The Bohai Equipment Research Institute of CNPC has independently developed specialized robots for submerged arc welding pipe production lines, enabling a transition from manual operation to intelligent manufacturing
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Recently, the project \"Research and Development of Special Robots for Submerged Arc Welding Pipe Production Lines\", independently developed by the Bohai Equipment Research Institute of CNPC, was selected as one of the \"Outstanding Cases in China’s Oil and Gas Artificial Intelligence Technology 2025\" announced at the Fourth China Oil and Gas Artificial Intelligence Technology Conference. It is understood that this project addresses a series of long-standing problems in the production of submerged arc welded pipes, such as poor quality consistency and low levels of automation, issues that have plagued the pipe manufacturing industry for decades; it can significantly improve the quality of high-end welded pipes in China. As a core component of oil and gas transmission pipelines, submerged arc welded pipes have long faced bottlenecks in production, such as low efficiency of manual operations and difficulty in ensuring precision. Focusing on this challenge, the Bohai Equipment Research Institute of CNPC has innovated by integrating cutting-edge technologies such as machine vision and intelligent sensing. It was the first to develop intelligent grinding robots for the internal and external welds at the ends of submerged arc welded pipes, as well as multi-parameter intelligent measurement robots for such pipes that feature self-correction, self-diagnosis, and intelligent fault tolerance. It has also developed printing robots capable of automatic data integration and adaptive control. These intelligent devices use laser vision algorithms to accurately identify weld features, and employ dynamic trajectory adjustment techniques to achieve high-precision grinding. The grinding accuracy reaches ±0.2 mm, the welding tracking accuracy is ±0.1 mm, and the repeat accuracy of dimension measurement is ≤±0.1 mm. At the same time, they overcome the challenge of fast-drying primers by enabling adaptive printing, thereby significantly improving production efficiency. It is understood that this project has obtained a total of 5 authorized invention patents and 4 utility model patents, as well as 6 core research papers published. At present, this project has developed a complete technical framework. The 13 sets of equipment developed as part of this project have been put into use on various large-diameter submerged arc welding pipe production lines across the country, enabling a transition from manual operations to intelligent production.
On April 10, 2022, the author entered the pipe manufacturing plant of Bohai Equipment Julong Steel Pipe Company, where two robotic arms were in use, with sparks flying everywhere. “Robots grind the welds, ensuring consistent weld heights and high product quality as well as fast production efficiency. ”Employees working alongside the robots explained. Bohai Equipment is carrying out upgrades to its production lines to make them more automated, digitalized, and intelligent. By leveraging advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and cloud computing, it has established intelligent control centers in the production workshops. It has also developed automated equipment such as robots for automatically grinding welds at pipe ends, robots for automatic labeling, robots for cutting arc-starting and arc-extinguishing plates, and robots for comprehensive automatic measurement of steel pipes. These efforts enable production management to evolve toward a model characterized by centralized control, unattended operation, periodic inspections by human staff, and professional maintenance. On the straight-seam steel pipe production line in the Qingxian Industrial Park, automation has been implemented in 9 different processes: plate inspection, edge milling, shaping, welding, slag removal, grinding, diameter expansion, final product inspection, and marking. As a result, the first-pass success rate for straight-seam pipes has increased by 5%, production efficiency has risen by 20%, quality and safety standards have continued to improve, and the capacity to meet supply demands has enhanced. In ensuring the supply for a natural gas pipeline project in the southwest region, thanks to the use of automated equipment, the hollow pipes were produced in bulk just 10 days after the contract was signed, and the first several thousand tons of steel pipes were delivered to the construction site in Chongqing within 20 days.
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