Hydratight
Profile
Global joint integrity leader Hydratight offers a complete range of hydraulic bolt tensioners, torque wrenches, on-site machining & weldless mechanical connectors for sale/rental. Local facilities offer a flange integrity service for new and existing facilities providing competent technicians delivering leak free bolted joints: one test, no rework.
Address
P.O. Box 3241
Milwaukee, WI 53201-3241
United States
Phone: 1-262-293-1637
Press Releases
1,000,000 reasons why Hydratight is the safe choice
Global joint integrity and engineering services company Hydratight has reached an
astonishing milestone for any business.
The company’s Western region - North and South America - has achieved over a
MILLION hours of work in 2011-12 without a single lost time injury - despite working
in mining, oil and gas, nuclear maintenance and other dangerous fields.
The result is a testament to the company’s “safe is never safe enough” ethos,
which puts an emphasis on safe working practices, whether in the office or on an
oil platform in the Gulf.
“Safety - as the figures suggest - is our number one job; even our world-class
standard of work comes second,” said Gregory Scott, Hydratight’s regional safety
manager.
The figures are deeply impressive: in North and South America combined,
Hydratight achieved a record-breaking total of 1.143 million working hours without
a single lost time safety-related incident.
Broken down, North America alone has an overall injury rate of ZERO over
977,000 working hours, during
the company’s just-ended fiscal
year.
The figures have pushed the
company’s insurance rating or
“Experience Modification Rate”
(EMR) down to 0.80, a record
low for the company.
“The Industry’s target standard
EMR is 1.0,” explained Gregory
Scott
“To work for most clients in these industries a company needs an EMR of 2.0 or
less. Our margin is well under what the industry expects. It offers reassurance that
their workers and property won’t be put at risk by anything our people do, even
in the harshest environments on the planet.”
His comments were echoed by Hydratight’s Western region HSSEQ leader,
Colby Rhodes.
“We’re immensely proud to have achieved such a milestone in the Americas,
and we work to the same standards everywhere - our British operation is
officially recognised as one of the safest companies in the UK, for example.
“As a company we work to one standard; the highest, and it pays off year after
year both for ourselves and our clients.
“Our safety record surpasses that of every company we know in these fields:
we have been able to set our target lost work incident rate down to 0.15 for
our new financial year, and the total incident rate target to 0.50 – against an
industry average of about 2.75, which we think is pretty remarkable.
“And the even better news is we’re already well on the way to making it two
million hours without incident...”
Hydratight completes intricate project in Brazil
Global joint integrity specialist Hydratight has completed an intricate major contract
using its unique mechanical connector (previously known as MORGRIP) to solve
corrosion problems on an oil platform off the coast of Brazil.
Nine separate leaks in high-alloy, thin-wall duplex and super-duplex stainless steel
pipelines had previously been repaired temporarily with standard split-sleeve
clamps, but were at risk of leaking again due to galvanic corrosion.
Hydratight supplied 18off flange adaptor connectors ranging from 6in to 20in
diameter – crucially, built from the same alloys as the pipework – and which had
to be designed, manufactured, tested and delivered in 17weeks in time for a
scheduled 10-day shutdown.
The project carried with it several significant challenges, both in manufacture and
especially during installation.
During manufacture, the stainless raw materials were kept completely separate
from standard carbon steel stock to avoid contamination that might lead to the
same corrosion problems in later years. The material also had to be cut at far lower
speeds than usual to avoid galling — meaning very tight workshop management
to meet the delivery deadline.
Hydratight also supplied a liner kit for each flange adaptor, to strengthen the
pipework internally so it could withstand the connector’s massive sealing forces
and provide a permanent repair. The company also supplied all the installation
and service equipment for the repairs. When it came to the installation, Hydratight engineers
proved why theyare among the highest-regarded in the industry.
“One of the main reasons we were asked to do the work was that the operator knew our products,
knew our service quality and knew he could rely on us to meet deadlines,” explained Hydratight
applications engineer Mark Fisher.
Two teams marked, cut and repaired the damaged sections during the shutdown – the majority of the
sections being in tight, hard to reach spaces.
The most challenging repair was to a 10in pipeline carrying cooling water for the platform
air conditioning system. The connector was needed on a vertical pipe coming down
over the side of the platform, over the open sea.
Scaffolding was erected over the side and the repair took place at night during good
weather – at which point engineers found another problem: the pipe’s flow valve
wouldn’t seal, which meant a constant flow of water in the affected pipe and a halt to the
repair work.
But Hydratight technicians don’t travel light: they had brought the company’s
Hydrablock weld-testing tool and by connecting bypass hoses to the test ports,
deployed the device and isolated the line so the repair work could continue.
While one team was solving that problem, the second team was attempting to
work on a 16in pipeline with severely restricted access and a manufacturing fault
at the point of repair.
The pipe couldn’t be cut back any more because of the access problem, so the
team had to fit the connector to pipe 9mm out of roundness. This defect, caused
by the weld bead pulling on the pipe, was beyond even the wide tolerance of the
Hydratight connector’s state of the art seals.
But having dealt with this type of issue before, the Hydratight technicians had a
solution: they remounted the pipe cutter in a way that allowed its brace points to
be tightened asymmetrically, to effectively distort the pipe and bring it back into
tolerance.
“We have done thousands of repairs and know every one is different and brings
its own problems, so it’s important to have the right people and the right products
on hand. There was nothing here we hadn’t done before and couldn’t fix without
too much trouble,” said Mark.
“The client knows that very well: we have already been approached for the next shutdown"
ENDS
Hydratight wins prestigious Subsea 2013 award in Aberdeen
8 February 2013
Hydratight has been recognised with an award for its work in providing safe subsea joint integrity and bolting solutions, at the Subsea UK 2013 industry awards.
Jan de Koning, Global Business Leader at Hydratight, was presented with the award at a dinner event attended by 850 people, at the AECC, Aberdeen on 6th February 2013.
The company won in the Subsea Safety Leadership category, recognising the organisation’s commitment to ‘step-up’ for safety and its top down approach to ensuring standards. Two other companies were shortlisted in the category.
"We are very pleased to have won this award, especially given the strength of the competitors. To have won this award is recognition of our commitment to ensuring that safety is at the heart of everything we do," said Paul Hughes, Global Subsea Leader at Hydratight.
"As we continue to develop new and innovative products for the subsea market, we want to continue enhancing our already excellent reputation, and awards such as this help to inspire the whole team."
Jan de Koning, President and Global Business Leader for Hydratight, added "Our approach has always been to ensure that safety is one of the core values driving the organisation and it is something that we place a very high value on."
The awards dinner came at the end of the Subsea UK 2013 ‘Beyond the Wave’ event, which saw over 3,500 people attend.
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