Marine and subsea business IMES is to showcase a new system that it claims reduces time and costs in a key area of inspection work.
The non-destructive testing (NDT) solution for checking certain types of bolts for corrosion or cracking – without removing them – will be the centrepiece of a series of technology events in Aberdeen and Rosyth next week.
Five demonstrations will be held: three at IMES Aberdeen office a, Bridge of Don and the other two at Rosyth Business Park.
Ewan Giles, business development manager at IMES, explained: “The ultrasonic solution has been trialled and approved by large companies internationally, and we’re now planning to introduce it to the North Sea market.
“As well as checking for corrosion and cracking, the solution can also quantify the loss of body material within the bolt.
“Depending on access it’s possible to test up to 60 bolts an hour, and that represents a huge potential cost-saving when compared to traditional inspection techniques.
IMES – which employs 70 people – provides inspection, monitoring and engineering solutions to the global energy, defence and industrial markets.
Meanwhile, turnover for remote inspection drone operator Cyberhawk Innovations more than doubled last year compared to 2014.
Founded in 2008, the Livingston-based company created the industrial inspection market, carrying out the very first ROAV industrial inspection, and last year secured an estimated 90% share of the remote-inspection market in the North Sea.
It has also launched a commercial-scale wind turbine inspection service.