The GRE Cap of Saudi Arabia

As an important infrastructure market in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia's engineering projects often face coastal or desert environments with high temperatures (summer temperatures can reach over 50℃), high humidity and high salt fog, which puts forward extremely high requirements for the weather resistance and corrosion resistance of pipeline system fittings. In 2024, our company (Hebei Weitong FRP Co., LTD.) received a demand for the supporting pipeline network project of a large-scale petrochemical park in Saudi Arabia. This project involves the transportation of crude oil and chemical media, and GRE (Glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin) pipe caps need to be provided for its pipeline system. The products are required to have extremely strong chemical corrosion resistance, excellent sealing performance and stable structural strength. And it must be certified by the internationally authoritative ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standards.

In response to the special requirements of the project, the Hebei Weitong team carried out a full-process optimization from technical adaptation to production control:

- Material upgrade: Imported high-strength glass fiber is compounded with high-temperature resistant epoxy resin. After laboratory tests simulating the extreme environment in Saudi Arabia, the material's performance degradation rate was less than 5% after being immersed in 80℃ high temperature, 20% salt water and various chemical media for 300 hours, far exceeding the project's expectations.

- Structural optimization: Adopting a "stepped sealing groove + lip reinforcement design", the connection sealing performance between the pipe cap and the pipeline is improved by 30% compared to conventional products. After a 1.6MPa pressure test, there was no leakage, which is suitable for the high-pressure transmission working conditions in the project.

- Production quality control: Introduce fully automatic winding forming equipment to ensure that the wall thickness error of the pipe cap is controlled within ±0.5mm. Each batch of products has passed the hydrostatic test, burst test and corrosion resistance test. The third-party test report shows that all indicators comply with or even exceed the ASTM D2996 standard.

Project implementation and application effect: Stable performance has been verified on-site

In the second quarter of 2024, the first batch of GRE pipe caps arrived at the project site in Saudi Arabia by sea and were installed in a high-temperature open-air environment. Since its commissioning half a year ago, it has demonstrated three core advantages:

- Outstanding weather resistance: In the alternating environment of desert high temperatures and coastal salt fog, the surface of the pipe cap shows no cracking or discoloration, and the structural integrity is not affected, solving the pain points of traditional metal pipe caps such as easy rusting and frequent maintenance.

- Reduced operating costs: Due to its strong sealing performance, the medium loss rate of the pipeline system is controlled below 0.1%, which is 60% lower than the original project expectation. And it does not require regular anti-corrosion treatment, saving about 120,000 US dollars in annual maintenance costs.

- Enhanced safety factor: The impact resistance of the pipe cap (undamaged after passing the -20℃ low-temperature impact test) is adapted to the external force impact of occasional sandstorms in Saudi Arabia, ensuring the continuous and stable operation of the pipeline network system.

Customer feedback and project value: Word-of-mouth lays the foundation for long-term cooperation

In the mid-term acceptance report, the project party clearly stated: "The GRE pipe caps of Hebei Weitong fully meet the project's adaptation requirements for extreme environments. Their quality stability exceeds our expectations for similar products, providing a key guarantee for the safe and efficient operation of the pipeline network system." This cooperation not only made Hebei Weitong the preferred supplier for the Saudi client, but also, thanks to its technical performance in the project, it received cooperation inquiries from two other local infrastructure enterprises, laying a solid foundation for further expanding the Middle East market.