Technology and Trends of Civil Pipe Repair And Pipe Relining in Ireland

What does it mean to reline a pipe? And when do you need to do it?

Relining is a method of patch repairing minor breaks or cracks inside a pipe, referred to as Structural Damage that may occur inside moderately aged pipes or due to sudden flooding after a storm. Cured-in-Place Pipe (CIPP) lining processes with the use of Ultraviolet Curing and GRP liners are widely accepted as a safer and less chaotic alternative to full-scale pipe replacement by excavating the ground. Most Irish civil engineers and providers of pipe repair in Dublin, Cork and other big cities use this process.

How Does Cured-in-Place Pipe (CIPP) Lining Work

 

The idea is to seal the entire internal canal of the pipeline with a resilient and strong liner, which acts as a second pipe within a pipe. GRP liners qualify in this criteria quintessentially, but polyester is also used. The lining material is soaked in a solution of epoxy and resin and given some time for permeation. Once this process is done, the liner is inserted inside the pipeline with a winch-in-place process, through the nearest manholes. Once the liner is in place inside the pipeline, then some kind of heat is administered to cure the resin inside the pipe and help it harden with even smoothness throughout the pipe. To do this, Ultraviolet Light comes as the handiest solution.

 

Standard Practices for Pipe Relining in Ireland

 

But before the relining is carried out, the engineers would undergo a thorough CCTV survey to inspect the damages and locate all the issues inside the pipe and their exact locations, to assess the overall health of the structure. If there are any intrusions inside the pipeline, like root ingress or tangling cables, grout or concrete build ups, etc. they would all have to be removed first. These are the commonest causes of persistent blockage inside pipelines. Even though it seems to be a big problem, there is quite a simple solution to it - Robotic Cutters!

 

Robotic cutters for pipeline renovation is a single device that can clean the internal canal of pipelines efficiently. It looks a lot like snaking wherein a camera headed robotic machine is inserted inside the pipeline and the inspection is carried out to locate all the anomalies and intrusions within the pipe. From tree roots to concrete blocks and fatbergs, everything can be efficiently broken down with the help of a powerful milling system and loose debris is then cleaned with the use of high-speed water jetting.

 

At the end of the process, the resin-epoxy solution will evenly bond with the old pipe and form a stronger, cleaner and seamless tunnel that has long-term longevity.

 

Thus, UV Cured CIPP Lining is the most substantial way to retain the structural integrity of the pipelines, and thus improve the condition of the sewage and drainable systems. However, there are certain limitations of this process as well. This method cannot cover up structural defects. Because the liner and epoxy solution takes the form of the old pipe as a host, the structure of the old pipe works as a mould or dice.

 

Digital Report Production

Most of the pipeline relining in Dublin and other Irish cities is carried out using software-generated reports - form surveys, performance reports to workflows and other logs. IoT is also making inroads, paving the way for integrated monitoring technology, real-time data inputs, and the kind of constant support that was previously unthinkable. So many more checkpoints can be evaluated, increasing the likelihood of faster and effective anomaly detection systems and action plans, almost making unprecedented pipeline failures commonplace.