【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】From 2013 to 2025: China’s independently developed CMT fully automatic welding equipment for offshore engineering was used for the first time

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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 ***************** On August 14th, CNOOC Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd., a company based in the Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as “CNOOC Offshore Engineering”), announced that with the completion of the installation of the last 10-inch pipeline for the ISND 5-2 project in Qatar, China’s self-developed fully automatic cold metal transfer (CMT) welding equipment was used for the first time. This development is of great significance for improving the level of intelligence in China’s offshore engineering equipment and accelerating the exploration of offshore oil and gas resources. The pipelines laid this time are acid- and sulfur-corrosion-resistant pipes, with a total length of about 13 kilometers. The main vessel used for the operation is China’s first deep-water pipeline-laying crane ship, the \"Offshore Oil 201\". The CMT fully automatic welding equipment has been in operation for over 1,200 hours, completing more than 1,000 welds; the total length of the welded seams is approximately 1,000 meters. The overall first-pass welding success rate exceeds 97%, and all key performance indicators meet the design specifications, thereby fully demonstrating the reliability and stability of domestic welding equipment under complex operating conditions. The CMT fully automatic welding equipment is a more \"intelligent\" type of pipeline welding device. By intelligently controlling the movement of the welding wire and precisely adjusting the current, it enables accurate control over the welding energy and the amount of wire that melts. This results in low heat input and almost no spatter, effectively reducing common problems such as deformation and weld penetration. It is widely used in the welding of pipelines resistant to strong acids and sulfur corrosion. Previously, due to factors such as technical barriers and a lack of experimental data, domestic CMT fully automatic welding equipment was mostly used only for laboratory and workshop testing in the field of offshore engineering. It faced bottlenecks such as an insufficient accumulation of core process parameter databases, long stability verification cycles, and a lack of experience in practical engineering applications. According to Li Bin, manager of the Marine Pipeline Operations Center at CNOOC Engineering Installation Co., Ltd., the company took advantage of the Tianjin Marine Equipment Industry (Talent) Alliance to establish a dedicated task force for CMT fully automatic welding equipment. By collaborating with well-known domestic universities and manufacturers, the team succeeded in overcoming more than 20 key technical challenges, conducted hundreds of simulated welding tests, and continuously improved the system’s welding parameters, mechanical compatibility, and environmental adaptability. The project developed an independent padless welding process that effectively addresses issues such as cracks, deformation, and hydrogen-induced cracking, thereby significantly improving the corrosion resistance of welds and the structural reliability. This provides a solid foundation for the construction of long-life offshore pipelines in extreme operating conditions. Next, CNOOC Engineering will focus on the entire life cycle of \"research and development – application – maintenance\" to establish a management system for CMT fully automatic welding equipment. This will enable such equipment to achieve higher precision and efficiency in operations as well as broader scale of use. A comprehensive training framework for welding professionals will be developed, covering process optimization, operational standards, and maintenance practices, thereby fostering deep integration between technological advancement and talent development and providing strong impetus for the creation of new forms of productivity in the field of offshore engineering equipment. (The image is provided by CNOOC Engineering.)