Long Products pipeline wrapping tapes, protective primers, and mastics

Manufacturing heritage, engineering standards, and production infrastructure of Long Products

British manufacturer Long Products has developed reliable engineering solutions in pipeline waterproofing and corrosion mitigation for over four decades.

Operating from its dedicated plant situated on Harbour Road in Rye, East Sussex, the facility established specialized production lines for heavy-duty polyvinyl chloride backed bitumen tapes, contouring mastics, and synthetic adhesive primers.

The integration into the Chase Protective Coatings division broadened the brand engineering capacity while aligning manufacturing controls with NACE and ISO standards across all production departments.

Long Products systems are engineered for uninterrupted service across underground trenches subject to groundwater exposure, soil stress, and cyclic thermal operating regimes.

Incorporating self-sealing rubberized bitumen compounds ensures permanent dielectric barrier continuity across steel line pipe, shielding metal substrates from under-film moisture accumulation and external electrolytic degradation throughout prolonged industrial infrastructure lifespans in aggressive rocky environments.

Spiral wrapping procedures and controlled tension management for Maflowrap tapes

Application of Maflowrap 65/75 and 50/150 cold-applied bitumen tapes relies upon methodical spiral winding around prepared line pipe using uniform mechanical tension.

Tension during hand or machine wrapping is monitored to achieve approximately one percent tape width reduction, promoting positive air displacement from lap seams and establishing a continuous hermetic bond between successive tape wraps without voids along pipe joints.

Circumferential lap width must maintain a minimum fifty-five percent overlap for two-ply protective systems or twenty-five millimeters for single-layer applications.

Strict adherence to calculated helical advance angles prevents wrinkles, tape necking, or bridging along longitudinal weld seams, forming an impermeable dielectric envelope across the entire buried piping section during field pipeline renovation projects.

Surface preparation protocols and synthetic primer application with Plasprime B400

Long-term bonding performance of Long Products tape wraps depends upon rigorous mechanical or abrasive blast cleaning of the substrate metal.

Before primer application, steel pipe surfaces are cleaned to remove loose rust, mill scale, and greasy deposits to an ISO 8501-1 Sa 2.5 cleanliness standard, producing an angular surface anchor profile between forty and seventy microns for mechanical interlock between primer and metal.

Synthetic primer Plasprime B400 is applied as an even wet film using rollers or airless spray equipment to prevent puddling or runs.

Ambient drying time to a tack-free condition spans five to fifteen minutes depending upon prevailing air temperatures, following which coating crews immediately apply Maflowrap tape to prevent airborne dust contamination on the reactive adhesive primer film across the pipeline trench.

Mastic profiling for mechanical valves, flanges, and fittings using MC1190 compound

Irregular pipeline geometries, mechanical couplings, bolted flange rings, and valves introduce challenging dimensional steps that require careful contouring prior to tape wrapping.

To eliminate bridging and hollow air cavities, non-hardening malleable mastic Maflowrap Moulding Compound MC1190 is packed by hand around bolts, nuts, and shoulder transitions to create smooth tapered profiles along flange assemblies.

The VOC-free formula does not dry out, shrink, or crack under underground soil pressure.

The smooth transitions protect outer wrapping tapes against puncture from sharp bolt threads and prevent moisture accumulation within hidden crevices, extending operational intervals for buried utility manifolds and metering stations throughout continuous plant operation.

Cathodic protection compatibility and resistance against cathodic disbondment

In modern buried transmission networks, passive tape barriers operate in tandem with active cathodic protection systems.

Maflowrap materials are formulated to provide high resistance against electrochemical cathodic disbondment, preventing adhesive film separation from steel substrates under continuous negative polarization voltages imposed by impressed current cathodic groundbeds across wet ground.

The high dielectric resistance of the polymer carrier film and bituminous compound reduces current demand on external rectifier units, preserving sacrificial anode groundbeds.

When localized mechanical penetrations occur, cathodic currents protect exposed metal from pitting corrosion, ensuring complete asset integrity across conductive soils throughout transmission network operation.

Non-destructive holiday testing procedures using high-voltage spark detectors

The concluding quality milestone during Long Products coating installation requires continuous electrical testing over the entire wrapped pipe area.

Inspection is conducted using a high-voltage spark holiday detector fitted with a rolling spring coil electrode moved smoothly along the pipeline at speeds under twenty-five centimeters per second with calibrated five-kilovolt potential per millimeter of total wrap thickness.

Detected pinholes or dielectric faults produce an audible alert and spark discharge, prompting immediate marking for standardized field repair.

Repairs involve applying a patch of Maflowrap tape overlapping the defective area by at least fifty millimeters in all directions, followed by repeat holiday testing before final pipeline backfilling with native soil.