Fabricated & Customized Products

Pipe spools

A pipe spool is a prefabricated section of piping — pipe, fittings and flanges welded into a single assembly, built to an isometric drawing and delivered ready to bolt into place. The reason to use them is not the welding; it is where the welding happens. Shop welding is done in position, on a bench, with better access, better fit-up and easier inspection than the same joint made at height on a live site. Moving joints from site to shop reduces cost, shortens the shutdown and improves weld quality all at once.

We fabricate to your isometrics. What we need from you is the drawing, the material specification, the required end preparation and the certification level. What you get back is the assembly, the Material Test Certificates for every component in it, a weld map identifying each joint and its welder, and the NDT and hydrotest reports where specified.

Fabricated fittings

Not every fitting exists as a forged or formed standard item. In high-percentage alloys, in unusual sizes, and in reducing configurations that are not catalogued, fabricating from plate and pipe is often the only route — and frequently the faster one. A fabricated fitting made to the same wall thickness, welded to a qualified procedure and radiographed is a legitimate engineering solution, not a compromise, and it is normal practice on large-diameter and exotic-alloy work.

Pipe nipples

A nipple is a short length of pipe threaded, plain or bevelled at both ends. Simple, and easy to get wrong. A close nipple is threaded along its whole length with no unthreaded land, which makes it the shortest possible connection — and the weakest, since the wall is reduced everywhere. Where there is room, a nipple with a plain section between the threads is stronger and should be preferred. We supply seamless and welded nipples across sizes and schedules in stainless, carbon and alloy steels, with NPT, BSP or bevelled ends.

Puddle flanges

A puddle flange is a length of pipe with a plate welded around it mid-length and a flange on one end. The plate is cast into or welded to the tank, vessel or structure wall, and it does two things: it seals the penetration, and it lengthens the path any leak would have to travel along the outside of the pipe. That extended path is the whole point — it is what stops water tracking along the pipe wall and through the structure. Tell us the wall thickness it is passing through and the plate size required, and we will build it to suit.

Custom machined components

Brackets, lugs, discs, adaptors, spacers and one-off replacements, turned and milled to drawing. This is often the fastest way to solve an obsolescence problem: send us the old part or a dimensioned sketch and we will make it in a modern equivalent grade. If the original material specification no longer exists, identifying a current equivalent is a normal part of the job.

Pipe bending

A bend removes two welds from the line. That means fewer inspection points, less pressure drop and one less place to leak. Cold bending suits smaller diameters and larger radii; induction bending heats a narrow band as the pipe is pushed through, and handles larger diameters and tighter radii.

The engineering constraint is wall thinning at the extrados — the outside of the bend stretches and gets thinner. Your design has to account for that, which is why the required minimum wall after bending should be stated in the enquiry rather than the nominal wall before it. On the intrados, over-tight radii cause wrinkling. As a rule, the larger the radius you can accept, the better the bend will be.

Welding and qualification

Welding is carried out to procedures qualified under ASME IX, by welders qualified for the procedure and position. For austenitic stainless we control heat input and interpass temperature to protect corrosion resistance; for duplex we control both plus the ferrite balance, and verify it afterwards. Back purging is used on root runs in stainless and alloy pipe — without it the root oxidises and the corrosion resistance of the joint is gone before the line is ever commissioned.

What to tell us when you enquire

Send the drawing in whatever format you have — DWG, PDF, or a dimensioned sketch. Add the material specification, end preparation, quantity, delivery date, certification level, and any NDT, hydrotest or painting requirement. If you have service conditions but not a material specification, send the conditions and we will recommend a grade.