OTC 2014: Trelleborg to present thermal insulation material portfolio

To cater for industry demands, Trelleborg’s offshore operation has consolidated its range of high performance thermal insulation materials, to house them all under one brand – Vikotherm™. The company will present its newest portfolio at the Offshore Technology Conference, in Houston.

“As subsea environments become increasingly more demanding; going deeper and further than ever before, temperatures and hydrostatic pressure become much greater,” said Ben Wait, Customer Group Manager with Trelleborg Offshore and Construction.

“As a result, the demand for more sophisticated products which can cope with these harsher environments is growing. And this is certainly the case with our thermal insulation materials; so we’ve taken the strategic decision to group all of our solutions together to allow for easier product selection and ensure that all customer needs can be met in one place.”

Trelleborg has successfully supplied to the subsea oil and gas industry for three decades, continuously researching to ensure that its products consistently meet the growing demands placed on them. As such, all solutions in the Vikotherm™ range will guarantee maintained flow rates, optimum productivity, reduced costs and protection against wax and hydrate formations.

Two of the featured products in the portfolio include the R2 and S1 materials. Vikotherm R2 consists of a three-layer coating system which provides total protection against corrosion and hydrogen induced stress cracking (HISC). Similarly, its seawater, impact and creep resistance means that it offers excellent thermal insulation properties. The material is suitable for jumpers and spool pieces, tie in spools, manifolds, subsea trees, risers and flowlines, joints, insulation covers and many more applications.

With the capability to be applied in any geographic location, this material can operate in temperatures ranging from -49 °C to +155 °C /-56 °F to +311 °F, and depths as low as 3,000+m / 9,843+ft. In addition, being almost entirely maintenance and absorption free, the R2 allows for undisturbed, optimal high pressure and temperature flow performance.

In addition, the Vikotherm S1 is based on non-syntactic silicone technology. This material is ideal for risers and flow lines, subsea trees, pipeline end manifolds, pipeline end terminations and more, with operating temperatures of -40°C to +135°C/-40°F to +275°F and depths of 3,000+m/ 9,843+ft.

The S1 cures at room temperature without exposure to air, making it resistant to cracking and shrinking. In addition to this, the absence of glass microspheres means it provides superior joint strength, increased thermal conductivity, long-term flexibility and increased hydrolytic stability. As it’s not restricted by geometry or thickness limitations, the S1 can meet a broad range of application specifications.

Other solutions in the Vikotherm range include epoxy syntactic foam, E1 and E2; non-mercury catalyzed polyurethane, P7; syntactic polypropylene tape, PT and non-mercury syntactic polyurethane, G3.