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Why Wall Thickness?
If you are in the oil refining business, then you would know that operating profit margins are not only small by comparison with oil production but also very sensitive to change. Those who are lucky enough to be on the coastline can take advantage of opportunity crudes which happen to be in the tankers that day, but the rest have to battle with small process variations to keep products within spec. But the number one variable of all to watch out for is the impact of production on asset integrity, in particular pressure vessel wall thickness. This is because the primary function of a pipe or a vessel is containment and with these corrosive and erosive materials eating away into that thickness, day-in, day-out, accurate and frequent wall thickness readings become of great importance.
A Simple Solution
Having solutions that can produce wall thickness readings that are far more frequently than what traditional manual inspection can offer puts decision making capability on par with process change as demand is placed on the asset and leads to improved profitability and enhanced safety. Daily, high precision thickness measurements provide thickness trending and the detection of changes in wall loss rates, which can be extrapolated to predict asset condition and plan maintenance.
Yes, pipes are cheap and disposable, but only when purchase is planned ahead of time. Yes, corrosion is a slow process, but only with reactive mitigation strategies that the life of the asset can be maintained over the desired lifespan.
Key Benefits To Ionix Monitoring Solutions:
- Produce better wall loss data with an installed UT probe with automated, wireless data collection.
- Deploy on live assets without the need to shut down or isolate.
- Permanent or semi-permanent installation in extreme or hazardous environments.
- Autonomous data collection and data direct to control centre with WirelessHART Caliperay.
- Optimise production and maintenance with up-to-date integrity trends.
Overview
Accurate and frequent wall thickness information bridges the gap between infrequent inspections where there is little to no data collected and offers statistically confident reflection of asset performance. Importantly, it can also detect changes in the condition of the asset, which, in turn, provides certainty in decisions related to corrosion inhibitor performance, asset remaining life that is crucial in shut down planning, but above all, eliminating chances of unplanned outages related to loss of containment which ensures up time figures remain true without any upsets.