Plant Piping And Pipeline Inspection
A study carried out by the UK Health and Safety Executive reported that over 60% of the reportable hydrocarbon release incidents from offshore platforms in the UK North Sea sector were related to pipework. The adoption of adequate inspection and maintenance practices for pipework therefore has a considerable effect on the incidence of both unscheduled plant down-time and leaks of potentially hazardous materials.
At ESCON we have state-of-art inspection solutions to reliably inspect plant piping and non-piggable pipelines.
Ultrasonic Guided Wave Inspection (UGWT)
Ultrasonic Guided Wave Testing {@ GWT} is the technology of choice for the rapid screening of plant piping and pipelines for corrosion.At ESCON we use the Guided Ultrasonic Ltd., WavemakerG3 system. With this system, tens of meters of pipe can be quickly and completely screened from a single location. The ability of this system to send waves along the length of the pipe means that very difficult to inspect areas, such as road crossings, can be interrogated from a remote and easily accessible location.
Higher Order Mode Cluster (HOMC) Guided Wave Inspection
Wall losses and pitting can be detected by injecting a HOMC Guided Wave into the pipe and looking for reflections from defects present in the pipe. Advantage of this technique is its sensitivity to smaller defects and allowing probe deployment and at 2 to 3 ‘o’ clock position and assessing defects between the 4 & 7 ‘o’ clock region. Manual and Robotic manupulators help in the rapid screening of inaccessible sections such as regions under a pad or a welded support.
