Liquid Burning Flue Inspection
A mining company engaged Nexxis to review a solution for an internal visual and ultrasonic (UT) inspection of a Liquid Burning Flue.
The Challenge: Liquid Burning Flue Inspection
A mining company engaged Nexxis to review a solution for an internal visual and ultrasonic (UT) inspection of a Liquid Burning Flue.
The client wanted to achieve some clear objectives and outcomes;
- Cover and Inspect using UT approx. every 200mm vertical at eight cardinal circumferential angles
- Top-down Inspection via crane and rope access assistance with access for magnetic crawler
In-Service inspections often involve CSE (Confined Space Entry) by trained personnel. This presents unnecessary risk and our team strive to eliminate CSE.
The Solution: RotoMag with UT Module
The custom robotic solution required a cleaning head integration, without the cleaning head, scale build-up on the magnets over the vertical travel would have compromised the inspection. Cleaning was also required at the UT inspection points.
The benefit of the encoder integration is the ability to perform B Scan (side view) ultrasonic inspection at a higher vertical interval (approx. 50mm apart) while driving the crawler vertically. The data was then reported to show varying wall thicknesses over the vertical travel. The encoder also allowed real-time vertical location relative to the starting point.
Without the encoder integration, the spot readings would have been taken at approximate 200mm increments. This distance will be approximated via the umbilical travel.
Nexxis proposed modifications to the recently developed tracked crawler with a UT thickness gauge (for B Scan UT capability) and a camera with pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) camera (for visual). Tether and couplant hose system will be supported via rope access.
- This will allow visual inspection of assets as well as 10x optical zoom.
- The overview camera onboard the crawler can also be used for local navigation.
- Although the crawler has onboard lighting and lighting from the overview camera the Spectrum 90 has directional lighting that assists in the visual inspection directly where the camera is focusing.
Overview vision of crawler location in the asset will be provided with HD camera. This will allow real-time visual of crawler location in the asset.
