Traditional inspection campaigns have required divers or large ROVs deployed from a dedicated Inspection Repair Maintenance vessel. Vessels include high costs along with increased risks when working around assets. To reduce costs and risks, Sonomatic has pioneered innovative, lightweight asset deployed advanced NDT solutions.
These tools can be deployed directly from the facility, reducing the risk to the facility and costs associated with the inspection. Tooling is available to deploy a wide variety of inspection techniques and capable of performing cleaning for the inspection. Tools are integrable with any ROVs that can be designed for asset deployment.
In partnership with our sister company Geo-Oceans, we can offer the complete solution for asset deployed inspection, providing the ROV, cleaning and inspection tooling required for the inspection.
Rapid deployment is possible with the capability to take all equipment via helicopter. These solutions are also able to be deployed from vessels of opportunity such as supply vessels. Increasing the utilization of smaller vessels helps drive great efficiency of vessels on hire and reduce costs by delivering the same inspection outcome from a small platform. This is an area of heavy ongoing investment and development for the group.
Ultrasonic corrosion mapping involves scanning the pipeline to determine the minimum remaining thickness for each position and can be achieved using conventional UT probe or a PAUT probe. The systems deployed produce comprehensive, high-quality data that can be displayed in different views to easily identify and/or verify any areas of concern. Sonomatic Inspection Management Software (SIMS) is used to generate 2D and 3D thickness map composites to improve efficiency in data management during the collection phase, and assists in semi-autonomous data analysis and reporting.
TOFD is an industry norm for pipeline weld inspection. This ultrasonic technique is the best method for defect detection and accurately sizing & monitoring the through-wall height of weld defects.
DRS is a proprietary technology developed by Sonomatic using frequency-based ultrasonic wall thickness measurements. It is a corrosion mapping technique that applies a broad range of low ultrasonic frequencies (<1 MHz) to penetrate challenging coatings such as composite repairs, PE and Neoprene, and excites the natural frequencies of vibration of the underlying steel. The DRS probe raster scans over an area of interest and collects response signals. Advanced signal processing algorithms have been developed to extract the vibration frequencies and map the wall thickness profile.
Full matrix capture (FMC) is a data acquisition strategy that allows for the capture of every possible transmit-receive combination for a given ultrasonic phased array transducer.
ACFM is an electromagnetic technique for detection and sizing of surface-breaking indications. It works on all metals, does not require direct contact and works through various thicknesses of coatings. ACFM can accurately detect and size linear indications both length and depth. It is also easier to use on complex geometries such as nodes and nozzles.
PEC is a comparative technique whereby advanced processing of the eddy current signal decay and comparison with a reference signal, allows for the determination of the average wall thickness (AWT). This fast-screening method allows for the assessment of the general condition of structural steel and is best suited for general corrosion type defects in subsea pipelines. A major benefit of PEC is its ability to inspect through challenging coatings and marine growth.
