Contrasting Welding Techniques Used On Pipelines and Refinery Piping:

Uphill versus Downhill

When one looks on a huge oil and gas installation like a refinery spread across many
acres and representing millions of dollars on equipment and infrastructure investment,
one does not see the raw crude oil injected into the refinery for the refining process.
This is because the crude oil is transported through an underground pipeline. The
pump station which pumps oil into the pipeline is also located far away from the
refinery.

But the underground pipeline and the aboveground refinery are there for one purpose.
That is to provide refined oil and other products to the public. The pipeline is for
transporting the crude oil and the refinery is for refining this crude oil.
It is interesting to know that the welding techniques for these complementary
structures are entirely opposite to each other. Downhill welding techniques are used
for welding pipeline whereas uphill welding is used for welding refinery piping
systems. Even the welding codes and inspection methods are different. The pipeline
welding is controlled by API 1104 whereas refinery piping work is controlled by ASME
Sec IX.
In this article we are going to discuss one by one how and why the two welding
methods differ from each other. Following are the main areas where we mostly find the
difference: 1.) weld joint, 2.) use of clamps, 3.) welding technique, 4.) codes and
standards, 5.) electrode coating, and 6.) welding speed.

Weld Joint

The pipe thickness used on pipeline is usually less than that used in refinery piping and
the pipe ends of a pipeline are machine beveled whereas pipe ends of a refinery piping
joint are manually cut and beveled. These two factors play a major role in determining
the opposite welding techniques.
Since the pipe end of a pipeline pipe is factory machined and smooth, it is easy to use
an internal clamp to adjust both ends of a pipeline joint keeping uniform root gap
without tacks, thus downhill welding technique (Figure 1) is a better choice for speedy
welding. In contrast, in the case of refinery piping, not only is the pipe thickness
greater but also the handmade bevels are not so smooth. Tack welds are also used
instead of clamps and the root gap is not as uniform as in the case of the pipeline joint.
Therefore the uphill welding technique (Figure 2) is a better choice.
One more reason is the size of root gap between pipeline and piping weld joints. Root
gap for pipeline joint is 1.6 mm (Figure 3) as compared to 3 mm in piping weld joint
(Figure 4). A joint with a smaller root gap can be easily welded with downhill technique,
fusing both the root faces, whereas in bigger root gaps you need a weaving motion of
the electrode to fuse both root faces.

Use Of Clamps

Cross-country pipelines which are spread for miles are welded on the right-of-way. In
contrast, plant piping joints are prepared and welded in a workshop. Weld joint
preparation are done keeping this factor.
An internal clamp (Figure 5) is used inside the pipeline joint for speedy alignment and
can be removed from the second end of the pipe once the root and hot passes are
complete. Whereas, due to short and bent lengths of piping joints having fittings, the
weld joints are prepared with or without using external clamps.
Another difference is the use of tacks. On pipeline joints, no tacks are used as the root
and hot passes are completed immediately when the internal clamp is in place whereas
in the case of plant piping, weld tacks are used to prepare weld joints for weld at a
later stage.

Welding Technique

As explained earlier as to why pipelines are welded by using the downhill technique
and piping with an uphill technique, in the downhill technique two welders weld one
joint simultaneously from the top to bottom of the pipe on opposite sides whereas in a
piping joint job, one welder completes the whole joint welding from bottom to top of a
piping joint.

Codes And Standards

As stated earlier, the pipeline welding is performed with respect to API 1104 code and
plant welding by ASME Sec IX.
For a pipeline, the welder test piece is held in a horizontal position (Figure 7) whereas
the test piece of a plant piping welder is held in a 45-degree position (Figure 8). This is
because pipeline welds are made in a horizontal position and piping welds are carried
out in horizontal, vertical and at 45-degree angle positions.
Destructive test coupons are also different for the techniques as shown in Figure 9 and
Figure 10.

Electrode Coating

For downhill welding, all electrodes used are of cellulose coating whereas for uphill
welding the electrode used for the root pass is of cellulose coating and the rest are
accomplished with low hydrogen-coated electrodes. The reasons for this are 1) The
pipeline wall thickness, which is usually less than 12.5 mm; 2) easy removal of slag; 3)
welding speed, and 4) a thin bead of a cellulose electrode. All of these are the
requirements of pipeline welding whereas in plant piping the pipe thickness is greater,
therefore a weaving motion of an electrode is required to weld heavy thickness piping
joints. For this purpose low-hydrogen electrodes are used.

