Industry Gains A New Tool For Long-Range Visual Inspection Of Live Gas Pipe

摘要

A new tetherless robotic visual inspection system for natural gas distribution mains promises to provide gas utilities with valuable information regarding the condition of the infrastructure and allow the economical determination of the proper remedial action to rehabilitate or replace certain pieces of pipe. An increasingly larger segment of the nation's distribution network needs to be inspected due to its age. As a result, over the last 15 years a number of tools have been developed to provide such a capability. Such tools include video cameras that are inserted in a main, typically under live conditions, and are pushed in either direction, providing relatively high-quality images of the pipe's interior. Other systems provide additional features, such as rehabilitation of cast iron joints or non-destructive evaluation of the pipe and subsequent rehabilitation using a repair patch.