Dr. Thomas Hennig, NDT Global Corporate Ltd, Ireland, describes how high-resolution robots and new analysis methodologies can overcome crack sizing limitations. Ultrasonic crack technology, using piezoelectric transducers, is a proven and widely used solution for crack and cracklike defect detection in liquid pipelines. Over the past 20 years, only minor developments and improvements have become available to pipeline operators. The most significant enhancement was a move from bucket to absolute depth sizing. After two decades of incremental improvements by the inspection industry, technical limitations still prevented accurate sizing of defects, especially if tilted, skewed or hooked.
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