In the pipeline business, down time can cost as much as $30,000 per hour. That’s why companies like RMS Welding embrace technology and develop their own systems to meet the demand of their customers.

RMS Welding Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of O.J. Pipelines of Nisku, Alberta. Its welding division started in early ’90s to provide services to the parent company.

As the RMS systems and methodologies became leaders in their industry, the company realized it could provide equipment leasing, procedure development, testing and advanced training to other companies.

In 1997, it began to actively pursue lucrative contacts. Its clients include giants like Nova, TransCanada Pipelines and the Alliance Pipeline Project, which crossed the continent from British Columbia to Chicago, where mechanized welding was used for the first time.

Staff at RMS Welding Systems train on an earlier version of the Welding Bug, which is used in pipeline construction.

“We realize that the technology changes every day and we have to build our equipment to be able to change with it, without going back to square one,” says Bill Marhofer, vice-president at RMS.

For years, the carriage and control systems were analogue, prone to failure and errors. To combat this, RMS developed its own proprietary Welding Bug, a digital control system for the mechanized welding process.

“In our business, bugs are good things”, says RMS System Designer John Craig. “With our new system, productivity is up by as much as 40 per cent.”

A Welding Bug is the carriage weld head, a mechanism that clamps to and runs around the pipe. It performs a programmed sequence of welds, building up layers as it passes around the pipe. The pendant, which drives the bug, is an operator-driven control box that’s programmed with procedures and parameters.

The electronic operation can be changed using a standard set of commands. Should the pendant fail, it too can be changed. The new unit will send commands out to the bug to determine its existing state — which reports back its current status.

The RMS systems are unique in that they are all rugged, modular and entirely hot-swappable, meaning an individual part, like the pendant, can be replaced without having to turn the system off.

When a pendant is changed, it must be reconfigured with the current procedures and parameters, for the current job to continue. The welding process must be so precise that ultrasound is used to check for any defects, keeping interruptions to a minimum.

RMS developed specific applications to reprogram the pendant, for the Apple Newton and Palm, because of their compactness and their ability to be kept warm in a chest pocket during the blistering cold of a northern winter.

“There’s very little out there that can survive -40°C, especially an LCD panel.”

While they have used them in much colder temperatures, “the problem at that point is the people — they refuse to get off the bus,” says Craig.

Typically a section of pipe is 80 ft. long and a joint is welded every four to five minutes.

While ruggedness and durability are a critical issue, “size counts in this business,” says Marhofer. The bug’s power inverters must supply about 24 volts at 230 amps, enough to fuse metal together.

They weigh 86 lbs. and use about three sq. ft. of space, compared to its predecessors that were more than 600 lbs. and four times bigger.

“Now one person can quickly swap it where before, you had to use a crane.”

Marhofer, who has seen changes in technology from stick welding to fully automated systems, believes the company has forced its competitors to “come up to grade.”

RMS’s goal is to provide consistent productivity — to be able to provide reliable equipment and knowing that it will fail, but fail predictably.

Technology allows for a quicker response time for troubleshooting, maintenance and repair. And while no equipment is ever totally bullet-proof, the company maintains 100 per cent backup on all machines and continually looks for ways to improve not just the hardware, but procedures and training as well.

Technology may be a part of the solution to many issues, but sometimes Craig must still use old technology for research and development. While the company tested all sorts of new rubber, silicons, glass fibre and other materials, it ended up going back to traditional leather for joint protection because the welding spatter doesn’t stick.

“Pipeline welding is an interesting combination of brute force and elegance,” says Craig.