Needham Street Work Gets a Little Help from a Robot

The following is a press release from ULC Robotics: 

ULC Robotics, a Bay Shore, New York based pipeline rehabilitation and robotics engineering company, is performing field testing of a revolutionary robotic device in a live 16 inch medium pressure gas main on Needham Street in Newton, MA.

The “CISBOT”, which stands for Cast Iron Sealing robot, seals leaking joints in cast iron pipe internally while gas is still flowing to customers. The CISBOT robot was developed through a collaborative research and development project undertaken by Con Edison of New York, National Grid USA and ULC Robotics. 

The CISBOT robot launches vertically into live gas mains via a 14 foot tall, aluminum launch tube mounted to a valve and fitting connected to the main.  The system travels up to 250 feet in either direction of its entry point sealing up to 40 joints from a single street excavation in 16 inch to 36 inch cast iron pipe.  CISBOT is operated from a compact box truck and only requires one 6 foot x 6 foot street excavation every 500 feet.  The robot drills holes in each joint then injects an anaerobic sealant at multiple positions along the inner circumference of the pipe.  When the sealant hardens it forms a new long lasting flexible gasket. Based on the results of extensive testing performed by Cornell University, the sealant has an estimated effective life of 50 years.

Unlike traditional pipe repair methods, CISBOT causes virtually no disruption to gas customers or traffic on local streets. And because the robot requires only one small excavation to enter the pipe, the costs for engineering, permitting, excavation and restoration are reduced so much that CISBOT can save gas companies and their customers more than 50% of the cost of traditional pipe sealing or replacement methods.

The Needham Street field trial began in mid-August 2011 and will continue until early November.  The goal is to seal approximately 167 joints through a total of 6 excavations; without disrupting National Grid’s gas service.  Traditional repair methods require excavation over each joint or a complete shutdown of gas service to a large number of gas customers; including many of the stores and businesses along Needham Street.  The CISBOTsystem alleviates the need for gas system shut downs and performs its work through a fraction of the number of excavations compared to the traditional lining, internal mechanical sealing and encapsulation methods used by utility companies daily.

ULC Robotics has been using similar technology on small diameter cast iron pipe (6 inch to 12 inch) in the Northeast for more than 10 years and has sealed over 4000 joints for Con Edison Company and other gas utility companies using the CISBOT robot.