Leveraging robotics for remotely operated UT thickness measurements
29/02/2024
With a strong product portfolio, Eddyfi Technologies is well positioned to offer dynamic working solutions leveraging multi-technologies in response to customer demands and it has demonstrated the ability to add ultrasonic testing (UT), pulsed eddy current (PEC) and even phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) into its surface-mounted crawlers.
The company prides itself on delivering integrated solutions, combining its innovative phased array (PA) instruments Gekko, Topaz and Mantis with automated vehicles to help its customers solve industry problems in the safest and most efficient way possible. In 2019, Eddyfi delivered the capability of performing automated phased array corrosion mapping inspection, which offers more than ten times faster high-resolution data collection when compared to conventional methods on pressure vessels, storage tanks, ship hulls and external pipelines.
One of the most common requests the company receives is for the integration of ultrasonic scanning for wall thickness and corrosion mapping within pipelines. Several solutions exist for short-distance UT or corrosion mapping and Eddyfi offers a number of these already through both its robotic crawler solutions. But, as any inspector knows, corrosion does not stop 30 m inside a pipeline. To date, solutions have been limited to custom integrated systems with low volume, low turnaround time, high maintenance costs and higher prices, but Eddyfi has taken the opportunity to challenge the status quo.
In response to a project requiring the inspection of a 1 km (0.6 mile) pipeline with a diameter ranging from 400 to 800 mm, the VersaTrax long-range pipe inspection crawlers immediately came to mind. The VersaTrax P-Series (formerly known as the Versatrax 150 and VersaTrax 300) travels up to 1 km with the ability to conquer 2 km or 1.2 miles in a single run. However, the pipeline was vertical and, therefore, the robot used needed to be able to travel 1000 m vertically without falling, navigating through a given number of bends or elbows across mandrel joins, flanges and raised circumferential weld cap. This was no problem for the VersaTrax Y-Series (formerly known as the VT150 Vertical Crawler), but the inspection requirements were a combination of visual inspection and UT thickness measurement of sections of pipe to confirm nominal wall loss. This equated to a remotely operated robotic crawler with UT scanner positioning up to 1 km away from the pipeline entrance. When considering a solution like this, individually it would take an unprecedented number of man-hours and design work to start to draft such a project if looked at from the perspective of either a non-destructive testing (NDT) UT tooling manufacturer or a robotic crawler manufacturer.
This cross-technology ability enabled Eddyfi’s specialists to collaborate and produce a ‘Beyond Current’ solution: the combination of the Y-Series with the dry-coupled R-Scan UT probe, using the Swift as the acquisition device. In initial testing, the tether was mounted separately from the primary system, but future development will see the acquisition device boards mounted to the crawler and data returned to the controlling device. Primary tests were conclusive and proved that this solution could successfully answer client requirements. Following the initial lab- and then field-based trials, it was clear that, within a short period, Eddyfi remains agile and able to offer viable working solutions.
