Inspection of Production Tubing Thickness to Extend Well Operation Time With Thicktube Robot at Pertamina EP Asset 5 Field Sangasanga

PT Pertamina EP Field Sangasanga is committed to completing the work program that is launched every year. It is expected to support the 2020 production target of 5380 BOPD as written in the 2020 Work Program. One of the efforts to increase the production rate of Field Sangasanga is to do Well Service Maintenance (WSM). Data of different failures during performing WSM work are collected. The frequency of breakdowns and size of loss were identified and analyzed employing quality improvement tools are; Pareto and Fishbone Diagram. Results indicate that tubing leaks cause 51.6% of the potential loss. Tubing often leaks because the wall thickness is less than the minimum. Root-cause-analysis highlights that most failure in the tubing is caused by the existing inspection tool cannot check the entire thickness of the tubing surface. Leaky tubing leads to many problems, such as increased work time, operational costs, and loss of production. We developed an inspection robot named Thicktube, which uses simple Arduino programming, equipped with a VL53L0X proximity sensor for measurement, SMS feature, and micro-SD feature. The Thicktube is fitted with a motor speed of 0.36 m/s driven by a battery remote control. With three sensor angles, Thicktube is designed to measure the thickness of the tubing as much as 27 points on one joint dimension along 9 meters. The test to compare the result is measured using Thicktube and Ultrasonic Thickness. Thicktube has a measurement accuracy of 82% with a measurement resolution of 1 mm. Thicktube as a preliminary tubing inspection can reduce the incidence of downtime due to leaky tubing. By applying Thicktube tools, a company can save up to Rp. 3.1 billion. In addition, the potential hazards of pulling out the tubing can be avoided.

Investigation of Online Corrosion Monitoring for Grounding Materials Based on Electromagnetic Ultrasonic Technology

Power grounding is a key aspectofensuringsafety in power facilities.However, the corrosion of grounding materials can cause accidentsduringpower facility operation. Therefore, monitoring the corrosion status of grounding materials can eliminate hidden risks in the grounding network and ensure safe poweroperation. In this paper, electromagnetic ultrasonic thickness measurement technology was used to develop an online corrosion monitoring system for grounding materials via the installation of electromagnetic ultrasonic measurement probes on in-service power grounding materials. The results from a substation grounding networkdemonstrate that the online corrosion monitoring system can obtain more precise grounding corrosion data and has more extensive application prospects compared with other monitoring methods.

Aerial Robots for Contact-Based Ultrasonic Thickness Measurements for Field Inspections

Aerial robotic systems, also referred to as drones, enable the collection of data on a scale and scope heretofore unimaginable. Field inspections at industrial sites using an aerial robotic inspection system that makes physical contact with a structure or asset as part of a nondestructive testing (NDT) or nondestructive evaluation (NDE) routine is safer than placing humans at elevation and enables more data to be gathered in less time. These aerial robotic systems are highly extensible and agile enabling safer, faster, and better inspections. Robotic inspection systems are forecast to grow exponentially this decade and beyond, as asset owners and service providers realize their economic value creation, increased data collection, and safety contributions.

Industrial robot-based system design of thickness scanning measurement using ultrasonic

Wall thickness is one of the core indicators for measuring the quality of large thin-walled parts such as rocket siding and aircraft skin. However, the traditional handheld thickness measurement method has high labor intensity, low efficiency and poor accuracy consistency. Therefore, an in situ ultrasonic automatic scanning thickness measurement method for large thin-walled parts based on industrial robots is proposed. This “industrial robot + ultrasound” integrated function is a compact system, and a set of innovative methodological or technical solutions is presented, such as (i) TCP and UDP communication protocols being constructed to realize a high-speed and stable communication relationship between the upper computer, robot motion controller and ultrasonic thickness measurement unit; (ii) a coupling gap adjustment method based on eddy-current sensors being adopted to ensure the adaptability of the ultrasonic probe to surface topography of the measured part during scanning measurement; and (iii) a multi-sensor coordinate unified model and coupling gap state discrimination model being established for robot-aided thickness measurement. To verify the feasibility of the proposed method, a series of calibrations and experiments were designed based on the KUKA robot platform and the developed ultrasonic pulse measurement system. Finally, the industrial robot-based ultrasonic thickness scanning measurement has been built and tested for performing the measurement of a rocket tank wall.

Scanning control based on real-time contact force feedback for ultrasonic thickness measurement

An effective contact force control strategy is of great significance for accurate and stable ultrasonic thickness on-machine measurement. However, it is difficult to adjust the contact force dynamically due to the uncertainty of the geometric characteristics of the measured workpiece. In this paper, a contact force control method based on the combination of adaptive impedance controller and sliding mode variable structure position controller is proposed. First, the control process with the force tracking impedance control and a normal contact force calculation model is established. Then, a force-position conversion model and a sliding mode variable structure controller are proposed. Further, a simulation with a typical S-shaped measured surface is given to show that the algorithm for controlling contact force can achieve good real-time tracking performance and has stronger robustness than traditional methods. Finally, an arc-shaped aluminum alloy thin-wall part thickness is sampled along the scan trajectory to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm for controlling contact force can quickly adjust the measuring device to the target position and maintain the stability of the normal contact force to ensure the accuracy of ultrasonic thickness on-machine measurement.

Enhancing In-Service Tank Maintenance Through Industrial Internet of Things

In the area of tank inspections across the industry, robots were introduced to replace human inspectors in selected operations. The technological gap in adoption of similar technologies by Zimbabwe's bulk fuel storage tanks operators motivated this research. The industry's current NDT practices were investigated, costs and inconveniences were identified, and improvements were explored. Operators of bulk fuel facilities and companies providing tank inspection services were engaged to establish the reasons for the gaps in technological assimilation. Emerging global technologies that enable in-service inspections were identified and their applicability to Zimbabwe's bulk fuel facilities was investigated. A combination of crawler based ultrasonic thickness tests for tank shells, and acoustic emission in-service tank bottom testing was observed to be the most convenient and relevant in-service tank inspection method for Zimbabwe's bulk fuel storage tanks industry. Internet-based remote connectivity and control was considered for data compilation, analysis, storage, and reporting.