Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 7 / Trend /
NDT (None Destructive Testing) Laboratory is the broad industry experience to provide inspection services and testing of piping, structure, pressure vessels, storage tanks and other types of mechanical equipments. Different methods of NDT Inspection are widely used in Oil & Gas industry: X-RAY/Radiography, Ultrasonic Inspection, Dye Penetrant Inspection, Magnetic Particle Inspection and etc., to properly identify and assess current integrity status/reliability of existing equipments, the port reported.
BST Corrosion/Integrity team is establishing the independent NDT Laboratory to support the operation and maintenance of the Kulevi Terminal of the Sate Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). Laboratory is supplied with large range of inspection equipments, UT scanners, X-RAY device and many supporting tools are thoroughly selected and purchased.
Very soon it will meet Georgian Centre of Accreditation to have an accreditation audit for monitoring of laboratory development and its personnel competency. We can note that all laboratory personnel have large experience and knowledge on NDT inspection industry which is very effective during inspection works.
While NDT laboratory is developing, NDT works are being carried out in the Terminal. Almost 70% of existing equipments have been inspected for verification of equipments integrity. NDT team mainly uses UT type of inspection. Ultrasonic thickness gage is a corrosion monitoring technique which provides a means of measuring the thickness of the metal through ultrasound. Compression waves are used for internal pitting and mid-wall effects. Shear waves (at an angle to the surface) are used for welded joints and perpendicular cracks.
All pressure vessels (heat exchangers), storage tanks and process piping are inspected for measuring of wall thickness and weld joints defects. Great achievements have been gained during UT inspection checks - all pressure vessels, storage tanks and process piping wall thickness are in satisfactory condition, wall loss haven't been found.
After inspection of each equipment Integrity team is preparing reports for related equipment where include inspection results, findings and additional recommendations. Then inspection report is assessed by technical, maintenance and operation authorities. All inspection reports are uploaded to BOYS CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Software) for proper inspection history data.
Development of NDT Laboratory is the part of BST Corrosion/Integrity Strategy to support safe and reliable operation of the facility.
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