Today let´s talk about hot tapping.
Hot Tapping is the ability to safely tie into a pressurized system, by drilling or cutting, while it is on stream and under pressure.
Hot tapping is used in order to repair areas that have undergone mechanical damage or corrosion or to add branches for system modifications. Be aware that hot tap is not a routine procedure, it shall be used only when there is no practical alternative.
In the piping system a machine is started and cuts until the cutter passes through the pipe wall, resulting in the removal of a section of pipe. See the video below.
As a chemical process engineer you will need to inform design and operational info like flow, pressure and temperature, be part of managing of changes, hazard analysis etc.
Some other info related to hot tapping are pipe nominal size, wall thickness, length, flange/interface specification, clearance space for hot tapping machine etc.
The use of a block valve requires a full bore size one, for instance, ball or gate type.
