Pipe Bending for Refineries
Heater coils, transfer lines and heavy-wall process piping, bent to code and turned around against a turnaround date.
What refinery work brings to a bending shop
Fired heater coils, crude and vacuum transfer lines, coker and reformer piping, and the heavy-wall runs around a furnace where the wall has to survive both temperature and erosion.
Refinery piping is where wall thickness and radius fight each other hardest. The wall is heavy because the service is severe, and the radius is tight because the unit was laid out decades ago and there is no room. Induction bending is the only process that gives both, which is why refinery work goes to a bender rather than to elbows and welds.
Codes and standards: ASME B31.3 process piping, with B16.49 governing factory-made induction bends. API standards sit over the top on fired heaters. Send your project specification with the enquiry and we will confirm in writing what we certify against before anything is cut.
Turnarounds decide the schedule
Refinery work runs on turnaround dates, and a turnaround date does not move because a bend is late. That is the practical reason to settle the whole documentation package at quote stage: material test reports, non-destructive testing, heat treatment and the certificates that go with them.
It is also the reason to keep testing and stress relieving in the same building as the bend. Every handoff between vendors is a place a schedule loses days, and a rejectable indication found two states away at a fabricator is a different problem from the same indication found here.
What to send with a refinery enquiry
Five numbers describe a bend: outside diameter, wall thickness, centerline radius, bend angle and the tangent length on each end. Add the material and the quantity and the job can be priced. A drawing, a sketch or a photograph of a marked-up print all work, and the quote form takes an attachment up to 25 MB.
For refinery work, send the unit and the service as well as the size. A transfer line bend and a heater coil bend can share a diameter and need completely different wall thinning limits, because one is carrying hot hydrocarbon under pressure and the other is inside a firebox. Add the turnaround date at enquiry stage rather than after the order, because it decides whether the job is possible at all.
Put the documentation requirements in the enquiry rather than in a later email. Material test reports, non-destructive testing and heat treatment all cost money and time. Retrofitting a documentation package onto a bend that has already been made is slow, and sometimes it is impossible.
Materials we bend
If the grade you need is not listed, ask. This is what comes through most often, not a limit.
What we can bend for you
How we would make it
Wall thickness, radius, material and schedule decide the process. Send the drawing and we will tell you which one fits.
Heat Induction Bending
Cojafex induction bending up through 42″ O.D. and 4″ wall, in any radius, angle or plane.
Coiling
Helical, spiral wound and serpentine coils, cold, up through 10″ pipe.
Cold Bending
Rotary draw bending on fourteen machines, with mandrels and wiper shoes where the radius needs them.
Mandrel Bending
Ball mandrels and wiper shoes for tight radii and thin walls that would otherwise collapse.
Large Diameter Pipe Bending
The work most shops turn away: up to 42 inch outside diameter and 4 inch wall.
Stainless and Alloy Bending
Stainless, duplex, Hastelloy, titanium and nickel alloys, bent without wrecking the metallurgy.
Questions we get from refinery buyers
Can you bend heavy-wall refinery piping?
Yes. The induction bender handles up to 42 inch outside diameter with 4 inch wall thickness, which covers the heavy-wall transfer and heater piping most refinery work involves.
Do you work to ASME B31.3?
Yes. B31.3 process piping is one of the codes the shop works to, along with B31.1, B31.4 and B16.49 for factory-made induction bends. Send your specification with the enquiry and we will confirm in writing what we certify against.
Can you make a fired heater coil in one piece?
Coiling runs cold up through 10 inch pipe, which covers a lot of heater coil work in one piece rather than welded up from segments. Send the coil diameter, pitch, number of turns and passes along with the pipe size.
Have a drawing? Send it over.
Send a drawing or a sketch and our team will get back to you with a quote.