This mechanical cleaning pig was built 1984 by T.D. Williams Company, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The cleaning pig was specifically designed to fit within and clean 48-inch diameter oil pipelines.

The cleaning pig is approximately 48 inches in diameter, 2.3 metres long, and weighs around 726 kg. The front of the pig is nose cone, and at either end of the pig are wide cups which press against and hug the interior of the pipe to keep the pig secure. The middle of the pig are extended metal arms for dislodging and removing sludge and other detriment inside the pipe. This maintenance equipment also comes which an array of mechanical sensors to record the conditions inside the pipe, including its integrity and pressure, as well as having odometers for measuring and recording the location of the pig in the pipeline.

This cleaning/scraper pig is from the Trans-Alaska pipeline, which was constructed between 1975 and 1977 to transport crude oil produced in the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in the isolated north coast of Alaska, to the southern coast of the state at the Prince William Sound. The Prudhoe Bay oil fields are the largest oil fields in North America, and they produce more crude oil than any other oil fields on the continent. Fittingly, the Trans-Alaska pipeline is one of the world's largest pipelines which extends over 800 miles and connects eleven pump stations and hundreds of miles of additional feeder pipelines and covers hundreds of thousands of acres of oil fields.

This pipeline is owned and operated privately by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, which was founded in 1970, and who contracted the Nipon Kokan Corporation (NKK) from Japan to produce the pipe sections, which began to arrive in Alaska as early as 1968. Over the course of the pipelines operation, various maintenance equipment was purchased from the T.D. Williams Company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, including this cleaning/scraper pig. The cleaning pig was built in 1984, and used over a nine-year period, logging an approximate 5000 miles of cleaning and dewaxing of the pipeline.

The Trans-Alaska pipeline continues to operate today, and since 1977 has produced approximately 17 billion barrels of oil.