Last week's issue of the NACE Corrosion Press featured an article about a corrosion-inspecting robot invented in Switzerland. According to the article in Equipment World, the new robot, named C2D2, "is able to move atop, underneath and across any surface, checking structural integrity as it roves, and could greatly extend the lives of bridges."
However, robots are not new in the never-ending battle against corrosion. Perhaps, the news blitz about C2D2 is because the corrosion-fighting robot design was from a camera bot used by the Disney Company.
Here is a look at a few places other robots dare to go.
Sewers
At the beginning of 2013, Redzone Robotics launched a robot line to inspect mid-sized sewer pipes. The robots can find corrosion, debris and deformation. The robot relays findings to operators who dispatch maintenance crews that resolve the situations reported by the devices.
Nuclear plants
Rolls Royce has made pipe-inspecting robots since 1991. These robots have a task that is more challenging than sewer pipes — they inspect pipes in nuclear plants.
Gas and hazardous chemical pipelines
The most effective way to inspect gas and chemical pipelines internally is by direct assessment (DA), and DA has traditionally been a function of humans. It is expensive and requires interrupting the flow of the pipeline for a week or more.
The advantage of robotic assessment are many and include:
- Use existing valves for launch and recovery
- Noninterference with product flow
- Ability to navigate tight bends, obstructions, varying pipe diameters
- Capable of negotiating out-of-round sections
- Get power from the product flow
As the robots can halt their movement in the pipe, tests that are nondestructive technologies (NDT) could be used for characterizing corrosion, pipe defects and other damage.
In pipelines, robots can do more than just detect abnormalities such as corrosion. They are able to coat the interior of pipelines with protective coatings to cut internal corrosion, increase pipe longevity, decrease pipeline flow friction, decrease pipe wall requirements on thickness, and decrease or end pipeline leaks.
Overhead power transmission lines
The electric power industry wants to improve performance and longevity of transmission lines, and optimize their use. The industry uses many methods of power line inspection, including helicopter inspections to assess, look at and do needed maintenance, such as de-icing lines. Some methods involve turning off power lines and are too expensive for power companies' continued use.
Japanese robotics manufacturer HiBot manufactures and markets Expliner. This self-propelled robotic device travels on high-voltage overhead transmission lines. Expliner inspects the line's external conditions, measures line diameter and can detect internal corrosion.
These are just a sample of the conscription of robots in the rust battle.
Corrosion is costly to the infrastructure of the United States and every country on the globe. Technological advances in finding and repairing corrosion in places that are inaccessible to humans have proven to be important components in the war on corrosion.
Robots play a role in inspections of nearly every element of infrastructure, and in some instances inspect and repair corrosion damage when found. The return on investment is excellent, and plant owners and operators might benefit by using robots as part of their maintenance team.
