Like the old cliché ‘Invention is the Mother of Necessity.’ FuseRing was a spark out of desperation.
Solid state fusion (SSF) has been around for over ten years but this process was never commercialized. SSF is the most sophisticated, the most advanced weld in the world bar none. The process is fast; the end product – the weld is superior to anything that I’m aware of anywhere in the world. The crystalline structure of the base metal, heat affected zone and area where the metals fuse together are the same! No filler. No line of weakness!
This process is perfect for pipeline construction, refinery plant construction and many other applications but there is one limitation. One of the two parts has to rotate in order to shear the crystals as they are formed. So how do you join the end pieces of a pipeline to a valve; pipeline to expansion joint or pipeline to a bent piece? More on this later.
We’re taught since high school shop class that in order to weld properly we must keep the two work pieces clamped tight, no movement. Well, solid state fusion broke that mold. The SSF shearing / rotation process of allowing the crystals to form, tear and reform is the secret similar to the Japanese Samurai Sword. By continuously folding the steel, the master sword maker is slowly manipulating the crystalline structure of the steel so that the end product is hard yet ductile. The sword strikes with razor sharpness yet able to defend against a heavy blow without breaking in half. The Samurai Sword took weeks to prepare; forge, fold and form with the direct supervision of a master sword maker. I’ve only seen a few true Samurai Swords. One of them is
in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. Those swords convey an unmistakable message that it means business.
The solid state fusion is mechanized and can be operated by a qualified technician. The whole process takes minutes. And the end result is repeatable with consistent welds every time.
So what’s the problem? We lay pipe line end on end like a sausage factory, rotating and forging new joints of pipe to the pipeline at record breaking time until we come up against a bent segment. It is possible to compress the already laid pipe line slightly but impossible to torque several hundred meters of already laid pipe. And it is impractical to attempt to rotate any bent pipe segment along its longitudinal axis. The solution? FuseRing!
FuseRing rotates and acts an intermediary between two non rotatable segments. It fuses two pipe segments together using SSF concept. Simple.
SSF was the perfect method to put pipelines together for many years but we could not overcome the last segment restriction. Solutions offered were…well, we can weld any joint that cannot be rotated. But that one manual weld negates the higher standard of the entire pipeline.
FuseRing is the break through we’ve been searching for. It is the last step. FuseRing allows the entire pipeline to be completed using one system of solid state fusion. Now it is possible to lay pipeline from well head to refinery. Call and ask how we can make pipeline construction or refinery construction more efficient. FuseRing is the break through we’ve been waiting for.
Paul Cheng
FuseRing.com
Patent # 9,644,769 B1 and Patent Pending applications