Because all HDS scanning is performed from ground level, the process is unobtrusive, eliminating the need to interrupt facility operations. This convenience also adds a measure of safety, says Brian Akers, Piping Lead at Job Industrial Services Inc. in Salt Lake City. The company handles retrofit and expansion projects for refineries, as well as mining, and power and gas transmission facilities in Utah and throughout the United States. Naturally, safety is a priority of the firm.
"HDS technology improves on the safety of our personnel because we spend significantly less field time in potentially dangerous environments,"Akers says. "This is the case particularly in the refinery industry, where you may have thousands of miles of infrastructure. If we're doing a retrofit, we can have a service provide laser scans, and with the point-cloud information, we can do a model a lot more accurately than we can do with conventional field measurements."
Job Industrial Services brought in McNeil Engineering team to perform HDS scanning at a recent refinery project because the team possessed the necessary state-required training certification and other safety-related qualifications.
"That removes the need for our organization to invest in HDS equipment, create a scanning team, and then send them out to the job sites," Akers says. "All that saves us capital and the loss of considerable production time at the office end."
Ed Sullivan is a writer based in Hermosa Beach, Calif. He has researched and written about high technologies, healthcare, finance, and real estate for more than 25 years. For more information on HDS technology, contact McNeil Engineering, mailto:info@mcneileng.com, or (888) 303-7700.
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