Welding Speed

The last – but not least – big difference between pipeline and plant piping welding is
the welding production speed. Here are some of the reasons for this difference in
welding speed:
1. Piping joints are adjusted and tacked in a workshop and usually one welder
completes the whole joint, welding root, filling and cap passes. Whereas on a cross-
country pipeline, the joint is adjusted with an internal clamp on the site and welding is
performed by a team of mostly two root pass welders, two hot pass welders, two filling
pass welders and two capping pass welders.
Both welders perform welding on opposite side of a pipeline joint and the welding
crew moves in a caravan in open air. As a result, welding production speed is much
more than piping joints welded in a workshop.
2. Downhill welding technique gives good welding production on a pipeline where
pipe thickness is mostly 12 mm or less, whereas piping joints are of greater thickness
and the uphill welding technique requires more time; thus, the welding production is
less as compared to the pipeline.
3. Another reason for faster welding speeds on pipelines is the electrode movement
from top to bottom and with no weaving motion. Whereas the electrode moves from
bottom to top on a piping joint and the weaving of the electrode slows the welding
speed.

Author
Engr. M. Younas Malik is a qualified mechanical engineer from The University of
Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, and holder of a B.S. degree in technical
education from a polytechnic school established by Oklahoma State University in
Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He has been a member of the American Welding Society (AWS)
and The American Society of Mechanical Engineers USA. He served for a period of 30
years in oil and gas in the UAE, Iran, Pakistan, Oman and Kuwait with international
companies such as Saipem, Snamprogetti, Techint, Bureau Veritas, Palmer & Tritton,
OGDC, KNPC and OMV. The positions he held included mechanical engineer, project
engineer, contract engineer, quality control engineer, site manager and welding and
fabrication engineer. He can be reached at maliks00@hotmail.com.
 Uphill versus Downhill Welding

1. Uphill progression is typically considered to make a stronger more robust joint,

but has higher potential for burn through.
2. Uphill progression can produce very high quality joints on all wall and diameter
size pipes.
3. When welding uphill, you are "fighting" gravity, so your speed is slow.
4. It is highly recommended to go uphill if high quality is desired or high alloyed
pipe is to be welded

5. Downhill is faster thus economical but can leave potential for slag entrapment as
both molten puddle and slag tend to fall down under gravity action.
6. Downhill progression is almost always used for speed. But still acceptable quality
joints can be produced by downhill welding because majority of cross country
pipelines have wall thickness which can be welded by this method
7. Procedures for uphill and downhill welding are different
8. When welding downhill, gravity pulls the weld pool down, so it results in great
speed.
9. In downhill welding it is recommended to have high current settings and faster
travel speed to keep arc ahead of weld pool and this result in a thick weld layer.
10. Vertical down welding is quite difficult at the best of times, a
11. The big con of downhill is that if you do not keep control of the weld puddle, you
will end up with slag inclusions and lack of fusion defects.
12. Cross country Pipeliners predominately prefer to run downhill because it is faster.
13. On pipeline welding, occasionally you will see tie-ins done with an uphill root and
maybe hot pass and the fill & cap downhill.
14. The downhill root ties in nice with minimal internal undercut.

Thick wall and Thin wall Pipes

1. If wall thickness of pipe is less than 5/16ʹ in it is called thin walled pipe
2. Diameter of thin walled pipes may be as small as 1 in or as large as 42 in or even more for
some cross country pipelines
3. Generally for horizontal pipe (5G Position) uphill and downhill welding progressions may be
applied easily.
4. Not only wall size but also pipe diameter is crucial in deciding the welding progression for
pipelines
5. Thin walled small diameter pipes always present a problem of slow welding heat
dissipation. Thus heat builds up in weld area and gives rise to variety of problems. Extra
care is required to control heat in put while welding thin walled small diameter line pipes
6. Two Pipes with same wall thickness and different diameters will need a different current
settings and electrode sizes.
7. Controlling the electrode angle and arc length on small diameter pipes is a hard task as
position of electrode changes very quickly.
8. Both arc length and angle effect heat input to pipe