ACFM

Petrochemical Applications

The inspection of petrochemical applications often involves onshore installations. ACFM provides an ideal NDT solution in this environment.

Many components in the petrochemical industry are coated either in paint, lagging or more exotic materials such as zinc or fire protection materials. In addition the complicated branching and clustering of some of defect types makes accurate sizing difficult.
Crucially ACFM provides the ability to inspect components without removing the coating. With ACFM, patches of cracking can be located beneath coated surfaces and the severity graded appropriately. This means that a coating only has to be removed for further inspection or repair in known areas of cracking. The result is a significant time and cost saving where previously areas required coating removal pre-inspection, and reapplication post-inspection, regardless if an area suffered cracking.

The technique can also be deployed on hot surfaces so that inspection is often possible without shutting down the plant. Standard probes can be used on surfaces up to 200oC or so for short periods, but special probes are available for use up to 500oC if required.

Although mostly used to detect and size fatigue cracking, ACFM can be used for other types of cracking found in the petrochemical industry such as stress corrosion cracking and hydrogen-induced cracking.

ACFM has been used in almost every aspect of the petrochemical industry including refineries, pipelines, boilers, furnace tubing and storage tanks. Special probes also allow easy inspection of threads (such as drill-string connections and sucker rods).

As well as normal ferritic steels, ACFM can be used on all other metals found in the petrochemical industry, such as austenitic stainless steel, inconel or duplex steel.