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Inspection plays a critical role in all process plants where piping is utilized to transport fluids from one location in the process to another. These fluids are often highly volatile, corrosive, acidic or have other properties that if not controlled can seriously impact safety, the environment and negatively impact the reliability of the manufacturing process.
The work conducted by the inspectors takes place both during operation and when the plant is shutdown for periodic repairs that cannot be completed during the operating cycle.. One major goal of the inspection process is to identify piping whose wall thickness has fallen below the minimum calculated acceptable level. Once these locations are identified plans are then made to replace the identified piping. The locations in the various piping systems where thickness measurements are taken are referred to as Continuous Monitoring Locations or CMLs.
Inspection organizations are laser focused on piping systems where there is a high likelihood of corrosion related failure because it can lead to unplanned system failure if not corrected in a timely manner. One of the many areas that inspectors routinely check are pipe tees and elbows because a higher rate of corrosion takes place where fluid moving through the system changes direction.
Failure to identify piping that has fallen below the minimum acceptable thickness level can be serious. There are examples where unexpectedly the unreliable section of piping failed causing fires, chemical releases, plant shutdowns and serious safety issues. For this reason, plants maintain an internal inspection staff or hire third-party inspectors to continuously monitor the identified CML locations. All of this data is entered into an inspection database that provides the maintenance organization with information related to piping that needs replacement.
Failure to identify a pipe corrosion problem and having it ultimately fail is referred to as a hidden failure. This term is applied because the problem has not been identified; it’s hidden from view. In many cases, a location has been overlooked or measurements not taken which would have alerted the organization that the corrosion problem was leading to imminent system failure. Due to the comprehensive nature of inspection programs, failing to monitor all of the critical piping locations is not a widespread issue, but it can happen.
However, there is another hidden failure that resides within the current process employed for measuring, recording, analyzing and taking action on CML’s below the corrosion minimum. The hidden failure in this case is time delay. Let’s review the typical process associated with measuring pipe thickness;
- The locations for CML monitoring are identified by Inspection through analysis of the plant’s piping systems and the fluids they transport.
- The inspectors go out into the field and take the pipe thickness measurements.
- The inspectors return to the office where the handwritten measurements are given to a clerk for entry into the inspection system.
- The data is entered and analyzed by Inspection supported by the application’s analytics.
- Areas of concern are identified for corrective action..
- A maintenance work order for pipe replacement is entered into the system.
- The work is scheduled and the pipe is replaced.
On the surface, the above process appears to be one that is totally satisfactory, but what if the pipe thickness readings are not entered into the database in a timely manner and subsequently serious problems are not addressed before failure? For the serious or “red flagged” corrosion issues, this delay could ultimately lead to unplanned piping failure or worse.
Considering the potential serious outcome from an unplanned process piping failure, there are two possible solutions to remove time delays from the equation. The first is to assure that there is no time delay between recording the data, having and entered the inspection database, analyzing the results and taking the needed corrective action. The second is to completely eliminate the hidden failure of time delay.
The first of the above solutions relies on human beings always taking timely action. Understanding the importance of this task can certainly help reduce the process time delay. Unfortunately, things happen within the inspection organization that could easily introduce time delays back into the process. The uncertainty of assuring the elimination of time delays in this manner therefore makes this alternative unacceptable.
The second alternative provided by PK Technology is to eliminate the time delay completely. This is accomplished through the use of handheld tablets in the field. Utilizing PK Technology’s inspection application, intelliSPEC™, when the inspector takes the pipe thickness reading and enters it into the tablet the information is immediately entered into the inspection database. In this way, any thickness issues are immediately flagged for timely corrective action by the maintenance organization.
intelliSPEC™ also provides additional benefits unavailable in the traditional process for checking pipe thickness.
- Any external pipe issues that are identified can be photographed for review by others in the office.
- Piping isometrics developed by the inspection organization can be loaded into the tablet making it easier to identify the proper CML areas for thickness measurements.
- Prior inspection measurements can be loaded onto the tablet so that in the field the inspectors can identify failure trend related problems that may not be obvious with only a single measurement.
- With prior inspection data loaded onto the tablet, the inspector does not have to return to the office to gather additional information related to the piping system.
- P&IDs can also be loaded into the system and validated during the inspection process. This provides a significant cost saving since this effort is most often handled by a separate contractor at additional cost.
Having in place a well-trained group of inspectors adds significantly to the reliability of the process piping and will go a long way to eliminating the hidden failures associated with data accuracy or missed CMLs. Adding PK Technology’s intelliSPEC™ piping inspection software removes the hidden failure of time delay and adds even further to the ability of process plants to maintain a safe, environmentally sound and reliable manufacturing process.
To learn more about PK Technology and the intelliSPEC™ inspection application, please visit the website.
