Build to Test — The New Standard in Industrial Piping Construction

By establishing your test limits during design, you can save millions of dollars on industrial construction projects.

There is an old, and commonly iterated tale, about a scorpion crossing the river on the back of the frog. The frog is reluctant at first, knowing the nature of the scorpion; but, he’s eventually convinced by the argument from the scorpion that its deadly sting would bring about their mutual end by drowning. Long story short, the scorpion stings the frog during the crossing at mid-point. The frog utters his last words, “seriously, now we’ll both die”; the scorpion replies “I know, but it’s my nature”.

Nature Versus Nurture

One puzzling example of the ingrained nature of industrial construction project delivery is how we pressure test our piping systems. We invest significant effort during construction in connecting spools, installing studs, nuts and gaskets, and torqueing flanges. We then return, often shortly after, to crack those same flanges, remove the studs, nuts and gaskets, and install test blinds. After testing, we then return to crack those same flanges again, remove the test blinds, install new studs, nuts and gaskets, and retorque the flanges. See the problem? When you actually walk through the sequence of steps, it seems ridiculous to construct that…