Industrial Inspections – a brief discussion

Industrial inspections are unavoidable and may be difficult to perform. The bulk of industrial inspections are non-destructive in nature such as Eddy Current and Magnetic Testing or Ultrasonic Testing and Radiographic Testing besides Visual Testing. Turbine inspection is common in industries such as Power Generation, Nuclear and Aerospace. This is a very important inspection in these industries that depend on turbines. Turbine inspection could be conducted by one or more methods such as with the help of bore scopes that could be used to locate cracks or imperfections in blades. This is a tedious process since turbine blades are not accessible unless you strip them from the turbine. More often, this inspection is carried out in situ.

Another method of inspecting turbines is a modified visual method that involves the use of a special dye to highlight the location of cracks and other imperfections in blades. The kit consists of a cleaner for surface preparation, a penetrant for highlighting the crack and a developer to increase the resolution. Bore Sonics consisting of ultrasonic transducers is also used for locating flaws inside the rotor forging. Another difficult task is the carrying out of pipeline inspection.

The relative inaccessibility in cases and the interminably long pipelines make pipeline inspection a difficult task. Generally the Magnetic Flux Leakage In Line Inspection (MFL-ILI) tool is used to carry out this inspection. A strong magnetic field is created around the pipeline through which the tool travels and both cleans and detects the flaws in the process.

Share
|

Why Industrial Inspection Can Be Difficult

Industrial inspection is mandatory. These inspections are invariably non-destructive in nature involving services such as Ultrasonic Testing, Magnetic Testing, Eddy Current, Visual and Radiography. The important requirements should be that the services should not be intrusive in nature and there should be no stoppage of work. At times Industrial Inspection is required to be conducted in relatively inaccessible areas. This would require some specialized servicing as provided by the Rope Access Inspection Services. Earlier scaffolding was used for the kind of inspection that was to be conducted in difficult to reach areas. Scaffolding was most intrusive and generally created obstruction to the movement of men and material. Besides this scaffolding had to be erected and dismantled repeatedly and above all there was an element of risk however small. It was also more expensive when compared to the rope access.

Besides the rope access that has succeeded in reducing the difficulty faced in inspecting in remote areas of the industry the other problem faced is in conducting pipeline inspection. The inspection of pipelines is laborious and lengthy due to the miles of pipelines that have to be inspected in some typical industries such as the Petrochemical and Power Generation. Pipeline inspection is often carried out by the Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) method that uses an inline inspection (MFL-ILI) tool. This tool travels inside the pipeline while detecting the flaws and simultaneously cleaning the inside walls as well. In an advanced method involving large lengths of pipeline GPS is sometimes used for pinpointing the exact location of the defect.

Share
|

Difficulties You Can Face In Industrial Testing

Carrying out industrial testing may not be a cakewalk each time. To begin with industrial testing requires a team of dedicated professionals who are certified and are mission oriented. Imagine carrying out pipeline inspection in the middle of a desert like location where we are talking of hundreds of miles of pipelines. Imagine carrying out ultrasonic testing of the pipeline in an almost inaccessible location. You may need to carry equipment such as the Electromagnetic Acoustic Transmission or EMAT that radiates an ultrasonic wave. The ultrasonic testing may involve the Guided Ultrasonic Wave equipment. Whatever be the method of testing how do you get the technicians and the equipment to the location safely, carry out the testing and then bring them down without an accident and also importantly without shutting down the industrial machinery?

Earlier days such inspections used to be carried out by the help of scaffolding. Scaffolding was repetitive and you had to spend money raising the scaffolding and bring it down each time the inspection was completed. It was also obstructive and impeded the smooth flow of men and materials in an industry. Today the rope access is a more acceptable method compared to scaffolding. Rope access is cheaper. It’s non obstructive and much safer than scaffolding. More than 100,000 hours of accident free rope access time has in fact brought about an increase in cost benefits by 75%. The industry therefore prefers this method while carrying out inspections in hard to reach places on account of safety and lower costs.

Share
|