Sheffield Forgemasters Delivers Nord Stream Pipeline Clamps
Sheffield Forgemasters International has produced subsea emergency repair clamp bodies for use on the world’s longest subsea gas pipeline.
Designed by Oil States Industries in Houston, the hydro-clamp is designed to provide risk mitigation in the event of a breach in a subsea pipeline.
Sheffield Forgemasters has delivered two clamp bodies for Oil States each to form emergency repair backup for the 1,224 km Nord Stream pipeline which runs along the Baltic Sea floor from Vyborg in Russia to Lubmin in Germany.
The clamps are currently in the testing phase at Oil States in Houston before they are shipped to the Nord Stream project where they will be reserved for emergency backup use.
George Brown, group projects director, said: “The Nord Stream clamps are hydraulically operated repair mechanisms, designed to reinforce the Nord Stream Pipeline at any required point along the Baltic Sea floor.
“The size of the forging exceeded the known parameters for the designated material selection and required a new engineering solution to make it possible. Sheffield Forgemasters excels in these realms of manufacture where the practicable realisation of process capability is considered alongside the theoretical metallurgy using experience based knowledge.
“The clamp comprises of two matched halves which can be locked around the pipeline in order to stop any leakage. In order to provide the matched pairs of half clamps the forging was produced as a single piece before being cut longitudinally to produce the two halves.”
