Petroleum

What is a Spoolbase?

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A phenomenon adjacent to the Wikipedia rabbit hole may be Google Maps tourism.  While reading the Wired article “The Inside Story of the Great Silicon Heist” by the excellent Brendan Koerner I was curious to look at the Mitsubishi polysilicon facility described in the article on Alabama’s Theodore Industrial Canal.  While the facility wasn’t much to look at I did notice an interesting neighbor on the canal. A perfectly straight, mile-long piece of construction that butted up against […]

Machinery / Petroleum

Pipeline Welding

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Another /r/welding gem.  This is an interesting video covering  pipeline welding and it has a humorous amount of angry Canadian welders. This ain’t a goddamn pool party. A good look at the welding shacks and pipe welders with a quick primer on the hot-pass, fill, and cap weld sequence.

Machinery / Petroleum

Offshore Welding

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I stumbled across this album in /r/welding of a pipe laying vessel out in the Gulf of Mexico.  It’s always interesting to see specialized equipment for a specific industry.  The album covers joint prep, welding, inspection, and laying. Here are some of the highlights: