Plant Integrity
| Teletest FocusTM in use at a US oil terminal |
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Plant Integrity Ltd (Pi) was set up in 1997 by TWI to exploit long-range ultrasonic testing (LRUT) technology. This technology had been developed in a multi-client collaborative project, managed by TWI, with additional funding provided by the European Commission.
The equipment is marketed under the Teletest® trade name and was the first commercially available LRUT system. It has been used primarily for inspecting pipes. These act as guides to the ultrasonic waves and allow exceptionally long test ranges to be achieved. For this reason, the technique is also known as guided wave ultrasonics.
Pi sells Teletest® systems to NDT service companies worldwide. It is also a service provider in its own right. In this capacity, it has built up unique expertise in LRUT. This has often enabled it to support purchasers of systems facing particularly challenging testing situations or even those having temporary staff shortages. In addition, this experience is fed back into TWI to assist with the development of the next generation of technology.
Pi's services have the full back up of TWI, which, with around 500 staff, is one of Europe's largest independent research and consultancy organisations. TWI's services include materials engineering consultancy (corrosion evaluation, assessment of the significance of flaws, etc) and a wide range of conventional and advanced NDT techniques.
TWI and Pi are committed to the continuing improvement of LRUT and to broadening its applications to components as diverse as rails, cables, offshore platforms and wind turbine towers. They currently have 20 engineers and technicians involved in research programmes concerned with LRUT to a value of 15.5 million euro (US$19.1 million or sterling £10.5 million).
More information about TWI's LRUT activities.
Information about TWI's other services can be found on the TWI Website.