Decreasing the risk of storage tank failure
Plates made from aluminium and steel are used in a wide variety of applications, from shipping to storage tanks. There is a need to monitor the quality of these plates during the manufacturing process and when in use, in order to detect defects. Until now this inspection has usually been performed by human operators, often in difficult environmental conditions that increase the chances for mistakes. A Greek high-tech company, Zenon, led a group of eight organisations hailing from five different European countries in a quest to develop an automated robotic solution. The prototype resulting from their collaboration, the Robot Inspector, exploits Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques to assess the steel and aluminium plates without harming them. It is able to detect problems owing to corrosion, lamination and segregation as well as manufacturing defects. The expected benefits include increased worker safety, reduced inspection costs and improved detection of defects, thereby reducing the number of subsequent plate failures. This is particularly important in the case of steel and aluminium plates used in storage tanks that house items that are potentially harmful to the environment. Zenon and its partners foresee strong market potential in Eastern Europe countries that are home to a large, ageing population of storage tanks. The portable Robot Inspector could be instrumental in helping these countries raise their safety and environmental standards up to EU norms.
