CATS use battery power to carry out Wytch Farm inspection
Methods
CATS use battery power to carry out Wytch Farm inspection
Keywords CATS, Corrosion monitoring,Inspection, Welding
CATS International, of Southport, UK, has used a battery-powered inspection system to carry out a weld root erosion survey, with minimum disruption to plant operation, at BP's Wytch Farm gathering station in Dorset.
The inspection, which was performed as part of BP's routine corrosion monitoring programme, involved 95 butt welds, 50 of which were on water injection pipes and the remainder on process pipework. In order to carry out the work with minimum disruption, CATS elected to introduce a battery-powered, portable data acquisition and processing imaging system, employing time-of-flight diffraction technology, with manually deployed encoded ultrasonic scanners.
Because of this approach,there was no need for BP to lay on additional power supplies and the work was carried out independently of any site services, with total immunity to any mains interference, such as voltage fluctuations or spikes, which can often affect the integrity of readings.
The new system allowed same day reporting on every day of the five-day inspection programme and a detailed summary, with hard copy results, was available within four days of demobilisation. This summary included details of a corrosion mapping survey,which was also accomplished during the inspection period.
Further details available from: CATS International Ltd, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1704 213311; Fax: +44 (0) 1704 25800.
