pigging system safety HPS

HPS – the Benchmark of Safety in Pigging and Product Recovery

In all HPS pigging and product recovery systems, safety has the highest priority. We put robust measures in place to protect your people, your equipment and your products.

Excellent Track Record

HPS has an excellent track record of delivering safe, reliable pigging systems.

  • We provide the highest quality equipment that delivers safety, reliability and performance.
  • Our customers trust us. Our designs incorporate extensive, proven safety features throughout. 
  • Our pigging system designers are obsessed with safety!  We want to keep our clean record.
  • All our solution designs go through multi-level checking and must pass our stringent quality and safety standards
  • We provide comprehensive training. We won’t leave site until we’re completely satisfied that anyone likely to use or maintain the system can do so properly and safely.

Safe Pig Design

No Solid Magnets

One of the key reasons HPS pigging systems are extremely safe, is because the process pigs themselves are extremely safe.

HPS pigs are magnetised. However, they do not contain solid magnets.

Magnetisation is essential to enable detection and system automation. However, solid magnets can shatter, compromising the safety of people and equipment. Broken magnets also risk product contamination. That’s why HPS magnetic pigs contain an innovative, patented silicon-based flexible magnetic core. It is an inherent part of the pig and cannot shatter.

Cylindrical Pig Design

HPS pigs are flexible, and have a cylindrical profile. This combination of flexibility and shape ensures HPS pigs maintain full contact with the inside of the pipe when travelling around bends. It also means they don’t have any fins or complex shaping. This significantly reduces the chances of tearing, breakages and damage associated with fins and other designs. It also ensures almost zero product bypass and the superior performance of HPS pigs.

One-Piece Pigs

HPS pigs are produced using a special moulding process. They are not assembled from separate components. This is because assembled pigs are more likely to break or come apart. Assembled pigs also generally have a lower useful working life than HPS pigs.

Pigging System Safety Features

Physical Barriers

One of the best ways to stop something dangerous happening is to make it extremely difficult or impossible to do. That’s why HPS designs include physical barriers and specially designed physical safety features.  For example, special components prevent pigs going where they’re not supposed to, and prevent people doing things that could cause damage or injury.

Automation and Interlocks

Our automated pigging control systems and software reduce the risk of human error. We often use physical, as well as electronic interlocks to prevent incorrect operation. In addition, many of our systems are closed systems. This means your staff only need to remove pigs occasionally, for example for inspection or maintenance. Even then, our launch and receive station designs ensure removal and replacement is simple, quick and safe.

Pig Detection, Venting and Depressurisation

There are several ways to propel pigs. These include compressed air, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water or the product itself. Whatever method you use, it’s important that your system is depressurised and properly vented at appropriate stages of the pigging process. So, reliable pig detection, a full understanding of pigging sequences, and ensuring the design incorporates timely, robust depressurisation and venting procedures are essential.

HPS pig detectors are extremely accurate and dependable. In addition, our pigging system designers have many years of experience and a wealth of knowledge of liquid processes and processing. This ensures your pigging system will incorporate correct depressurisation venting procedures. Our systems safeguard your operators, your products and your equipment.

Training

Good quality pigging system training is an important component of safety. As part of our commissioning process, we provide comprehensive training on correct operation, inspection and maintenance. As well as being highly experienced, our commissioning engineers will have been involved with your project from the early stages. This means they fully understand your individual system and its safe operation. What’s more, they won’t finish training until they (and you) are absolutely satisfied everyone is completely competent in safety.

Learn More about Pigging System Safety

Nearly every process pigging system is different. There’s no ‘one size fits all’, and the same goes for safety.

If you have any questions about pigging system safety or would like to discuss a solution for your company, please contact HPS.

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