Introducing Pipe Team

Established in 2000, Pipe Team is a consultancy company grouping experts with competence and teamwork skills, able to support Customers in materials engineering and quality management, to obtain the best solution in terms of materials quality at reduced costs.

Pipe Team is structured to help Customers in corrosion assessment of alloys and components, corrosion rate evaluation, selection of materials for corrosive environments, welding and material specifications, internal and external coating, vendor evaluation and selection, manufacturing process control, inspection and testing, failure analysis, expediting, quality management, final documentation as software version and problem solving.

Pipe Team personnel attend regularly officially recognised training courses and international conferences, not only as attendants to be constantly updated on material and corrosion issues, but also as speakers, chairperson and/or part of technical committees. Our aim is to guarantee a high level technical support to our Clients.

Engineering services

The engineering team can support you from the first phases of the project up to the preparation of material (but also coating and welding) specifications, from the technical bid evaluation (pipes, piping and coating) to technical support to post order team during production. Pipe Team can provide support for new projects in preliminary material selection for initial cost evaluation. Pipe Team is skilled in the use of different corrosion rate calculation software. Once material selection is done, is time to prepare specifications for material purchasing, coating and welding. A properly written specification is a first way to set product quality requirements and to discern suppliers. Pipe Team personnel have broad experience both in technical and materials manufacturing issues and this is constantly reflected in our work resulting in clear technical specification and in technical bid evaluations in which we can highlight deviation lists not properly prepared.

Research and materials characterizations

Along with materials selection and materials specifications, Pipe Team has been engaged in evaluating materials application environmental limits creating applicability maps. In order to evaluate if a material can be safely used in a corrosive environment, where literature data is not available or incomplete, additional investigation is required. Pipe Team can support you in selecting the proper testing laboratory, in writing/reviewing laboratory procedures and
in selecting test conditions for the scope of the investigation. Finally, we can create databases collecting all available data (literature, previous experience, laboratory results) and applicability graph for materials.

Failure analysis assistance

In case of component failure, Pipe Team can provide you support and technical knowledge. A failure investigation involves many steps: collection of preliminary data, site inspection, environmental review, photographic report of failed item, non-destructive tests, material identification, investigation on microstructure, failed mechanisms investigation. To perform a thorough investigation and reach a quick resolution, knowledge and experience are required.

Pipe Team personnel is skilled in corrosion mechanism, welding, coating, metallurgy and have a good track record of cooperation with many qualified laboratories, therefore we can follow Clients during first steps (site inspection and setting up of an investigation plan) up to the supervision during failure analysis investigation with qualified laboratories, including preparation of comprehensive failure analysis reports. Whenever legal matters are involved, Pipe Team can provide technical assistance during investigation and trials.

Post Order Activities & Quality Management

Pipe Team can support you during post order activities. The quality of finished products can be reached not only by writing appropriate material specifications and by selecting high quality suppliers, but also by monitoring production and solving any eventual problem as far as it arises. Pipe Team policy is that post order activities are not just a “pass” or “fail” evaluation, there should be a focal point in loco able to understand weather engineering shall be involved even if results are still “acceptable”. Our personnel have high experience on pipe production and have experienced many different mills and production lines, furthermore are always supported by engineering team: this results in a prompt response to any production need.
Pipe Team also believes that the daily collection and review of production data is a key part of post order activities: the resulting database can be used for traceability or statistical purposes, to understand mill performance or deficiency, providing useful and easily accessible information to improve materials quality.