These include automated ultrasonics, eddy current, flux leakage, acoustic emission and thermographic methods:
Acoustic Emission (AE) is useful both for crack detection in tanks, vessels and piping and storage tank (floor) corrosion assessment. AE testing allows a quick, global survey of a vessel or piping run to determine whether there is a problem or approximately where.
AE testing is non-intrusive and can be carried out on-stream. It works on most metals, alloys and composites.
Incotest is a pulsed eddy current system for detection of Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) and internal wall loss without removal of the insulation. Incotest works through coatings, cladding, concrete and marine growths. These together with its portability make this highly cost effective where access to the vessel or pipe surface is difficult or costly.
Ultrasonic Time Of Flight Diffraction (TOFD) probes traverse the inspection area to screen the areas of concern. Data collection is rapid, ideal surfaces allow scan speeds up to 250mm/sec. When multiple channels are used, simultaneous data collection from multiple probe configurations is possible. Data collected is encoded with surface distance to locate and calculate the depth and cross-sectional size of any defects.
The Spider is designed for scanning large tanks and vessels. It is remotely operated with a joystick control and carries an ultrasonic probe to gather thickness data. This device allows rapid thickness(line scan) surveys of tank walls and roofs without the need for extensive scaffolding.
The Tank Floor Tester (TFT) detects of corrosion in bulk liquid storage tank floors. This high speed lightweight battery-operated scanner uses themagnetic flux leakage method to detect corrosion pitting on both the top and bottom surfaces of carbon steel floor plates.
Thermography can detect a range of equipment and process problems. An infrared camera allows a wide ranging thermographic survey of plant and equipment from a distance. All information is presented using PC based reporting software and digital photography. This is a powerful tool equally at home with one off fault finding missions and long term condition monitoring programs.