Inspection of Storage Tank Hoops: Thickness Measurement Without Working at Heights
Tanks storing products that are hazardous to people and the environment are subject to regulatory inspections, as set out in the decrees of October 4 and 5, 2010. This Industrial Facilities Modernization Plan (PM2I) covers inventory, initial condition assessment, and the inspection plan to be carried out.
This inspection plan is defined in the DT94 guideline, which specifies the inspections to be performed during the annual inspection, the five-year inspection (external inspections), and the ten-year inspection (external + internal inspections).
Customer challenges
The ten-year inspection includes both external and internal inspections, which places the operator under multiple constraints.
Combined constraints of a ten-year inspection
Assets must be available to be emptied for the work. Some tanks that are critical to production are only available for a few days per year.
Tank bottom inspection includes thickness measurement of the plates and weld inspection, which very often require cleaning and surface preparation.
These operations take place in confined spaces and sometimes on ATEX tanks, which requires reinforced HSE preparation: atmosphere checks, mechanical ventilation, confined space attendant, and more.
Solution: a complete ROBOPLANET toolkit
A maintenance manager from a sugar production site contacted us. He wanted to carry out the ten-year inspection of a tank 20 m in diameter and 16 m high.
For this industrial client, we deployed a complete inspection setup, following DT94 recommendations and the B-C inspection grade required by the operator:
Tank bottom
Spot ultrasonic thickness measurement
Bottom welds
ACFM weld inspection
Dimensional survey
3D laser scanning
Complete B-scan report. The delivered report gives the client a clear thickness profile of the tank shell courses. Thousands of points are summarized and ready to be used for engineering calculations and to prepare any future maintenance operations.
Results
Our client avoided work at height and benefited from a much more detailed report thanks to the B-scan, with the complete ten-year inspection carried out in just 2 days.
Spot ultrasonic thickness measurement report for the tank bottom.
Complete PM2I ten-year inspection in 2 days, zero work at height, 4 combined techniques — ROBOPLANET simplifies and secures your regulatory inspections.
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