Session: MF-20-02 Material Quality and Failure Analysis-2

Paper Number: 122574

122574 - Flange Face Damages and Its Management for Plant Construction in Oil and Gas Industries 

Flanges, in particular piping flange, are often mechanically damaged and/or corroded during the construction between flange manufacturing and the plant turnover from EPC contractors to plant owners. The responsibilities for either a repair or a replacement of facing damaged flanges are often argued among flange purchasers, flange manufacturers, stockiest, shipping companies, piping spool fabricators piping erectors and inspection companies, because of the liabilities to compensate for flange facing repair within limited resources.

To avoid the damages, rust preventive coating, e.g., mastic type, is usually applied to flange faces for temporary protection by flange manufacturers due to easy application and anti-corrosion performance better than grease type, however, the rust preventions selected and applied by flange manufacturer at their shop may not sufficiently protect flange faces from corrosion during the plant construction. As another protection, plastic caps or plyboard protections are also used, however, for selecting the protections, site storage condition and preservation period have to be considered.

In order to solve these flange face issues, experienced damage-troubles had been analyzed and potential countermeasures were discussed and studied. This paper introduces the example of flange face managements such as selection of rust prevention, types and frequency of inspections, and different acceptance criteria of flange face damages.

Presenting Author: Koichi Yamazaki JGC CORPORATION

Presenting Author Biography: Koich Yamazaki has been working for JGC CORPORATION since 2007 and assigned as project engineer and engineering manager for several projects of oil and gas processing and refining plants.
He is a chairman of flange management committee in JGC CORPORATION since 2020 and develops technical requirements of flange management to control damages and corrosion

Authors:

Koichi Yamazaki JGC CORPORATION
Atsushi Takahashi JGC CORPORATION
Masahiro Kawai JGC CORPORATION
Takahiro Tsuda JGC CORPORATION