Automation of plant inspection in primary industry

Plant equipment in primary industries are the subject of ongoing routine inspections. These inspections are required to ensure compliance with national legislation, international standards, and to adhere to industry best practice. This is of particular importance in the oil and gas industry, where there is significant potential for health and safety and environmental hazards, and a zero tolerance culture towards their occurrence. These important inspections can call for significant manpower, time, and financial investment, in order to provide the necessary assurance. They can also present hazardous and onerous working conditions, which can result in serious injury. There is an opportunity to advance this area of the oil and gas industry, by providing automated inspection solutions. Using off the shelf displacement sensors, together with a bespoke electronics arrangement, the solution discussed in the current paper has been developed, integrated, and tested, to provide real time feedback on pipe diameter distortions, indicating equipment end of life. This adds to the range of cover for an existing and well used testing regime. In doing so, it has eliminated weeks of manual work from each inspection, saving significant amounts of money, and making the inspection exercise safer and easier to conduct.