Workflows at Work: Radiography QA/QC

HUVR offers a wide range of inspection solutions that expedite and simplify your processes. Every entry in the Workflows at Work series highlights one of the near-infinite workflows that HUVR optimizes. Would you like to know more about bringing more simplicity and savings to your operation? Reach out to an expert to ask about replicating this successful workflow and putting it to work for you.

While the average person tends to think of x-rays as something largely done on the human body (or for dogs who maybe ate your keys), non-destructive testing experts know that radiography can be a massive asset to reliability and maintenance teams. While newer techniques – such as using ultrasonic testing (UT) to measure the corrosion rate and asset health of refinery piping and pressure vessels – are indispensable when you want to look deeper and gather still more data points, the venerable x-ray is a key tool in your toolbox.

When used for Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) purposes, radiography can provide a richer, more contextualized picture. However, it is not always the simplest solution to deploy. For instance, you cannot open a radiography file with a normal photo viewer and the software for reviewing radiographic imagery can be costly, making it hard to find on the average refinery site and harder to successfully implement at scale. As such, asset owners who want to use radiography for QA/QC in their inspection processes are often left with a choice between two options. They may seek out inspection service providers who own the software themselves, leaving their data in the hands of the providers who typically provide just a static snapshot of the DICONDE file. Alternatively, they may invest in just one device to cover the process for an entire refinery (or more), creating unavoidable inefficiencies in large-scale projects. Either way, asset owners end up limited in their ability to verify results efficiently and understand a full view of their overall asset health.

HUVR puts the power of your data back into your hands; teams using HUVR for their radiography QA/QC workflows experience a more cost effective and efficient process without losing essential context along the way. Here’s how. 

SET-UP

HUVR’s world-class service team works together with your organization to create project structures in HUVR that align with the specific pressure vessel or piping systems at your site. Radiographic scans taken in the field are linked to the projects pertaining to specific sections of pressure vessels or piping in HUVR. This ensures the data is tied to the correct piece of equipment and contextualizes your imagery with geolocation and historical inspection data, providing a full picture of your asset health in one centralized location. 

When paired with additional inspection measures like visual and ultrasonic testing, radiographic scans can now be included as part of a broader inspection checklist, carefully configured according to the asset owner’s compliance and operational needs. Our team works closely with the asset owners to set process guidelines and build checklists that require the measurements and scans necessary for a full picture of asset health. This method standardizes the way inspection data is collected in the field – and reported in the office – so that it is consistent, repeatable and actionable, regardless of vendor. 

Powerful data like radiography requires powerful security measures. HUVR’s all-in-one Reliability Automation Platform grants access as-needed to projects and sensitive customer data, using asset-owner-defined access roles. This means that each member of the team, whether vendor-based or in-house, can only access the information they need to be successful. HUVR is also SOC2-certified, so your teams can feel confident about your data security. 

EXECUTION 

Since radiography QA/QC is often completed alongside common UT and visual inspections, the frequency of execution varies in line with the associated regulatory requirements, as well as short term and long term corrosion rates, for the vessel in question. Inspections and associated scans might be completed every five years, or in cases of piping and pressure vessels with high corrosion rates, every few months. 

Teams head out to the field to collect data at the locations defined by the asset owner and then set up their digital radiography devices. Risk of exposure is a crucial component to factor in while planning and executing radiographic testing; technicians must clear the area while taking scans to ensure health and safety for all. 

Once scanning is complete and any associated inspection data has been collected in HUVR’s field app, InspectFlow+ and measurements have been taken, technicians can head back to the upload their DICONDE files into the HUVR system for further review. HUVR’s cloud-based system is able to handle massive and varied files, enabling the quick capture, upload, storage and streaming of virtually any file format. 

Traditionally, only specialized software allows the user to manipulate the scans, such as zooming in, adjusting contrast or brightness levels and creating measurements from objects while in the scan. Asset owners may use an inspection service provider who owns the software, but the reports they receive from the provider have a limited screenshot of the file and measurements. They lose the ability to manipulate the picture or view the scan as a cohesive whole. If the asset owner has invested in this specialized software, they often have a limited number of computers that can use it, meaning large and varied sites struggle to achieve optimal efficiency. 

Organizations using HUVR have a more cost effective, efficient way to review and verify scans than these older, traditional methods. Technicians can verify measurements and manipulate the scans in a DICONDE file located within HUVR, and asset owners can visualize the data directly in the viewer themselves for a holistic picture. All of this is stored in HUVR in one asset-centric location such that any additional data is also available for further contextualization, powering stronger actionable insights and monitoring. 

Progress and the resulting data can be reviewed via HUVR’s configurable dashboards and reports. Each team member has a bird’s-eye view of the information that matters most to them, optimizing efficiency and visibility into inspection outcomes. 

REMEDIATION 

Once the technicians have reviewed the scans and conducted their measurements, configurable reports are generated with the DICONDE file links embedded and sent to the asset owner for review. If a question arises about a measurement or finding, the in-house experts can review the files themselves and conduct their own measurements to verify the results, rather than request additional snapshots and measurements from the vendor as was done in the past. 

If measurements are within the acceptable threshold for their specific equipment and application, teams will continue to monitor the asset over time on a regular schedule. Inspection frequency is increased accordingly with increased erosion. Repairs or replacements are typically only considered at the end-of-life stage for pressure vessels, but they can be scheduled in HUVR when the progression of erosion has reached the point of no return. Until then, asset owners can rest assured that their data is safely stored in HUVR indefinitely and can be closely monitored with ease, now that a centralized anthology of the asset’s health is at their fingertips. 

If data needs to be exported to existing systems of record, HUVR’s open API and seamless integrations with common systems like GE’s APM or SAP make it simple for platforms to cross-communicate and enable deep insights about patterns of wear and tear. 

OUTCOME

HUVR transforms the radiography QA/QC process by centralizing and standardizing your piping and pressure vessel data in one reliable system, providing a cost effective radiography scan viewer that is accessible by technicians and asset owners alike and optimizing asset monitoring. Teams using HUVR for radiography QA/QC are more cost-effective and efficient than teams using traditional methods. Long-term insights, readily available with the click of a button in HUVR, enable teams to make better, more data-driven decisions in the long run. This reclaimed time can now be used to optimize processes and increase time-on-tools in the field, instead of being lost to laboring back and forth over pictures of scans and measurements. 

Find out how HUVR can help your team’s radiography QA/QC processes and reach out to an expert today.

Want to learn more about our other cost-reducing workflows or speak with an expert to learn more? Check out our Workflows at Work installment on UT inspections or schedule time with a HUVR expert here.