CiDRA Oilsands has achieved the successful commissioning of over 1,000 HALO® pipe wear measurement and characterisation systems. HALO SMARTring technology and service, a leading automated pipe wear measurement tool and service in the oil sands industry, “overcomes the deficiencies of traditional, manual ultrasonic methods for measuring pipe wall wear.” CiDRA says it leverages its sonar and signal processing expertise to provide “timely, accurate, repeatable pipe wear measurements and other relevant pipeline information and wear characteristics.” The SMARTring pipe wear measurement tool clamps around the outside of the pipe and remains installed throughout the life of the pipe. On larger diameter pipes, the SMARTring solution features twelve measurement locations, equally spaced around the pipe.
On-demand, a CiDRA technician can connect a smart handheld reader-processor to each SMARTring sensor band and record all 12 measurements simultaneously. Because measurement of all 12 points can be made virtually in seconds, tens of thousands of points on hydrotransport and coarse tailings slurry pipelines can be frequently measured, and repeatedly and reliably tracked, thereby enhancing predictive modeling and action by pipeline and asset reliability teams. The system is certified for use in Ordinary Locations and Class 1 Div 2 environments. “This milestone reflects CiDRA’s ongoing commitment to our customers in Ft. McMurray”, said Perry McKechnie, Director of Operations, CiDRA Oilsands. “HALO represents just one of CiDRA’s many investments in innovative solutions that help support the production uptime and operating efficiency initiatives of our customer-partners.” Since it began serving the oilsands industry in 2003, CiDRA has successfully launched a series of innovative products and services, based on SONARtrac, SANDtrac and SMARTring technologies, that have been tailored to meet the unique challenges of its customers involved in mineable oilsands operations. These solutions help enable customers to enhance recovery, production and resource sustainability.
