GLSS // Global Leak Sealing Standard

Online Leak Sealing

Containing a leak under full operating pressure without shutting the plant down. It saves production and safety in the moment. And it is where the industry makes its most dangerous confusion: the one between containing and repairing.

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Definition

What online leak sealing is

In online leak sealing, an enclosure or clamp is placed around a leaking connection, such as a flange, valve or joint, and filled with a sealant under operating pressure. The leak is contained, the release stopped. The plant stays in operation.

What matters is what does not happen: the leak path does not disappear. It is enclosed and held under pressure. This is an effective and often necessary measure. But it is not a repair, it is a time bridge.

The grey zone

The liability vacuum

Live injection has no closed design code the way composite has ISO 24817. There are HSE guidelines on repair clamps and references to enclosures, but the operative release in the individual case remains a decision.

This is where the liability vacuum bites hardest. A containment is sold and booked as a fix even though the leak path persists. Whoever owns the measure must document it as what it is: a monitored time bridge with an end date, not a closed case. FRALEX turns that honesty into structure.

Decision logic

The six questions before the injection

Before the enclosure is filled, six questions stand, and their answers are documented and owned.

1. Time bridge or repair

First the honest classification: the leak path persists, it is only contained. Without that clarity every further decision is built on sand.

2. Sealant compatibility

The sealant must match medium, temperature and pressure. An incompatible compound fails later and often without warning.

3. Enclosure and clamp design

Does the enclosure hold both the injection and the operating pressure. An undersized enclosure only shifts the risk instead of controlling it.

4. Injection pressure versus system pressure

Controlled injection that does not further damage the leaking connection. Excessive injection pressure can enlarge the problem.

5. HSE during injection

Personnel exposure at an active leak under pressure. The assessment belongs in the decision, not as an appendix after.

6. Re leak risk and end date

When will the actual repair be done. The measure is documented as temporary, with a defined end date, not filed as done.

Normative frame

The relevant reference points

HSE guidelinesSafety of repair clamps and live sealing

ASME PCC-2Enclosures and repair measures on pressure equipment

Operational releaseIndividual assessment, monitoring, end date

ASME B31.3 / EN 13480Design frame of the affected connection

FRALEX GLSS and LPThe decision layer. Containment as a documented time bridge

No code declares a containment a repair. That is exactly why the honest, documented classification is the real value. Integrity is a decision, not a material property.

FAQ

Common questions

Short, reliable answers on online leak sealing. The full logic is in the GLSS in the Veritas Library.

Containing a leak under full operating pressure by placing an enclosure or clamp around the leaking connection and filling it with sealant. The plant stays in operation.

No. The leak path persists, it is only contained. It is a time bridge, not a repair, and should be documented with a defined end date.

As long as the enclosure and sealant hold under the given conditions and are monitored. It bridges to the actual repair, it does not replace it.

Composite restores wall load capacity and can be a repair. Online leak sealing contains a leak without removing the leak path and is always a time bridge.

Incompatible sealant, undersized enclosure, excessive injection pressure and personnel exposure at the active leak. And the biggest one: confusing containment with repair.

With an incompatible sealant, a non load bearing enclosure, uncontrollable personnel exposure, or when an immediate repair is mandatory. Then the justified no go is the deliverable.