A Texan firm has launched a system that combines pressure monitoring and leak detection software to deliver real-time visibility of pipe pigs.
PipeTrack has been developed in-house by PipeSense. Accessed via a bespoke customer dashboard, PipeTrack stores detailed event data for verification and ongoing analysis should anything unexpected occur during a pipe pig’s inspection. Backed by AI-enabled data analysis, PipeTrack analyses the pressure pulses created as the pig moves along the pipeline, determining its average speed and precise location.
Early results from customer trials and installations have yielded “accurate and repeatable results in challenging conditions, including reducing downtime and personnel exposure”, according to PipeSense.
PipeSense hopes PipeTrack’s introduction will help customers minimise or move away from traditional methodologies, including above-ground markers, acoustic monitoring and manual spot checks.
Operational and safety challenges
The firm noted that such traditional methods can create operational and safety challenges, relating to the uncertainty of specific pig locations when lost or stuck.
“PipeTrack offers round-the-clock visibility and precise location tracking by maintaining a view of the pig inside the pipeline rather than above it,” PipeSense said.
Furthermore, PipeTrack handles the entire pig run with the installation of sensors using above-ground small-bore branch locations, spaced accordingly, mitigating the need to move or repeatedly set up equipment.
Stuart Mitchell, president and CTO at PipeSense, said: “Applying a common-sense approach to pipeline maintenance and integrity is the ethos at PipeSense. Like many other pipeline maintenance processes, pig tracking methodologies have long been outdated and ineffective. Operators have long been overdue a solution that shakes up pig-tracking and meets the modern demands of the industry, and we’re proud to provide it.”
“PipeTrack will help empower the industry with a field-proven and reliable solution that transforms time-consuming and resource-heavy manual efforts into an adept platform that offers live feedback.”
