Anode squeals about Apache pigs

Anode Engineering are corrosion control engineering design experts offering the highest quality international corrosion-related brands and products for pipeline applications across Australia and New Zealand.

For more, the word pig conjures up images of the farmyard variety and perhaps the smell of bacon on a Sunday morning breakfast! In pipelining the word PIG is an anacronym for Pipeline Inspection Gauge and is a device which is inserted into a pipeline then travels along it, propelled by the pressure of the medium pushing behind it.

During pipeline pigging, a squealing noise can sometimes be generated that is reminiscent of the farmyard variety, reinforcing the name. Pigs can be used to perform cleaning, maintenance and inspections of a pipeline or also in batching applications to separate dissimilar products when changing from one medium to another within the pipe.

Canadian manufacturer Apache Pipeline Products produces all manner of the highest quality pigs including foam pigs of different densities and coatings, solid cast urethane models in many styles, as well as steel mandrel pigs. Each offers its own particular pipeline benefits, and the company also offers pig passage indicators in a manual flag type indicator or electronic option and pig tracking equipment.

Foam pigs are the most commonly used cleaning solution, and the Apache range includes bare foam drying and cleaning pigs in various densities of foam depending on the use case. Foam pigs can be urethane coated for tougher cleaning and abrasion resistance. There are also wire brush models commonly used to abrade Sulphate Reducing Bacteria (SRB) colonies for exposure to treatment with biocides using filming pigs, such as Tsunami or UT pigs.

Solid polyurethane options can be used as batch dividers between dissimilar products, cleaners to raise flow rates and specialty pigs, such as the new Tsunami Filming Pig, to suit pipelines between DN80 – DN150 which can coat the internal pipe with corrosion inhibitor films or biocide solutions as required. To achieve the same results on DN200-DN350 sized pipe, the UT FP is used.

These feature a lead purger type pig with a filming pig following. The space between the two is filled with corrosion inhibitor and the cavity of the filming pig fills with inhibitor then coats the pipe wall as it travels along behind the lead pig.

Steel mandrel pigs have several interchangeable options from wire brushes, sealing discs, magnets for removing conductive debris (black powder) inside a pipe and gauge plates which fold over to indicate if there is an area within the pipeline which has been damaged or crushed. Elements can be substituted and replaced as they wear out whilst retaining the solid metal mandrel as the core.

Apache are a global manufacturer of pigging equipment trusted for 50 years by many global resource companies. Anode Engineering have been supporting the Apache brand in Australia and our Subsidiary Lordco in New Zealand for more than 20 years and can recommend the right, high quality pigging solutions for your application.