FastFusion Explained

The technology described herein is protected under several US Patents, including US Patent No’s, 4490209,6994766 and 7294222, as well as several US patent applications.

Open Letter from:
Dick McKinley
Principal & CEO
866 295 9757
www.fast-fusion.com

There are multiple parts to Fast Fusion:

Fast Fusion LLC is a small privately held equipment manufacturing company. We do not compete with the HDPE fusion equipment manufacturer’s or pipe & fitting manufacturer’s in any way. Fast Fusion, LLC primary focus is bringing new innovation and technology to the HDPE industry & construction industry as a whole. We are considered an auxiliary added piece of equipment to already known, accepted and used pipe fusion equipment. We are a very small Vermeer/Ditchwitch type utility equipment manufacturer type company.

The use of Fast Fusion does not change anything of the actual welding the pipe other than how we handle the pipe. Once the pipe fusion has been completed to the industry standard given, then our weld temperature control technology is used to lessen the time for a fusion weld to reach an accepted temperature for the pipe fusion pressure to be released which is currently 140 F or 60 C.

Part I Simplicity:

Fusion equipment companies like McElroy, Dixon, Connectra/George Fisher, Ritmo, etc. have been focused on improving the field reliability of the fusion machines and not necessarily doing anything to change the way the pipe is handled or in what conditions pipe welding occurs which all lead to weld failures. I am not from the industry so it has amazed me of what a simple / versatile / forgiving product HDPE is but yet how complicated people have made it for it use in not mitigating the factors that lead to weld failure or one person accountability.

Our equipment has to be simple for the mechanics/ field reliability which is 98%. We use major components like Caterpillar Engines, Rexroth & Sundstrand Sauer hydraulics, Ingersoll-Rand for name recognition but also being a Caterpillar umbrella product we also have worldwide service for our equipment. You will see that we do not use covers for pretty look’s we look at fit, form and function. Fast Fusion equipment is not pretty but it is functional.

We also needed to change the operator who runs our equipment verses the typical fusion tech hired. We have an intense on going training program and each company that purchases our equipment is held responsible in knowing and understanding their obligations of Fast Fusion.

Currently 30% of all technicians’ fail our program as it is a combination of ability, mind set and their acceptance of change.

Our equipment is designed to mitigate weld failures and pipe installation failures, increase production and reduce cost. The most common failure is the human error factor and the judgment or excuse made by the fusion technician. Although we have not eliminated the human factor totally as of yet, not so far in the future I can envision the operator doing nothing but operating a computer controlled Fast Fusion machine and keeping the machines operating in the parameters given for the pipe being welded. Although that may seem as a huge paradigm shift in your own mind once you understand how simple it is on how we control and either lessen the heat temperature within the weld or increase heat within the weld you will realize that we are half way there already.

Part II Efficiency:

I see all kinds of specifications given by pipe manufacturer’s and fusion equipment manufacturer’s that all say, “Do not pull or drag the pipe” or “do not rough handle the pipe”. But yet as you look at conventional fusion they created their own problem in that the pipe has to be lifted, pulled, dragged and stomped on to load the pipe in the equipment, make a fusion and then unload the pipe.

We have a boom design and roller design that keeps the pipe free wheeling with less than 18 lbs of drag with 20” SDR 7 pipe. Our equipment runs through the pipe so we never pull or drag on the pipe or the fusion weld.

We can load a piece of 2” OD to 20” OD pipe and have it clamped and ready to fuse in less than 60 seconds, a piece of 36” pipe loaded, clamped and ready to fuse in 90 seconds or less. In the field under typical conventional methods that same process takes from 8 minutes to at times in excess of 30 minutes and they rough handle, drag and pull on the pipe and the fusion weld.

We have automated most of the manual function’s of the operators in that we have an operator’s console that runs the front boom, pipe lifts inside the cab, the pipe clamps are hydraulic and the rear boom.

