NOVEL TECHNIQUES FOR OUTSIDE INSPECTION OF PLANT PIPEWORK

Increasingly, non-destructive testing (NDT) is used as an economic too l in predictive maintenance approach of plant operators. This allows p lanned replacement or repair of deteriorated components. This tendency demands full surface coverage rather than the usual spot inspection o f plant components. Moreover it often requires in-service inspection o f hot and/or thermally insulated components. This challenge is met by recent developments in NDT Several rather novel techniques have become commercially available for rapid external inspection of exposed pipew ork in plants. These methods are designed to be economically affordabl e to industry. This article describes these techniques, discusses thei r relative merits and presents some results from field-use.