Creating a long lasting pipe joint through pipe bevelling

Pipelines are used in many industries extensively for transfer of various kinds of fluids through them. Most of the industries that use pipelines are oil refineries, gas plants, chemical manufacturing plants, textile industries, etc. When pipelines are installed, it is not done using a pipe of single length. Several lengths of pipes are joined together to attain the desired length of the pipeline. These pipes are joined using pipe flanges and through welding.

Pipe bevelling

Pipe welding is not an easy task and the two ends of the pipes to be joined must be prepared to provide a perfect surface for welding so that a perfect weld could be created for a strong and long lasting joint. You cannot afford a joint to be weak or leaking as it can lead to great losses of life and property. In order to provide a perfect surface for pipe joint, pipe bevelling is used. Pipe bevelling is the process of creating a plane inclined on a several angle to its perpendicular. Normally, an angle of 37.5 degrees is attained from a bevel in a pipe. In some pipes, special types of bevels are formed for special operations and purposes such as J-bevels that can be easily attained through pipe bevelling machines.

Purpose of pipe bevelling

The first and the main objective of pipe bevelling is to provide a perfect surface to create a perfect weld, which leads to a long lasting, strong and efficient pipe joint. It is also used for eliminating any burred ends of the pipe to provide safety to the workers working around the pipe. Bevelling provides a smooth ends without any sharp edges, which is safer. Pipe bevelling has another benefit that when we are welding bevelled pipe ends; there is less need of welding material, which makes the welding process more economical, especially in long length pipelines.

Pipe bevelling machines

Pipe bevelling is done in two ways, one is manually with the use of hand grinders or angle grinders and the other is with the help of automatic pipe bevelling machines. Most of the companies nowadays use bevelling machines for bevelling of pipes due to many reasons such as-

• Beveling machines create better bevels in pipes in very less time.

• Consistency is also another attribute of bevelling machines. Each time you bevel a pipe using a bevelling machine, it creates same type of bevel every time with same accuracy.

• Hand held bevelling tools have ergonomic issues but automatic pipe bevellers do not have any operating issues as everything is done automatically.

• In bevelling machine, the metal chips created during bevelling are contained within the machine; hence it is a safer way of the process.

• The cost of bevelling a pipe through pipe bevelling machines is very low as compared to hand held bevelling tools.

• Can also form complex bevels such as J-bevels.