless steel)

AWS D1.7 Structural welding (strengthening and repair)

AWS D1.8 Structural welding seismic supplement

AWS D1.9 Structural welding (titanium)

• Structural welding is not considered very critical because usually the welds are supposed to take
care of applied and environmental loading and service fluid loss of containment event are not
credible scenarios. However, this does not reduce the quality requirements and/ or the importance
of procedure/ procedure qualification.
• These welds also go through a diligent design process.
• Some of the major challenges in structural welding are deformation, reduction in load bearing
capacity due to poor design, selection of nodes and maintaining symmetry.

Welding techniques deployed

Fabrication of a pressure vessel/ pipeline/ structures requires assembling a lot of components and
welding them in shop or at site. Based on geometry of the workpiece, position and configuration of
weld, thickness of base material, volume of material to be deposited and productivity of the technique
deployed; a combination of various techniques is being used.

Some of the techniques are manual and others automated or semi-automated.

Commonly deployed techniques for pipeline and pressure vessel welding are –

✓ Manual SMAW/ GTAW

✓ Robotic SAW/ GAW
✓ Manual MIG
✓ Robotic MIG
✓ Plasma Welding
✓ Orbital welding
✓ K-TIG

Any technique can be deployed but the requirement for a WPS and PQR still remains.

For structural welding applications the choices are limited, manual SMAW (commonly known as stick
welding) leading the chart. Some other commonly deployed techniques include –

✓ Gas shielded semi-automatic welding

✓ Electroslag welding
✓ SAW (usually deployed in shop fabrication)

Automation in welding
• Automation in welding comes with following main advantages –
➢ Improved weld quality – Reduced dependency on manual skill
➢ Increased productivity – The output is faster, consistent and more volumes can be deposited in
quicker time.
➢ Reduced scrap
➢ Reduced variable labor cost
➢ Better control on variables and ease of handling more complex jobs (like weld overlays etc.)
➢ Repeatability
• Automation has some limitations too and cannot be deployed for every job. The factors which limit
deployment of automated techniques are –
➢ Higher cost owing to higher capital expenditure on the equipment.
➢ Lack of flexibility
➢ Higher maintenance costs
• All these cons of completely automated processes lead most organizations to deploy a combination
of manual and automated solutions or use of semi-automatic techniques.
Future
AI developments are leading to more and more automation in welding. Some researches say that robots
may replace human welders sometime in future but it’s a long journey. Automation vs manual welding is
an endless debate. But the reality is industry is embracing the development. Welding positioners,
rotators and manipulators are widely being deployed to increase productivity but the flexibility offered
by manual techniques still is unbeatable.