US Pipelining Restores Intercondenser Line for NASA’s In-Space Propulsion Facility (ISP) at John Glenn Plum Brook Center Using Cured-In-Place Pressure-Pipe-Lining System

US Pipelining, LLC., an emerging leader in Cured-In-Place-Pipelining solutions (CIPP), announces the completion of a US Government project for NASA’s John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

The project called for the structural restoration of a 24-inch diameter high pressure Intercondenser line at NASA’s In-Space Propulsion Facility (ISP).

The In-Space Propulsion Facility at NASA’s John Glenn Plum Brook Plum Brook Station is a remote test facility for the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Located on 6,400 acres in the Lake Erie community of Sandusky, OH, Plum Brook is home to four world-class test facilities, which perform complex and innovative ground tests for the international space community.

“The NASA specifications called for a Class IV structural restoration of their Intercondenser Line which operates at a pressure of 80 psi and tests out to 120 psi”, states Jeremy Bowman, General Manager. “Additionally, the line temperature operates at 170 degrees F requiring the use of a specialty high-temperature, two-part epoxy resin system.”

A Pressure-Pipe-Lining system (PPL), was designed for the NASA product using materials from Manufactured Technologies Corporation, (MTC) of Chesterfield, MO., a subsidiary of Aegion. To meet NASA’s operating pressure requirements a project-specific liner was designed and manufactured by MTC using two layers of glass reinforcement.

The PPL was then impregnated with a two-part, high temperature epoxy resin and transported by US Pipelining to the NASA site. The PPL was installed by US Pipelining using the air inversion/steam cure method.

“This was an extremely technical project from both a materials and construction viewpoint”, states Mark Wetzel, Senior Director of MTC. “A Class IV restoration with both high pressure and operating temperature requires a great deal of advanced planning. To complicate the installation further, the line location was extremely difficult to access,” continued Wetzel. “The conditions were far from ideal, congratulations to US Pipelining.”

The Space Power Facility (SPF) houses the world’s largest and most powerful space environment simulation facilities including the Space Simulation Vacuum Chamber measuring 100 ft. in diameter by 122 ft. high. The Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility is the world's most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber, which can simulate the noise of a spacecraft launch up to 163 decibels or as loud as the thrust of 20 jet engines.

The Mechanical Vibration Facility is the world's highest capacity and most powerful spacecraft shaker system, subjecting test articles to the rigorous conditions of launch.

In-Space Propulsion Facility is the world's only facility capable of testing full-scale, upper-stage launch vehicles and rocket engines under simulated high-altitude conditions. The engine or vehicle can be exposed for indefinite periods to low ambient pressures, low-background temperatures and dynamic solar heating to simulate the environment of orbital or interplanetary travelspace environment and propulsion test facilities currently being used to advance NASA’s missions.

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