Pigging

Not to be confused with Pegging.
A cleaning pig for a 710-millimetre (28 in) oil pipeline. The blue plastic disks seal against the inside of the pipe to propel the device and to remove loose sedimentation or scale buildup. The black rectangles at the top and the circular disks in the center are magnets to attract and remove any loose metal objects in the pipe.
An ultrasonic leak-detection pig.
A cleaning pig for a 150-millimetre (6 in) oil pipeline. The wire brush encircles the shaft and scours the interior of the pipeline.
A scraper pig shown at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System Visitors Center

In pipeline transportation, pigging is the practice of using pipeline inspection gauges or gadgets, devices generally referred to as pigs or scrapers, to perform various maintenance operations. This is done without stopping the flow of the product in the pipeline.[1][2][3]

These operations include but are not limited to cleaning and inspecting the pipeline. This is accomplished by inserting the pig into a "pig launcher" (or "launching station")—an oversized section in the pipeline, reducing to the normal diameter. The launching station is then closed and the pressure-driven flow of the product in the pipeline is used to push the pig along the pipe until it reaches the receiving trap—the "pig catcher" (or "receiving station").

  1. ^ "How It Works: Pipeline Pigging". www.products.slb.com. Schlumberger. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Pipeline Inspection Gauge ( PIG )". engineeredpower.com. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  3. ^ Abdel-Hafez, Mamoun; Chowdhury, Sheruzzaman (2015). "Pipeline Inspection Gauge Position Estimation Using Inertial Measurement Unit, Odometer, and a Set of Reference Stations". ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering. 2 (2). doi:10.1115/1.4030945.