Advances in inspection technology are playing a sizeable role in minimizing “at-risk” labor hours in the industrial space. Ranging from the old school to the high-tech, the process of inspecting vessels and equipment is going through a radical transformation.
As 10/12 Industry Report details in a feature from its first quarter issue, the desire for change is understandable. According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, construction fatalities numbered 991 in 2016, comprising more than 20% of all worker deaths in the country. The leading cause of these fatalities was falls, followed by being struck by an object, electrocution and crushing accidents.
In an effort to take humans out of the equation, there has been a lot of buzz in recent months around drones and robotic technology. Among a host of other reasons, a big part of the appeal is that contractors and owners can sidestep OSHA’s stringent Confined Space Entry standard. Confined spaces include, but are not limited to, tanks, vessels, silos, vaults, equipment housings, ductwork and pipelines.
“Our approach to safety for the last couple of years has been exposure reduction,” says Scott Waguespack, mechanical services manager at BASF in Geismar. “If you eliminate the hazard, then you’ve completely taken it out of the situation.”
“You’re not putting a human at risk. That’s No. 1,” says Lance Wiebeck, project manager at Turner Industries in Baton Rouge. “The number of at-risk hours goes down right off the top.” Turner has jumped into the robotics market, using the technology for a variety of industrial applications such as tank, vessel and pipe inspections. The contractor’s inspection and non-destructive examination group relies upon a diverse lineup of robots and employs more than 500 full-time engineers, technicians and certified inspectors.
Wiebeck and Sean Stanford, operations manager, have been heavily involved in the oversight of Turner’s robotics initiative, and in first quarter 2018 hope to further expand the fleet. They expect the new investment to pay for itself in short order.
Louisiana’s academia is also dipping its toes into the robotics market.
At the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, assistant professor Joshua Vaughn and his robotics and controls research group are working with Japanese developer HiBot Corp. to develop a “cable-driven parallel manipulator” to inspect vertical metallic surfaces such as in chemical storage tanks.
Read the full feature, check out the full first quarter issue of the magazine, and sign up for a free subscription. Send your comments to editor@1012industryreport.com.
