PipeWay Engineering specializes in making and operating O&G pipeline inspection tools.
As the only entirely national company specialized in building and operating pipeline inspection tools in the southern hemisphere, PipeWay is in a class by itself.
The pipeline inspection tools, known in the market as Pigs, verify anomalies such as corrosion, damage and undersired substances in order to avoid flow problems and also to avoid oil spilage that can cause environmental accidents.
PipeWay entered the market in 1998, when a group of researchers from PUC (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro), using tecnology from the Petrobras Research and Development Center (Cenpes), introduced pipeline integrity management tools in the market.
The PipeWay concept was developed in the Genesis Institute, in a small classroom in the PUC campus in Rio de Janeiro, as small enterprice project.
Today PipeWay has offices and a 1,500m² warehouse, in the São Cristovão industrial neiborhood in Rio and is an international service provider for various important pipeline operators.
During the last few years Pipeway has invested 10% percent of its income in R&D and plans to raise this investment to 12% shortly. Great importance is also given to partnerships with universities, laboratories and research centers in Brazil and worldwide.
Tools are normally customized to clients specifications as the whole PipeWay production operation is flexible, in order to add multipurpose atributes and also flexibility to conduct special requirements.
Their great advantage is the tecnical qualifications of their workforce and high level of customer service. Petrobras and Latin American Pipeline operators are their main clientele.
The PipeWay product line is composed of mechanical and magnetic cleaning Pigs and acessories although the same project may combine both mechanical and magnetic cleaning Pigs with a possible pipe diameter variation between 3” and 42”, special configurations can also be analyzed on demand.
A new product, named GIP has been increasingly in demand. It is an inspection mecanism for non-pigable ducts and as they name denotes, it makes the inspection externally. This is only one example on new products being introduced in the market, as PipeWay is proud
of continually searching for new tecnologial solutions for its clients needs.
The GIP detects corrosion through MFL (Magnetic flux leakage) and has an operational speed of 0,4m/s guaranteering a high productivity rate and can also be complemented with a B-Scan to evaluate internal and external thickness loss.
Claudio Paschoa
Photo courtesy of PipeWay Engenharia