TMK to design innovative sensor-integrated pipes for Gazprom

Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Dmitry Pumpyansky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of TMK, today signed at the 8^th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum a Technology Roadmap to launch the production of pipes with built-in recording, processing and switching devices.

TMK will provide Gazprom with innovative large-diameter pipes with sensors installed under the protective coating for real-time detection of pressure, temperature, stresses and strains. The pipes will be equipped with high-tech ID tags so that they could be identified in a gas pipeline throughout their entire service life. The sensors can be switched to form a single system to monitor the condition of gas pipeline sections.

The new type of pipe products is expected to be used in the areas of intense seismic activity, active tectonic faults and unstable soils, as well as at the intersections of gas pipelines and transport communications.

The innovative pipes are meant to improve the reliability and safety of gas pipelines, to increase the accuracy of technical evaluations, and to optimize expenditures for diagnostics, maintenance and repair.