Installed ultrasonic sensors for asset-integrity monitoring

Traditionally, hand-held inspection devices such as

and stricter health and safety requirements. Managing

current equipment and x-ray systems are deployed

& integrity has also become cumbersome and

ultrasonic thickness gages & flaw detectors, eddy

into plant facilities during routine outages and turn-

arounds or during normal plant operations. These

techniques take a snap-shot of the localized

condition of plant infrastructure including pipes, tanks,

and trending the data, along with assuring its quality

challenging.

Clearly, a better technology solution is

needed that addresses many of the short-comings of

todays approach.

vessels and heat exchangers for issues such as loss

SNI is developing a next generation solution that creates

and other material degradation.

monitoring of plant assets. Our products take advantage

of wall thickness due to corrosion/erosion, cracking

While this is common and industry-accepted practice,

asset owners are seeing the cost of this approach
increasing due to rising labor costs, reduced manpower

a brand new paradigm for ultrasonic inspection and

of the latest solid-state electronics, wireless technology,
cloud

based

software

solutions

and

ultrasonic

transducer designs to offer a cost effective and robust

asset monitoring solution.

The unique, patent-pending, multi-drop digital

system distributes the ultrasound to the area of need:
Up to 32 UT Modules or Digital Sensor
Interfaces, DSIs per cable drop
16 single or 8 dual-element transducers per
UT module (DSI). Over 512 single-element or 256
dual UT sensors per cable drop
Cost-effective, industry standard RS-485
twisted pair cable with distances of up to 1,000 feet
Thickness range from
0.040 2 (1 50 mm)

Thickness resolution of 0.0001 (0.0025mm)

Temperature-compensated thickness calculations
Ultra-high temperature transducers
(932 F / 500 C)
Commercial tablet PC with Windows
SW for easy data-file transfer

Wired Solutions
Wired systems are
best suited for:
Buried installations
Integration with plant control systems
through Modbus / RS485
Lowest hardware cost per TML
Manual, automated, and integrated
data collection options
Best solution for high data collection
frequency (>2X per day)
No battery replacement required
Resistant to RF interference

Wireless Solutions
Wireless systems become
the better choice when:
Wiring cost is prohibitive

dsi
001
001

xducer
01
02

measurement
0.4563
0.4345

001
001

03
04

0.4965
0.4865

001

05

0.4512

4-by-4 transducer
area array

Fully-automated and integrated

data collection solutions are required

dsi
001
001

dsi

xducer

measurement

001
001

01
02

0.4563
0.4345

001

03

0.4965

001
001

04
05

0.4865
0.4512

plant
network

xducer
01
02

measurement
0.4563
0.4345

001

03

0.4965

001
001

04
05

0.4865
0.4512

dsi
001
001

xducer
01
02

measurement
0.4563
0.4345

001
001

03
04

0.4965
0.4865

001

05

0.4512

measurement frequency
DSI and transducers need to be

randomly-placed
individual transducers

802.11 plant
wireless

or impractical

Typically, 2X per day

8 dual-element
transducer linear array

dsi

dsi

dsi

gateway

802.15.4 wireless
mesh network

periodically repositioned
dsi

dsi

dsi

Non-intrusive and attaches to the

pipe-wall O.D. thereby avoiding

defect

surface

Installed Ultrasound is:

back wall

Features

broaching the systems pressure boundary.

Absolute in its ability to directly

measure remaining wall thickness.

Extremely accurate and can resolve metal

pit/
defect

losses down to 0.0001 (0.0025mm).

Rugged and reliable with very long life.

transducer

material

Removes human-error factors.

ATEX Zone 0 (Class I, Division 1) Certified

for use in hazardous environments.

Cost effective & versatile for low, medium &

high temp environments. Can be buried and placed

under insulation and in tight areas.

Capable of monitoring metal degradation

mechanisms including corrosion, erosion
and crack propagation.

thickness

( transit time / 2 ) acoustic velocity

The Power of Data

Permanently-installed ultrasonic sensors have several

Additionally, since the sensors exact location,

unique advantages over manually-taken, occasional

serial number, and optional tag number, are

snap-shot measurements:

stored in the DSI, there is never any chance of

thickness data getting corrupted by misalignment or

Data quality and integrity are significantly increased

misassignment of TMLs.

by the sensors signal coming from the same exact

location thereby allowing very precise subsequent

The rate at which TML data can be captured ( hourly,

measurements with extremely accurate corrosion

daily, weekly, etc) allows very cost-effective data

rate measurement and trending.

streams for more sophisticated statistical analysis.

Digital data can be auto-populated

Plant

Unit

TML #

Thickness

Delta T

Rate

Bayview

Cat-Cracker Unit

XT-377

0.2454

25.0 mils

5 mpy

Waveform

Bayview

Cat-Cracker Unit

XT-378

0.2250

10.0 mils

8 mpy

Bayview

Overhead Line

XT-379

0.3365

15.0 mils

10 mpy

Bayview

Overhead Line

XT-380

0.3220

10.0 mils

6 mpy

Precise corrosion/erosion trending

10.1 0
10.0 5
10.0 0

W.T. (mm)

9.95

9.9 0
9.8 5
9.8 0
9.7 5
9.7 0
9.6 5
9.6 0

1/1/13

1/31/13

3/2/13

4/1/13

5/2/13

6/1/13

7/1/13

8/1/13

8/31/13

9/30/13

10/31/13

11/30/13

11/30/13

Applications

Manual wired system for buried pipe

Fully-automated wired system

for offshore production platform

Fully-automated system, wired or

wireless for refineries or chemical plants

Manual wired or wireless for

refinery or plant applications

171-500 Technology Drive,

Boalsburg, PA, 16827 USA
www.installedsensors.com
Ph: 814-466-7207