Top business benefits
Streamlines abrasion monitoring over vast distances
Generates reliable wall-thickness data
Progresses digitisation objectives/ Net Zero targets
Accurately trends abrasion rate over time
Increases plant uptime
Lengthens asset life
Improves operational efficiency
Reduces OPEX
Enhances plant safety
Reduces risk of environmental damage
Deployed by
In more detail
Full description
Mines often rely on hundreds of kilometres of pipeline to transport their assets. These long-distance pipelines are highly susceptible to abrasion due to the nature of the slurry, tailings and other rock material they carry. Left untreated, abrasion can cause cracks and leaks that are costly to repair and can cause human health risks and environmental damage.
Typically, expensive Non-Destructive Testing inspections are carried out by contractors or trained staff who manually measure the pipe-wall thickness along the length of the pipelines to spot signs of abrasion and ascertain where sections of the pipe require repair or replacement. Where vast distances of pipeline need to be inspected, these surveys are carried out almost continuously. These systems are time consuming, costly and prone to human error. Alternatively, fully-automated solutions are installed at extensive cost and downtime, whilst networked, real-time solutions are often ill suited to extreme weather patterns and to the long distances covered by mining pipelines.
These battery-free, ultra-thin ultrasonic sensors are quickly and permanently installed along the pipeline, even under insulation where necessary, with no downtime. A data collector wand is used to acquire repeatable measurements from the sensor, the associated RFID tag logs the sensor location. No skill is required for this task, making it a cost-effective resource that can be used as frequently as required. Specialist software then analyses and interprets the measurements, generating the wall-loss data necessary to optimise predictive maintenance.