TSC Subsea

The use of flexible piping has increased tremendously in the past decade. Its layered structure poses challenges for the inspection industry. If the outer sheath of flexible pipe is  breached, sea water can mix with the gases in the annulus, creating a corrosive atmosphere leading to failure. A reliable non-destructive inspection, which is able to penetrate the structural layers of the pipe, is therefore necessary. Acoustic Resonance Technology (ART) enables the medium detection in the critical annulus area of the flexible pipe.

Since flexible risers have been in service, there has been a need and requirement to determine the medium within the annulus of the flexible pipe. Flexible pipe annulus medium detection is a challenge due to the complexity of the multi layered and multimaterial structure in combination with the external forces caused by water depth. Providing a reliable non-intrusive inspection of the flexible pipe’s annulus has proven to be an industry challenge.

TSC Subsea solves this challenge by using its acoustic resonance technology (ART), a cost-effective, non-intrusive method to inspect flexible risers and flowlines. The technology was first commercialized for subsea inspections by DNV in the 1990’s; since then the technology was transferred to Halfwave and is now part of the TSC Subsea technologies group. The sensitivity of ART is very well suited to annulus medium detection solutions and was first patented in 2006. TSC Subsea has over many years developed deepwater subsea inspection systems, application solutions including studies, and testing focused on annulus medium detection.

ARTEMIS® is TSC Subsea’s ROV-deployable inspection tool developed for external inspection of rigid and flexible pipelines, flowlines, and risers. It can be installed on most ROVs and easily deployed. The ARTEMIS® tool is able to penetrate layers of material and is adjustable for a range of pipe sizes.

ARTEMIS® technology:

• Characterizes the medium within the annulus
• Evaluates the outer sheath’s condition
• Provides structural information for integrity analysis

Subsea pipeline inspections require the highest level of accuracy to produce high-quality data. Pipeline integrity depends on it. TSC Subsea ARTEMIS® and the ARTEMIS® vCompact, incorporating TSC Subsea’s industry-leading Acoustic Resonance Technology (ART), offer unique solutions for inspecting unpiggable pipes. ART is the only high-resolution technology that penetrates and inspects through thick subsea coating with lightweight, high-precision 3-axis scanning to produce high accuracy wall thickness measurements and corrosion mapping.

TSC Subsea ARTEMIS® 

The TSC Subsea ARTEMIS® ART system enables subsea pipeline inspection via ROV without the need for field joint coating removal. This greatly reduces integrity risk and the cost of expensive inspection operations. The ARTEMIS® is compatible with most work-class ROVs and delivers real time data that provides a 2D image of the wall thickness of the inspected area. The inspection can also provide information about coating thickness and identifies whether a loss of wall thickness is on the outside or inside of the inspection area of the pipe.

It has a wide range of applications including through-coating inspections, piggyback solutions and field joint inspections.

Key benefits of TSC Subsea ARTEMIS®, incorporating ART technology, include:

• Remotely deployed by inspection or WROV
• Provides direct quantitative wall thickness measurement with highly accurate depth sizing (± 0.2mm)
• Versatile design for axial and circumferential measurements
• Instant data capture with live topside feed for audit and comparison purposes
• Lightweight with minimal dredging requirements
• Minimal vessel time required
• Enhances life extension of the equipment

ARTEMIS® vCompact

Developed in 2021, the TSC Subsea ARTEMIS® vCompact is a smaller, lightweight, more-flexible version of the standard ARTEMIS®. Incorporating TSC Subsea’s ART technology in its design, it has all the capabilities of ARTEMIS® with some additional features. Its smaller size and more flexible frame makes it the ideal solution for tight access field joint, right access tubular, subsea jumpers, risers and riser guides and hot tapping locations inspection without the need for coating removal. Designed to work in tandem with inspection class ROV for the remote inspection of pipelines and structures, the tooling uses motorised and encoded manipulators which enable the probe to accurately follow the areas to be inspected. Inspection data is transferred to a topside computer and can be analysed from anywhere in the world.

Key additional benefits of TSC Subsea ARTEMIS® vCompact, incorporating ART technology, include:

• Tight access semi-automated precision scanner with ART
• Diameters range 89mm (3″) to 3000mm (118″)
• Dedicated ‘teach and learn’ software to follow complex geometries
• Magnetically attached for efficient deployment