OCT • 2021
A warm welcome to Fuze!
Scott Crowden, Business Development Manager at FUZE
In July of this year, FUZE Group Pty Ltd became a new member of the Byrnecut Group.
FUZE is a highly motivated and experienced team of Composites Engineering and Technical Specialists based in Perth, Western Australia. Although FUZE is a new business to the Byrnecut Group, many in the team have been applying composite materials in the resources sector since 2000. FUZE provides safe, fast and cost effective structural repair and reinforcement solutions that ensure the reliable and continued operation of assets and infrastructure.
FUZE achieves this by harnessing the latest in resin and ultra-strength fibre technology to engineer composite solutions that are light in weight and resistant to high impacts, pressure, corrosion, chemicals and temperatures.
Usually, glass and carbon fibre composites are used in the Aerospace, Marine, and Wind Energy industries. FUZE applies these composite materials on site to repair things such as; live leaks on pipes, vessels, tanks for pressure containment, as well as fix structural steel damaged by fatigue, corrosion, or chemical attack on mobile and fixed plant. Wall loss of steel, caused either by corrosion, erosion or impact, reduces the load carrying capacity of the structure. Engineered composite repairs are an effective method for replacing or reinforcing steel structures, that utilise adhesion to bond to substrates such as pipework or structures, and do not require hot works or specialised equipment for application and significantly reduce downtime.
Compared to the traditional methods such as welding or other mechanical solutions, the steel replacement with composite repairs is realised by progressively applying layers of composite to the structure, until the required thickness has been achieved to reinstate the structural capacity of the asset. Tank remediation, including; complete floor replacements, wall patches and roof repairs, repairs to jetty structures, pipeline repairs including leak sealing – are just a few of the applications that the FUZE team have many years of experience with.
The FUZE composite engineered repair designs are based on and fully compliant to the ISO 24817 code, with engineering designs taking into consideration material specification requirements, as well as the geometry, material, operating and design conditions of the defected item. Additionally, the FUZE Engineering Team takes into consideration other widely recognised codes and standards specific to the repaired asset, e.g. API 620, 653 and 650 for tanks, AS4100 for steel structures or ASME codes for piping and class guidance such as ABS - Composite Repairs of Steel Structures and Piping.
FUZE regularly engages the local universities including the University of Western Australia to undertake testing of the composite applications. If a client has a requirement for FUZE to deliver a complex composite repair to a steel structure then we can provide rapid verification by utilising Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and third party verified test data.