New equipment for heat shrink sleeve installation has been developed, which is integrated for the application in-the-ditch construction. It utilizes a radiation burner that uses a catalytic combustion and LPG. Traditional manual installment by only using a gas flame torch has shown insufficient heat generation and non-uniform heating of all areas of the sleeve, resulting in poor performance and corrosion occurring (especially at the 6 o'clock position of pipe). Thus the machine was developed in order to cope with the phenomena, and the goal was achieved by using it together with flame torch at the final application stage. The adhesive strength around the pipe theoretically should always show the highest value regardless of circumferential position of the shrink sleeve. The benefit of the integrated equipment in this work is that it is assembled for minimizing the ditch width by using two point hinges, and it is automatically operated by a microcomputer and traveling of the burner with a constant speed. Successful demonstrations have been made at various construction sites by a research crew.
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