Inspection of suspect roofs
Some storage tanks are exposed to deterioration that can weaken them and lead to accidents. They must be regularly monitored. Tanks that store products hazardous to people or the environment are subject to regulatory inspections, as stipulated in the decrees of October 4th and 5th, 2010. This Industrial Facilities Modernization Plan (PM2I) covers inventory, initial condition assessment, and the inspection plan to be carried out.
Client Challenges
The most common mode of degradation is internal thickness loss. This type of degradation occurs in the product’s tide zone, in the vapor space, and at the product inlets, and is accelerated by factors such as acidity, temperature, or the density of the stored product.
To quantify these losses, wall thickness measurements are taken. This involves working at heights, which creates specific risks and thus requires the use of access means such as scaffolding, mobile platforms, or rope access technicians.
These solutions themselves involve elevated work (e.g., the assembly of scaffolding or the setup of mobile platforms). They may also raise legal issues, such as the use of rope access technicians when less risky solutions exist (R4323-64 of the Labor Code). In terms of cost, constructing scaffolding is almost always more expensive than the inspection itself…
SOLUTION
For these reasons, a maintenance manager at a sugar plant consulted us. He wanted to carry out interventions without deploying any access equipment. For over 10 years, we have been working on robots and solutions that help prevent operators from taking risks in their work environment. For this industrial client, we deployed the Altiscan robot. It is equipped with magnets that allow it to move along steel walls, and it was designed based on a robot we developed to operate on ship hulls at sea.
This robot carries a thickness measurement chain. It measures the wall thickness every centimeter and records the digitized signal for later analysis. This way, the operator is well-equipped to detect uniform corrosion and, to a lesser extent, localized corrosion.
Moreover, the B-scan report provided gives the client a clear profile of the shell thickness of their tank. Thousands of points are summarized, ready to be used for calculation reports and to prepare any necessary maintenance operations. On this project, the special design of Altiscan allowed us to operate without constraints in heavy rain, where other magnetic robots might have slipped or even fallen.
RESULTS
In conclusion, it took us 2 hours on-site to cover 4 spans of approximately 11m each, with continuous measurements—equivalent to 44,000 individual point measurements. As a result, our client received a much more detailed report of their roof, all while ensuring optimal safety for the operator.
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