"Here in Goes, in one of our six bunkers, we install the valve and then test according to a fixed protocol or standard. For safety reasons we do this first with a liquid, then with a tracer gas such as helium or hydrogen. The major bottleneck in these leak tests is that we have to get close, while a pressure of 1000 bar or more can be on the valve. We have been looking for a solution to these risky situations for quite some time now. THEIR OWN COBOT ITIS came into contact with the Belgian knowledge institute Sirris via the Smart Tooling project (see also page 62). Sirris has a lot of experience with collaborative robots in industry, in short Cobots. A Cobot works side-by-side with humans and takes over repetitive, and in this case dangerous, activities. Colin: "Peter Paulissen from Sirris made a set-up in their lab that was workable for us. At first we were a bit 40 Sceptical but in the end, after a thorough research and testing phase, we were able to obtain a Cobot ourselves. With the support of Sirris we can now easily reprogram it for other products. That is an important point: we are not so true programmers. But with a Cobot, programming for another application is really easy. You get more out of it by using it in a wide range of applications". SNIFF OUT "Now we put the shut-off valve in the bunker on pressure just like usual. Only humans don't get close anymore. The Cobot sniffs out the equipment with a special probe. When it detects the tracer gas, a message appears on the screen of our technician, who is watching from a safe room. The coordinates of leaks are recorded and you can see the location of the leak in a 3D model. By the way, even customers on the other side of the world can watch live with
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