Drone pipeline inspection: Safe & cost-effective method for the industrial infrastructure

Businesses want methods that save money yet maintain the level of quality and productivity in its operations and management. The oil and gas pipeline infrastructure is one area of the industry that regularly needs monitoring and inspection. Using the drone pipeline inspection method can save the company billions of dollars in safety aspects, the risk to human life, and equipment expenditures.

Pipelines have huge areas covered in laying out lines and its structural support. Underground piping require laborious tasks to detect leaks or damages caused by fortuitous events. Damages may be the cause of earth movement or from vandals and saboteurs exploiting the unsecured expanse of the length of a pipeline by tampering or causing it to leak.

Traditional methods of pipeline inspection

Procedures of detecting leaks and damages in pipelines were expensive and involve unsafe human practices. The traditional way to inspect pipelines was using manned helicopters and vehicles to go to the site and investigate on a leaking or ruined gas line. The method exposes investigators to the harmful elements that may lead to physical harm where helicopters fly precariously at a height of 183 meters to get a closer look at the area for inspection.

The oil and gas industry estimates the cost of traditional inspection to a staggering $50 billion per year. Huge budget savings saw the application of drone pipeline inspections.

The risk of close contact contamination when the investigators inspect internal structures doing it from the inside of huge pipelines is imminent. Pipe inspectors also use hyper spectral imaging. The instrument collects and analyzes information across the electronic spectrum of the objects in question. The procedure scans the spectrum of each pixel collected to find objects, examine materials or detect any fissure in the structure.

Manual pipeline investigators also employ the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). This method is for high process detection and management control. The SCADA has four performing parameters to collect and analyze data. One, the digital and analog sensors and control relays interfacing with the management system. Second, are small computer gadgets called Remote Telemetry Units (RTU) used as data points for sensors to report and deliver commands to relay setups. The third component is the SCADA Master Unit serving as central processing entity of the management system. And finally, the communication network that links the SCADA Master Unit to the deployed RTUs.

Drone pipeline Inspection benefits the oil and gas industry

Droneworxs aerial video and photography will be doing the drone pipeline inspection for you using advanced cameras and capture images for your technical team to study and analyze areas. The use of drones for pipeline inspection does the job faster, more accurate, and safer than the traditional methods of pipeline inspection.

Unmanned Aerial vehicles can avoid the risk of a tragic event waiting to happen. It can prompt immediate action from the dangers posed by oil spills, leaks that could cause environmental disasters, or the risk of exploding segments of the pipelines.

Drone pipeline inspection can now get as close as 20 meters over an expanse of the pipeline to investigate on leaks or damages. The aerial drones can record every square inch of the structure in 4k resolution and send the image to the remote operators.

Other sensorized drones come with an environmental analysis of the elements involved in a leak of the pipeline. The drones can detect damages of underground pipes by the chemicals it leaks out on the surface above it. Changes of vegetation over underground piping is also an indication of a leak in the system. Aerial drones equipped with sensorized programs can send the visual and data analysis directly to the management control systems.

One of the advanced features used by UAVs are the thermal cameras attached to the drones. The high-tech cameras can detect heat escaping from the ground or through fissures on claddings of pipelines. The latest cameras equipped on drones will send data visualizing the change in temperature between normal areas and sections affected by the leaking chemicals.

The drones will be relaying thermal images to the operators remotely controlling the UAVs. The identification of the areas that need attention will prompt engineers to do the total preventive maintenance and avoid unnecessary downtime. Early detection will avert environmental disaster and keep the pipelines safe from explosion and contamination that undetected leaks and damages could bring.

Visit us at our website at Droneworxs or you may call us at +61 488 033 938 or email us at droneworxs@gmail.com. We deliver Real Estate photography and videos, UAV Aerial Mapping, Aerial Panoramas, commercial images and videos, asset inspection on an industrial setting, flare stack inspection, pipeline inspection services in the gas and oil industry, drone roof inspection, and surveying for property survey processing,

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