Installed also is a PLC or micro processor that controls the fusion steps such as the heating of the melt bead, the time it actually takes to make the fusion and then once the fusion has been made then the length of time that it will take before the fusion weld temperature has been reduced to a minimum of 140 degree’s F (60C) or less and the fusion pressure can then be released and the machine moves to the next joint to be picked up. This PLC or micro processor also has a memory so that we can verify by two means that the operator is under the correct welding procedure and our weld temperature control procedures.

Instead of three or four people and several pieces of equipment we have one operator and with pipe that is 8” heavy wall and larger we use a small piece of auxiliary lift equipment like a skid steer or mini excavator to just lift the pipe high enough for the front boom to go under the next pipe section to be welded. With lighter wall 8” and below, the simple use of a laborer to install a chuck under the pipe is the most cost effective means to handle small diameter pipe.

Our “MobileFusion Trac” line of equipment all models have an all weather cab. Operators think it was for them but in reality it was to eliminate the contributing factors of wind, cold, rain, dust and to have the equipment necessary to create an environment that every weld can be completed exactly the same. Our cab environment allows that. The upside is that we can also weld pipe under any condition from -45F to +123F. This equipment is primarily used in HDPE pipeline projects 2,000 ft or more in length.

Our new “Cool Pack” line of equipment is a self contained cart/skid that is the Fast Fusion patented weld temperature control technology only and which is then attached to any standard butt fusion machine 2” OD to 65” OD. This equipment allows the maximum utilization of already in place fusion equipment and labor that are being used in the welding of the HDPE pipe in the conventional manner. We create a micro environment with the equipment which allows for a better weld and more welds to be made per hour than conventional butt fusion. This equipment can be used in all HDPE applications.

[Accountability]

Since we use only one operator and that person’s (he or she) soles purpose is to make good fusion’s we have eliminated the distractions and others that interfere with their judgment and it is point of fusion accountability. We lessen that personal impact by training and teaching them of how to make the machine be their helping hand and if they start to fight it or man handle then they missed it.

Since we set the parameters of how to operate the machine and make the fusion’s it is very easy to verify / inspect their work also.

Part III Productivity:

Our equipment will produce 70% more fusion welds than any conventional method or equipment available today. Most people attempt to focus in on the method of heat reduction of the weld in being the major factor to that productivity but in fact it is only 30% to 50% depending on the OD and SDR of the pipe. In larger diameter and heavy wall pipe it is a considerable factor but in pipe less than 20” it has a much lower contributing factor.

Since we focused our design to efficiencies for how the pipe is handled and what the operator does or does not do the simple fact of thinking in second’s verses minutes is the significant increase of welds per hour. We do not waste time and we do not waste steps so we have one focus, weld pipe and weld it right. We also never damage the pipe or the fusion.

Reducing the weld temperature to an acceptable level to remove the fusion pressure:

Before I was old enough to drink out of a glass many people attempted to actually cool the weld of an HDPE fusion. For over fifty years plus, many tried and have all failed. They also tagged it with the phrase “weld cooling”.

We do not cool the weld. We accelerate what would be a natural reverse convection environment that would allow the heat within a fusion weld to leave the weld zone and the heat effected zone back to the temperature of the parent material.

It is a very complex scientific process of which heat is the entity of interest and although I have placed it on the machine for it to be a very simple process the work in front of that step is completed by science and in terms of convection being one of the major modes of heat transfer. The machine itself makes the adjustments, it monitors and adapts as needed.

You have to think in the terms of how HDPE pipe is made. By using heat and through creating additional heat through and extruder make the resin molten, force it through a die to form the pipe and then you expose it to a lower temperature by either seconds at room air temperature typically at 72 degree’s F and water bath sections also timed for exposure that is maintained near 52 degree’s F.

Polyethylene as you know is a very poor conductor of heat or of cold. Hard to maintain any consistency for any period of time without a lot of changes within the pipe itself trying to occur. What I focused in on was what the changes that the pipe wanted to do which simply came down that it wants to adjust to the ambient temperature that the pipe is in at that time it is welded whether it is very cold, cold, warm or very hot.

