The Marcellus Shale region lies in the western portion of Pennsylvania, the eastern half of Ohio and the entire state of West Virginia and is believed to hold the greatest natural gas reserves in the world, which could convert the United States from a net importer of natural gas to a net exporter. Natural gas could become the most important energy for the next 30-40 years since it is abundant and doesn't have nearly the harmful emissions as crude oil or coal.
Getting to the gas and extracting it takes a substantial amount of technological know-how. The gas is in shale deposits 5000-9000 feet below the surface. It is critical that the lines stay clean without obstruction. That is where the Pipeline Inspection Gauge comes in. A pipeline inspection gauge or pig in the pipeline industry is a tool that is sent down a pipeline and propelled by the pressure of the product in the pipeline itself. There are four main uses for pigs:
Because or a relationship established with Chief Oil & Gas through the Williamsport Chamber of Commerce, IMC, and The Business Energy Roundtable, we discovered there was a need for urethane foam pipeline inspection gauges. In particularly, they were looking for a soft, bullet shaped polyurethane foam plug that is forced through pipelines to separate products to reduce mixing, and to clean the internal structure of the pipeline. It didn't take us long to get it designed, prototyped and into production.
We can custom manufacture polyurethane foam P.I.G.'s in a number of different sizes, along with different densities and skin / cover systems. Other systems have tungsten studs or abrasive wire mesh on the outside to cut rust, scale, or paraffin deposits off the inside of the pipe. Others are plain plastic covered polyurethane
