Allan Edwards Sets The Steel Industry Standard With Ultrasonic Testing

Ensuring the integrity of all steel for pipeline anomaly repair

TULSA, OKLAHOMA, UNITED STATES, November 1, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Allan Edwards is setting the pipeline repair industry standard as the most innovative provider of steel repair sleeves with the adoption of Ultrasonic Testing (UT) technology. The company is introducing a custom, first-of-its-kind fully-automated UT plate scanning machine and will be the first repair sleeve provider to perform 100 percent UT on all incoming steel material. UT is a form of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) that uses high-frequency sound waves to detect potential flaws and laminations both on the surface and within the body of steel material for material quality evaluation.

By implementing this form of NDE, Allan Edwards is leading the charge to elevate repair industry standards by ensuring that the quality of the repair products that reinforce in-service pipelines is not only unsurpassable but standardized. With their new UT machine, Allan Edwards will be able to detect flaws that cannot be observed through a visual quality inspection alone. This will provide assurance to pipeline operators that the steel repair sleeves used to reinforce their pipelines are of the highest possible quality.

“The use of Ultrasonic Testing is a common requirement among operators, but it's not the standard among steel sleeve manufacturers. This is something we want to see change,” said Technical Sales Manager, Josh Wilson. “By UT scanning all of the steel that comes in and out of our warehouse, we will demonstrate our commitment to providing the highest quality product possible. We hope that others in our industry will follow suit.”

Allan Edwards is adopting a highly precise form of UT known as Phased Array UT (PAUT) technology. This method of inspection is even more accurate at finding flaws in manufactured materials than Conventional UT. The ultrasonic beam assembly in the Allan Edwards Phased Array probe uses sixty-four individual beams, rather than a single beam as with Conventional UT. By using multiple beams, the probability of flaw detection is ten times more accurate than Conventional UT.

The vast majority of pipeline operators run hydrostatic pressure tests along with a series of other tests to verify the integrity of a pipeline before it is commissioned for service. However, despite the rigorous validation testing required for the carrier pipe itself, there remains no uniform standard of testing requirements for the steel repair sleeves that eventually repair and reinforce the pipeline.

“If we as an industry have become accustomed to the carrier pipe being inspected at the time of manufacturing, why are we as an industry not subjecting the repair material to the same level of care?” said the Director of Materials Engineering at ADV Integrity, David Futch. “Allan Edwards PAUT ensures that the quality of the repair product matches the inspection standard of the carrier pipe that it is reinforcing.”

Non-destructive testing keeps proving that it is a technology worth investing in as it can save companies millions of dollars in repair costs. Industries, like the Aerospace and Defense industry, have already adopted non-destructive testing technologies to test airframe structures for wear and tear as they undergo great pressure when in use. The smallest breach in materials, which UT testing can reveal, can result in the loss of cargo, assets, and human life, making this type of technology essential for many industries to adopt.

Kiara D McKinney
Boost Public Relations
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