Steel Pipeline Inspection for Corrosion Evaluation under Thermal Insulation

It is estimated that there are more than 2 million km of overland pipelines globally and it is further estimated that up to 30% of those are within the European borders or are in the states that supply important resources to the European Union. These corr osion defects are often hidden under layers of insulation, which is often further covered in metallic outer cladding. In case of steel pipelines, massive failures have been reported within 3 years of installation. Yet, there exists no commercial system currently that allows non-destructive testing (NDT) of industrial plant with lagging protection in place. Our system does not require removal of the outer cladding as current NDT techniques require to provide contact between the measuring transducer and t he pipe or structure surface. In this market a typical retail price for inspection equipment such as a portable ultrasonic flaw detector ranges from Euro 3K to Euro 16K with an average of Euro 11K and an entry-level single function Short Wave Infra Red (SWIR) camera costing Euro 19K. Our planned market entry will be at an initial price of Euro 15K; giving an estimated profit of 50% of selling price. Our equipment will offer a functionality which is actually beyond the state-of-the-art and considering cu rrent market prices for portable NDT equipment, we will reasonably assume that the market will be eventually willing to accept a price of Euro 30,000. We, SolidTech, will own the rights to sell the final integrated system and will through the project exp and our market both through selling the equipment and increasing our sales of NDT services. By owning a system attractive to a large market which offers detection of corrosion under insulation more quickly, accurately, reliably and cheaply than current st ate-of-the-art technologies, we will together with our partners be given the opportunity to increase our market share and also penetrate the global NDT market.