A European based pipe manufacturer has been experiencing success with their MAXIM™ RTO at their new Alabama pipe mill. The pipe manufacturing process is completely automated starting with 1/2" thick steel coils and produces 60" diameter x 80' long pipe sections used in natural gas and petroleum pipelines.
The Greenfield facility will utilize internal and external surface preparation and protective coatings applied robotically. The emissions had to be captured at the source and directed to the Colt RTO for emission control. Colt engineers determined that they could utilize the heat of the RTO exhaust to speed up the drying process. A 50' x 100' drying room was designed, and a secondary heat exchanger with a supplemental burner for use during the winter was provided to generate 15,000 cfm of 125 °F air utilizing the RTO exhaust.
The result was a drying process that reduced the curing time to only 10 minutes, which allowed the pipe to be loaded onto railcars directly from the dryer improving plant efficiency.
