Lizard NDE are proud to announce the successful delivery of our latest Lizard FGI Dive system supply to Oceaneering International, for use initially with subsea magnetic crawlers although easily configured against other remotely operated vehicle types as and when required.
The FGI technology provided by the Lizard team delivers the enhancing phase plane impedance information, which forms an integral element of the Lizard FGI data set, recognised as hugely beneficial to standard AC Field Measurement (ACFM) output. In addition to increased sensitivity and flaw detection, Lizard FGI supplies dynamic field coupling feedback to assist with quality and manipulation control.
For the supply provision Lizard were tasked with creating a custom Lizard FGI Dive system against a design specification of an existing crawler vehicle, the Inukton MaggUT, intended for subsea ACFM and UT operations of ship hulls, ballast storage tanks and risers. The supply parameters required the Lizard system to be housed in a low profile rectangular pressurised pod with blind mounting points for connection to the existing crawler vehicle and array manipulation system.
By dictation of the design boundaries from the outset the Lizard team were tasked to identify a resolution whereby the enclosure pod dimensions and weight were reduced from standard Lizard Dive provisions, requiring no additional elements to be added to the existing crawler mechanism or an increase to power consumption.
The design requirements were discussed and agreed as and when required with the Oceaneering team during production and enabled the provision of a Lizard FGI system, featuring the custom Lizard Dive with Lizard software suite and the brand new LP184SR flat profile array featuring up-to 12mm of lift off (array spacing to conductive piece).
A key element throughout the design process was the array itself and the required parameters of intended usage. Lizard combined the LP184SR development here with the knowledge learned from previous advancements towards the LP180SR ‘TKY’ tailored system with the inherent challenges such a complex task delivers. Lizard looked to the advancement of Lizard’s dynamic field coupling feedback, provided for within the Lizard FGI dataset, to enable the array to clear marine growth and obstacles while compensating for the travel vibrations to the flaw detection capability. This enabled the 8-channel array (4 pair Bx/Bz) and manipulator to be completely non contacting during acquisition action with proximity feedback per channel pairing. Reducing spurious events to the dataset caused by the crawler movement, in a sense probe handling, could be performed by simply adjusting lift off phase response within the Lizard software suite. This design feature hugely reduced crawler manipulation and control requirements whilst ensuring essential array coupling information is provided to the operator and corrected in real time to be certain of the validity of each scan sweep. In addition, camera and lighting systems mounted to the crawler previously required to confirm array coupling could be removed or repositioned following installation of the Lizard device as proximity of array could now be assessed by Lizard dataset alone in real time, if required.
Operational use including an incredibly straight forward procedure was developed in tandem with the build and tested at the Houston facilities, with knowledge transfer of set up, site application usage and troubleshooting also completed during the productive week of training. The end result was a finely tuned operations procedure that is both comprehensive and, ultimately, workable for real life scenarios from both client and supplier perspective. It was deemed important that a ‘go/no go’ method could be employed and here lizard, utilising the keen experience and knowledge base of the Oceaneering team during testing, have produced a decision tree that has hugely assisted in reducing the opportunity of operator error whilst streamlining the acquisition and reporting process towards their intended services.
Future applications can now be considered by way of simple additional Lizard array types for differing geometrical welds for direct connection to the custom dive system. Due to the two dimensional nature of the Lizard FGI array technology multiple applications can now be considered with CAD designs provided by Lizard to the team in Houston going forward to ensure local integration of any future array type is straight forward whilst ensuring optimum sensitivity of flaw detection against the target goal is retained should custom array types be required.
The supply underlined Lizard’s interface to the market in general as our support of Oceaneering continues in the traditional ethos of technological, knowledge transfer and supply for our client’s service works requirements, unrestricted in use and free from royalty constraints.
We see success of our client base as a mutual benefit and all at Lizard NDE wish the team at Oceaneering every success for their future operations.
I would like to add my personal thanks to Mitch Johnson, Aaron Kline and all of the team at Oceaneering that assisted towards this supply.
Paul Bentley
Director
Lizard NDE Ltd
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Dimensions of Enclosure |
200 X 140 X 45mm |
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Depth Rating |
30M (extended depth rating available) |
|
Weight |
Less than 2Kgs |
|
Power |
12-24V DC - 5 watt (routed via crawler
umbilical) |
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Comms |
RS485 to USB (routed via crawler
umbilical) |
|
Encoder input |
Optional hardware interface for automated
Lizard Marker positioning |
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Array Support |
8 channel Bx/Bz |
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Lizard LP184SR FGI Array Specifications |
|
|
Depth
Rating |
230M
(extended depth rating available) |
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Weight |
Less than 1Kgs
|
|
Array |
8 channel
Bx/Bz - Providing for multi pane phase plane, timebase, correlation, C scan
and 3D output of all Bx/Bz elements via Lizard software suite |
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Coverage
per Scan |
40mm with replaceable
PTFE wear skids (1, 2 and 3mm stand off) with blind mount points to LP184SR |
|
Lift Off |
Up to 12mm
‘Lift Off’ whilst maintaining 1mm x10mm flaw detection sensitivity with
dynamic field coupling feedback during and post-acquisition per channel pair |
Lizard NDE Supports the Endeavours of our Valued Clients by way of -
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Royalty Free Lizard Software and Technology Usage |
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Knowledge Transfer including Application Assistance
as and when Required |
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Training Worldwide |
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Topside and Subsea Supply Types |
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Custom Builds - Full System or Bespoke Array |
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Competitively Priced |
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Family Owned UK Based Business |
