TranScan Inspection Tool

TransScan Inspection Tool

Detects Long, Narrow Defects

The TranScan™ tool introduces transverse field inspection to the in-line environment. The targeted defects are long and narrow, and run parallel to the axis of the pipeline, such as stress and corrosion-based cracks, weld failures in the longitudinal seam and arrow axial external corrosion (NAEC).

Features & Benefits

TranScan™ uses MFL technology like MagneScan™, but unlike MagneScan™, it induces magnetic flow around the pipeline rather than along it. This enables the tool to take a broadside-on view of axial features, giving a far clearer indication of their depth.

Axial defects are not common, but because hoop stresses in an operating system are far greater than axial stresses, they present a very real danger of rupture. The tool is available for pipelines down to 12 inch diameter. As with MagneScan™ technology, TranScan™ technology has the advantage of robustness, resolution and high inspection speed.

Analysis & Reporting

TranScan™ has the benefit of being a robust technology based on a variation of the MFL principle. The tool design gives TranScan™ particular sensitivity to axially oriented pipeline defects. TranScan™ analysis uses the experience gained from a database of significant features seen in thousands of kilometers of previous TranScan™ inspections. Using overlapping sensor arrays positioned on two magnetizer units, full inspection coverage is obtained for the whole pipe surface. TranScan™ inspection is specially tailored to provide the high-resolution data necessary to detect flaws in the long seam of pipelines. Some of its earliest successes were in detecting hook cracking and lack of fusion in ERW pipe.

Display software was developed specifically for TranScan™ reporting. The size of each feature is checked, and the list of features is combined with the Pipebook information generated from the inspection data to complete the report.

TransScan Images

The final report is delivered as a printed copy, with accompanying data on a CD. Cracks and crack-like data are prioritized by severity for convenient assessment by the pipeline operator.

Operation

The TranScan™ tool uses well-proven and trustworthy magnetic flux leakage technology. Instead of magnetizing the pipewall in an axial direction, the two magnet assemblies are mounted on the central body such that the magnetization flows around the pipe. The field is turned 90° and wraps around the circumference of the pipe. Axial anomalies within the pipewall, such as cracks, present their greatest dimension to the magnetic flow, increasing flux spillage and creating a strong signal which makes a previously invisible flaw clearly visible.

Transverse field inspection has proven capable of identifying challenging targets:

  • Manufacturing defects in seam welds
  • Axial-oriented corrosion
  • Gouging
  • Dents
  • Large established colonies of stress corrosion cracking

Using newly-developed software, it can also be used to gather full-body metal-loss data, combining metal-loss, crack and mechanical damage inspection in a single run. A TranScan™ survey has been accepted by authorities as an alternative to the hydrostatic testing when certifying pipelines.

Construction is similar to a standard MagneScan™ tool except two magnet modules are required to give full circumferential coverage. When possible, the overall design makes use of electronic and mechanical components from the standard MagneScan™ tools.

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