Tank floor inspection technologies added to rental fleet
05/02/2018
As part of its new rental partnership with Silverwing, Ashtead Technology has added a range of tank floor inspection technologies to its fleet of rental instruments. Manufactured by Eddyfi Technologies, the new equipment is from the Silverwing product line and includes the Floormap 3DiM tank floor scanner and the Handscan manual tank floor scanner, as well as vacuum boxes for bubble leak testing of tank floor welds.
“These instruments are an exciting addition to our fleet,” said Steve Drake, Ashtead Technology’s NDT Sales Manager. “The inspection and maintenance of tanks is extremely important for safety, environmental and financial reasons. Together with our extensive range of remote visual inspection, ultrasonic corrosion mapping and flaw detection equipment, the addition of these Silverwing products means that we can now offer a complete tank inspection solution.”These new instruments represent the cutting edge in tank floor testing. The Floormap 3DiM, for example, operates at 500 mm/s and combines two distinct technologies: magnetic flux leakage (MFL), for the detection and sizing of corrosion, and surface topology air-gap reluctance sensors (STARS), which identify whether the corrosion is on the top or the bottom surface of the floor plate. The Floormap 3DiM is also capable of detecting corrosion underneath paint or other surface coatings.
Unlike manual ‘stop on defect’ systems, all data is captured and stored by the Floormap 3DiM. This enables inspectors to produce accurate colour-coded corrosion maps of the tank floor, so that tank engineers can compare and review historical datasets to optimise repair strategies. In addition, high-resolution sensor heads provide excellent probability of detection of indications that measure as little as 2 mm in diameter. In combination with advanced signal processing and defect classification tools, this significantly improves corrosion detection and sizing capability.
Jim Costain from Eddyfi said: “Many organisations will only have occasional or project-based requirements for this technology, so it makes sense to hire the equipment. We are therefore delighted to be partnering with Ashtead Technology to ensure that financial constraints do not prevent customers from having access to the best technology.”
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