Improving efficiency, productivity and safety on the jobsite are always important. After studying jobsites in a variety of markets, we determined that a key to improved efficiency, productivity and safety was in job setup and pipe handling. There are various methods for setting up a job. One method is to lay the pipe on the ground where the pipeline will be and move the equipment for each joint. This method involves moving the pipe support stands and the fusion machine to each pipe to be joined, which requires additional manpower on the job. This was the chosen method on an Indian reservation where they didn't want to drag the pipe and disturb the pipeline area any more than necessary.They had a piece of loading equipment and an operator following the fusion equipment from joint to joint to load the pipe. This is the most inefficient method of laying pipe and is mainly used in a constrained space application. More commonly, pipe is stacked on the ground next to the movable jaw side of the fusion machine. Pipe support stands are then set up on both sides of the fusion machine. Loading equipment is used to individually pick up the pipe from the stack and load it in the fusion machine. After the operator completes the fusion operation, another piece of equipment is used to pull the pipe through the machine so that a new stick of pipe can be loaded.
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