The Fast Fusion patented process covers many liquids and other mediums of heat and cold transfer and processes. Realizing that water being the easiest medium I also had to be practical that in freezing temperatures how could we operate it and also in very hot temperatures fighting evaporation would be difficult so I focused in on the use of pressurized air flow’s and gasses that I can easily control, pressure, flow rate, pattern, temperature and duration.

By using industry accepted standards and using industry accepted fusion equipment I then focused on the industry accepted welding procedure. Fast Fusion does not affect the fusion procedure of the pipe. You use what ever standard / procedure is given by the pipe manufacturer and fusion equipment manufacturer including the variable fusion pressures used world wide and make your fusion again using known industry and accepted fusion equipment. Once the fusion weld has been completed then Fast Fusion begins which accelerates the seconds it takes to transfer heat from the center of the bead in four directions through the ID, OD and laterally both directions to the area outside of the weld zone and heat effected zone which is typically the ambient temperature of the pipe. I will say it again; the focus is the center of the weld bead.

We also remove an atmospheric blanket of hot air that helps the transfer of heat both on the OD of the pipe and the ID of the pipe.

Most think we just blow air on the OD of the pipe where as they do not realize that you first have to remove the atmospheric blanket around the OD and ID of the pipe and then let the pipe do it’s natural transition of wanting to get back to the temperature of the parent material out side of the weld area and to the exposed ambient temperature of the pipe but that is done under specific’s.

The key was that it is all tied to ambient temperature and convection heat transfer in reverse. Everyone missed that. If it is hot then you create a temp differential that is less than ambient temperature and if it is freezing or below then you create a temp differential that is warmer than ambient this allows the weld itself to lower in temperature and at a rate that does not affect the weld. Just like the pipe itself is made.

Although my standards for pressurized pipe ranges from 50% to 70% faster than conventional fusion we have achieved 90% faster than the pipe manufacturer’s themselves without failures with a test parameter that each fusion weld receives an immediate horizontal quick jar pull of 7,000 lbs at the end of the cooling period and then the welds are tested..

Our weld test documentation is also on my website www.fast-fusion.com which is the easiest access for the weld test documentation as we provided to all. Sherry Lab completed our weld testing to qualify Fast Fusion for the DOT. Hauser Lab qualified Fast Fusion for the same standard testing as the pipe manufacturer themselves under ASTM 2513-04a.

If a project will fall under DOT regulations than a short letter from myself on company letter head and also a copy of the welding procedure should be added to the company in charge Operations Manual.

Fast Fusion is he only fusion equipment manufacturer that tests to the same standards of the pipe manufacturer’s ASTM 2513-04a which is the most stringent test which we exceeded by 2.6 X the requirement.

Testing completed:

• ASTM D638
• ASTM 714
• ASTM 2513-04a
• ASTM 1598-02

For:

• PE 2406
• PE 3408
• PE 80
• PE 100
• PE 4710

• Meeting & exceeding the USA Standards DOT CFR 49 – 192.281 through 192.287
• Meeting and exceeding the USA pipe manufacturer standard of ASTM 2513-04a
• Canadian Standards CSA 2662-02
• Australia has accepted our Fast Fusion Welding procedure when Fast Fusion is used.
• Now completing regulatory approval in the UK and India.

Fast Fusion was the recipient of the 2006 NOVA award in that we were recognized world wide for bringing a technology to the construction industry that increased productivity, reduced cost and increased margins generated.

Fast Fusion uses the industry standard issued welding procedure and uses weld parameters that are black and white.

Again my focus is on how we change the weld environment, change of the technician that welds the pipe and the advancement of technology and innovation within the HDPE industry in the welding of the pipe.

Our equipment is involved in energy, clean water, waste water, mining, and irrigation projects worldwide.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Regards,
Dick McKinley
Principal & CEO
866 295 9757
www.fast-fusion.com