By: Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, June 17, 2022
Australian energy giant Woodside has joined forces with industry to design a new offshore inspection system, stretching and exploring new horizons in robotics, in a bid to improve the safety of oil rig inspection jobs. and gas and reduce costs.
Woodside revealed this week that it has collaborated with industry to create an offshore caisson cleaning and inspection tool (CCAIT system) that enables safe and cost-effective remote inspection of critical equipment on its offshore platforms.
Daniel Kalms, Executive Vice President of Technical Services at Woodside, said, “The CCAIT system eliminates the costs of moving tools from international locations, including the cost of delays in fractured supply chains. These can account for up to 50% of the cost total of an inspection campaign”.
The CCAIT system was designed, developed and deployed in less than 12 months through a Woodside-led collaboration incorporating expertise from Nexxis, Monadelphous, WOMA and Fugro in Perth.
“It was amazing to see how the team, which included Woodside graduate robotics engineers, wrote software to dramatically improve the tool’s performance and ease of use. The project team consisted of people from local businesses who came together and designed , procured, manufactured, tested and validated a robotic solution in the midst of a pandemic in less than a year,” added Kalms.
The Australian giant reported that this system incorporates a human-sized robot, designed to inspect the interior of the caissons -vertical carbon steel pipes up to 70 meters long and up to 1.2 meters wide- used in offshore platforms to house critical equipment such as seawater lift pumps and firefighting.
Chris Heron, Coatings Expert at Woodside Maintenance Partner Monadelphous, commented: “Creating a bespoke ultra high pressure cleaning solution that can quickly remove marine growth to allow inspection without damaging protective coatings was a challenge. and a reward. We leverage the expertise and relationships of our local vendors to test the latest technology on land and successfully drive deployment offshore.”
The collaboration came about in response to potential COVID-related supply chain risks and the CCAIT system is remotely controlled from a secure location on an offshore platform by technicians.
Jason de Silveira, CEO of Nexxis Technology, said Woodside’s decision to partner with a local company demonstrated “the great sovereign ability of Australia’s advanced manufacturing sector to develop and deploy cutting-edge robotics technology.”
Woodside explains that the tool is lowered into the drawer using a winch and anchor device, and once this is done, the wheels extend to centralize the tool within the drawer and the probe arms extend to allow ultrasonic inspection.
The company further explained that a series of high-definition cameras transmit video to technicians, and the data is used by the asset team to define the advance plan.
“This collaboration highlights local capacity and supports small and medium-sized enterprises, creating jobs in the advanced manufacturing sector and pushing the frontier of robotics globally,” concluded de Silveira.
This WoodSide portal material has been edited for clarity, style, and length.
By: Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, June 17, 2022
Photo: Woodside
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