January 27, 2011

ProSCAN Hydra – Reduces dig time by 75% when compared to Manual ½ inch Grid

Calgary Based Smartpipe Technologies has made a major breakthrough for measuring corrosion on in service pipelines. On two recent projects the ProSCAN outperformed crews using manual methods by 50% and 75% for rate of acquisition. The ProSCAN Laser Profile Scanner is designed to map external corrosion on in service oil and gas pipelines. It is highly accurate measuring pit depths to within 0.1mm with an unfiltered resolution of 7800 points per square inch.

In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ProSCAN Hydra laser scanning was compared to manual methods on two projects. Project A - A 12m section of 42” diameter pipe was investigated using the ProSCAN as well as a pit gauge. The pipe that was used had near unbroken general corrosion that extended 180º circumferentially over the entire 12m length of the joint. Project B involved 20m of 34” diameter pipe with corrosion mainly concentrated along the long seem.

Project A - The entire12m joint of the pipe was scanned 180º circumferentially and an RSTRENG was calculated using the on board software. The total time for set up, scanning and analysis was under 4 hours. In order to compare with the standard manual method we then had a two man crew map a ½ inch by ½ inch grid and measure the deepest pit using a pit depth gauge. For the crew to grid only the corroded areas it took 4.5 hours to grid 3 meters. For the entire 12m it would take 18hrs of continuous effort or 4.5 times as long.

Significantly Better Data Quality - With the manual gridding method it is only the deepest pit in each column that is actually recorded so for a 1 meter axial by 1.5 meter circumferential section of pipe only 76 measurements are recorded. The ProSCAN records the deepest pit for every 2mm by 3mm so for the same area 250 000 points are measured.

Project B - On another recent project a unit with a 240mm beam was used. With this unit the two man crew was able to scan more than 20m of 34” pipe in 8 hours. During the same period 4 technicians using UT pen probes were able to investigate and grid about 10m on the same pipe. The corrosion on this particular pipe tended to run along the long seem between 3 o’clock and 6 o’clock making it easier for the technicians since they didn’t have to grid more than 90º around the pipe.

Big savings on Dig Costs - On Project A the total time savings were around 12 hours. Considering the cost of an integrity dig runs from $800 to $1000 per hour the estimated savings from using the ProSCAN Hydra would be between $9000 and $12 000 on this dig. Project B using the shorter laser line reduced the time in the ditch by 50% or 8 hours for savings of over $6400.