According to the company, the contents of the vessel were saline and varied in temperature between 50 and 100C, so site managers were concerned about stress corrosion cracking.
Mohan Kang, a Level 3 non destructive testing practitioner, had recently attended an Ashtead Technology training event covering the Eddyfi Ectane surface inspection system.
Kang was convinced the technique would be ideal for this application, so took the Ectane equipment to the site and provide its ability to correctly detect stress corrosion cracking on a 10mm stainless steel sample.
In fact, Ectane is a multi-technology test instrument, providing eddy current testing, but also able to perform eddy current array (ECA) testing, remote-field testing (RFT), near-field testing (NFT), magnetic flux leakage (MFL) and internal rotating inspection system (IRIS – ultrasonic tube testing).
"External inspection of the vessel took around two hours and covered a surface area of around 16m2," comments James Fisher NDT's Ian Moore.
"Happily, the vessel was found to be free from any detectable stress corrosion cracking," he continues.
"We have been very pleased with the Ectane – eddy current testing worked very well, and at just 7Kg and battery powered, the instrument has been well designed for field applications."
Moore says that in the past, following a project such as this, the company would have purchased the instrument. However, he reckons it is much easier to rent the equipment from Ashtead Technology.
"Doing so provides substantial cost savings that we are able to pass on to the client, so instrument rental is now our preferred option," he says.