S N A K E B O T INSPECTION HORIZONTAL/VERTICAL PIPELINES The processing industry uses countless kilometres of pipelines. The current inspection method uses "Pigs", which go through the large horizontal pipeline lines between sites and inspect for corrosion. But the on-site piping systems have a smaller diameter, all kinds of bends and run horizontally as well as vertically. They are also very tall, which makes manual inspection expensive. Fully automatic inspection on the inside is desirable. SMART TOOLING O B J E C T I V E SNAKEBOT ALSO INSPECTION OF VERTICAL PIPES ANGLED BENDS POSSIBLE RECOVERY IN THE EVENT OF FAILURE 4 TO 8 INCH PIPES INSPECTION OF NON PIGABLE PIPES 23 Within Smart Tooling, ExRobotics collaborated with the University of Twente on a Snakebot. This robot is half a metre long and focuses on inspection of 4 to 8 inch pipelines, that are out of service. Iwan de Waard (director ExRobotics): "We specialise in robots that have to do their work in Atex and IECEx zone 1 environments. Our remote inspector robot takes over the mandatory walking circle from the human operator, who uses their eyes and ears to check for gas leaks, for example. The robot does the same with sensors and cameras. But what is registered, on the outside, is already a defect. Within the Smart Tooling project, we focused on a tool to prevent problems by inspecting the pipeline. VERTICAL The existing solution with a "Pig" system can only be used in a horizontal pipeline. However, for the new Snakebot it is no problem to climb up steep vertically inclines and take rightangled bends.
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