E!113507 A Novel Approach for the Rapid Repair of Large Diameter Pipes

Pipes are damaged by corrosion, movement in the ground, erosion and general ageing. Some estimates predict that the European sewer pipe repair market will reach €14.9 billion by 2021. Similar estimates exist for drinking water pipes. Repairing large-diameter pipes requires manual work inside the pipe, which is both dangerous, labor-intensive and slower than robotic processes and thus becomes expensive. Consequences for shutting down pipes with a large diameter are often very significant, both economically, socially and environmentally. Infrastructure owners therefore want efficient repair techniques, so that the pipes can be put into operation quickly, with minimal downtime and lost production. We meet this need through the automation of our FastFix pipe rehabilitation process. This is a much safer and faster method than manual repair. After cleaning and preparation, a durable and protective newly developed pipe liner will be coated without joints inside the pipes. Both a (semi-)structural and non-structural liner have been developed to expand the area of ??use for the process. The Fast-Fix journey started in 2013 when we used standard polyurea for the repair of water supply pipes in a hydroelectric plant in Iceland. Here the wear and tear from volcanic sand and rocks was stopped with a liner that has abraision resistance and durability on par with HDPE. By 2015, the word from the Iceland-project had spread and Kinera was invited to compete with a large South Korean contractor to repair a 2.4 meter diameter cooling water pipe in Qatar. For this, we developed a "proof of concept" repair robot that made it possible to carry out faster repairs through efficient surface treatment. The proof of concept robot exceeded all expectations. The Koreans repaired 22m of pipe in 9 days using 42 employees, while Kinera repaired 40m of pipe in less than 5 days using only 7 employees - a remarkable reduction in time and cost! The purpose of this project was to develop an improved version of our concept robot that not only handles grinding of the pipe surface but all steps in a pipe rehabilitation process, as well as specially developed polyurea-based liners. Our goal was to build and demonstrate a "proof-of-concept" prototype fully automated repair robot that can clean and repair pipes with a diameter of 1-3m quickly, reliably and safely, without the need for people in the pipe during the repair process. We have succeeded in this, and interest in the pipe rehabilitation market for our technology has been achieved!

An automated prototype repair robot, capable of cleaning/drying, abrading the pipe surface and spraying fast-curing 2K liners has been developed and built during the project. A novel spray-head and a 360 degrees hydraulic driven rotation have been developed, assuring a continuous and even layer of liner being sprayed as a protective layer in damaged pipes. Due to Covid with following extreme lead times on critical components and travel restrictions during 2021 we have met challenges with completing the full commissioning (repeated testing for full verification). Due to lack of full commissioning the Case study was not performed, but work post-project (weeks 3 and 6/2023) shows that this prototype robot clearly can demonstrate "proof of concept" and the novel spray-technology has been demonstrated to important players in the trenchless pipe rehabilitation market, attracting significant interest. Areas for improvements are defined to enable building the next generation robot, which will be the version ready for market intro. A model is developed to estimate the repair-time for pipes with diameters 1-3m, and with the tests carried out so far 100m repair of a DN2000 pipe will be possible in approx. 24h, resulting in considerable down-time for pipe-infrastructure owners. There are currently no other cost-efficient trenchless methods for large diameter pipes, so currently pipes has to 1) be replaced, causing a significant environmental footprint or 2) be manually repaired, requiring personell inside a restricted and potentially dangerous area FastFix offers therefore significant Health and Safety benefits! The potential market for FastFix in Europe alone is pipe lengths equivalent to14 times around the globe, and our business model is to both rent, lease and sell robots, in addition to repetitive sale of liner materials. With the results achieved in this project and the interest received from the market, a further cooperation with a significant market player is seen as the most likely way forward to bring this innovative technology to market.

This project will dramatically reduce the time it takes to repair large diameter pipes used in critical infrastructure. We will develop a remotely controlled prototype robot capable of both cleaning and preparing the inner pipe surface, before applying a highly flexible and durable polyurea liner. Fast-Fix will complete repairs 5x faster and more consistently than traditional, labour intensive methods whilst eliminating the need for human labour within the hazardous pipe environment. To further improve the repair, Fast-Fix will apply an innovative and durable 3-5mm thick polyurea liner which will be sprayed inside the pipe. Our repair of a hydroelectric water feed pipe in Iceland proved that polyurea coatings can deliver considerably better abrasion resistance and durability than original GRP pipe, further reducing ongoing maintenance.