Knowledge-Based Firm Produces Intelligent Pigging Device for Oil, Gas Pipelines

“About 100,000 kilometers of high-pressure pipelines have been built in the country to transfer oil, gas, and products such as gasoline and diesel, and according to international standards, these lines must be inspected every five years by means of smart pigs. Now, such a thing is produced inside the country,” Saeed Nazar, the managing director of the Iranian knowledge-based company said.

“The smart pigging instrument is able to identify all the defects in the transmission pipelines. Until now, these inspections were carried out through foreign companies, which could have transferred information about Iran’s pipeline network to outside the country,” he said.

“We were able to locally produce this device and its electronic, mechanical and data interpretation parts and specialized software were also developed in this company,” Nazar said.

“This device has been tested in several gas and liquid products transmission lines and its approvals have been issued by the Ministry of Petroleum,” added the managing director of the knowledge based company.

Saying that the device can be considered as a robot, he pointed out, "When this system is placed inside the transmission pipe, without the need for cutting fluid or gas, it starts inspecting with the same amount of pressure inside the pipeline.”

According to him, this device can identify all the corrosion inside, wall and outside the transmission lines with one scan up to 250 km.

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“However, the transmission lines are underground, this system can identify the defects in the outer wall and the roughness of the covers,” he added.

He named the technology used in this device as MFI, (magnetic flux leakage) and caliper, adding, “By making this device, we provide services to oil companies. According to statistics, an average of 20,000 kilometers of inspection is required annually, which includes pipes from 8 inches to 56 inches in size.”

“This device is able to identify all the characteristics of the pipe itself, including the length of the line branches, the thickness of the pipes, the condition of the welds and the condition of the pipe coating.”

He pointed to the identifying corrosion and cracks as one of the other capabilities of this device, adding, “This system can detect even the defects that existed on the pipe before the construction of the pipeline. Moreover, this device can identify the changes in the shapes that occur on the pipe during construction and report it to the employer.”

“Using the capabilities of this device, we can provide a complete view of the state of the pipeline to the client. Furthermore, a navigation system is installed on the smart pack, and through this, it is possible to identify the pipeline route,” concluded the managing director of the knowledge based company.

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