【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】From 2023 to 2025, China’s oil and gas pipeline construction is entering the era of \"all-terrain automatic welding\"

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Let’s give praise and support to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Progress in Chemical Engineering Equipment】Regular updates and summaries are available – feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** China’s oil and gas pipeline construction has entered the era of \"all-terrain automatic welding.\" April 18, 2025   On April 8th, the domestically developed \"Four-All\" pipeline welding and inspection robot technology was put into widespread use, resulting in a significant improvement in construction efficiency. This marks a shift in China’s pipeline construction from \"segmental manual welding\" to \"all-terrain automatic welding.\"   The “Four-Comprehensive” pipeline welding inspection robot system overcomes the technical limitations of automatic welding in terms of adaptability to different pipe diameters, handling of complex terrains, and dealing with various types of welds. It enables welding for pipes with diameters ranging from 33 millimeters to 1422 millimeters, and can operate effectively in complex terrains with slopes of up to 30 degrees. It supports fully automatic welding for all types of welds, including those between straight pipes and pipes that have been heat-bent, as well as fully automatic ultrasonic (AUT) inspection. This system marks the beginning of a new era characterized by zero-gap pipe alignment, 100% solid wire welding for all weld layers, and fully automatic ultrasonic inspection.   In the past, pipeline welding for oil and gas relied mainly on manual welding and semi-automatic welding, accounting for 80%. This traditional welding method has issues such as high labor intensity, high construction costs, and unstable welding quality. To address these challenges, the Pipeline Bureau established 15 scientific and technological projects and independently developed the “Four-Comprehensive” pipeline welding inspection robot system. Welders can perform automatic welding with the help of a remote control box, which significantly reduces their workload. In the construction of the East African crude oil export pipeline, the welding inspection robot system based on the \"four comprehensives\" approach achieved a first-pass welding success rate of over 98%. The amount of welding material used per weld site was reduced from 2.9 kilograms to 1 kilogram, while the amount of oil required decreased from 30 liters to 10 liters. Emissions of carbon and dust were reduced by more than 60%.   At present, the \"Four-Comprehensive\" pipeline welding inspection robot system has been widely used in domestic projects such as the China-Russia East Line, West-East Gas Pipeline Project Phase III, and Sichuan-East Gas Pipeline Project Phase II. It has received certification from Total in France and Saudi Aramco, and is now fully employed in the East African crude oil pipeline project as well as Saudi Aramco’s pipeline projects.