Process industry professionals have long known about the risks of failure hidden in piping infrastructure, but robotic inspections are poised to solve this safety and risk problem.

The pipes with the highest risk profile are undoubtably those used in the petroleum industry, and detecting and assessing their condition under layers of coatings and insulation is one of the most important challenges for the industry.

Piping can fail for a variety of reasons, and inspections are expected to detect a broad range of conditions and potential failure points. Most of the more insidious piping weaknesses are not visible to the eye, which can mislead managers into thinking that pipe integrity is assured.

Piping failure in a refinery context can be truly catastrophic. Hydrocarbons are toxic and explosive, carry enormous safety implications, and considerable financial risk. A failure of a non-redundant pipe can result in total plant collapse.

Suffice to say, the scale of piping infrastructure, the complexity of the material science at stake, the logistical challenges involved, and the nature of the microscopic problems under scrutiny combine into a major undertaking for plant owners keen to avoid substantial financial and safety risks.

Better solutions are now available, and feature such innovations as robotic operations, better sensing under insulations, and dramatically improved diagnostics.

Dianna Liu is the founder & president of ARIX Technologies, a robotic inspection company using pipe-crawlers and a data analytics software platform to help manufacturing companies better manage corrosion and schedule maintenance. Prior to founding ARIX, Dianna was an engineer for ExxonMobil with roles in logistics/operations and engineering. She has also had R&D experience in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries and prior entrepreneurship experience in founding and managing a 23-year-old online horse game. Dianna holds dual mechanical and biomedical engineering degrees from Duke University and an MBA from Yale University.

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