Teesside Drone Service Company Team Up With Structural Engineering Experts.
Drone Service Company DJM Aerial Solutions have had major involvement in some essential project maintenance assessing the condition of some of the most important infrastructure on local industrial site Wilton International for Asset and utilities maintenance giant Sembcorp.
The project is part of a bigger series of projects leading to one of the Teesside drone service company biggest commissions to date.
Wilton international, Teesside’s 2000 Acre industrial heartland is home to some of the worlds biggest chemical and manufacturing giants. Including green energy and advanced manufacturing industries. With a complex network of foundation and infrastructure that contributes to the efficiency of all companies cited in this particular industrial space. It is imperative that its maintenance is kept up to date
The particular assets drone service company DJM Aerial Solutions and local structural engineering company Scurator were commissioned to survey what happened to be one of the most important parts of the site drainage and wastewater collection diverting waste water and sediment back to a central point.
These Buffer tanks had been in use since the late ’90s with little to no maintenance carried out on them due to the logistics required around survey and inspection routines. With floating tank lids and no access or egress with a maximum depth of approximately 7m, the only other option is to scaffold.
Sembcorp who the assets belong to provided a set time and conditions to complete the survey and shutdown or extended outage periods were never considered due to the requirement for keeping the buffer tanks online continuously.
Sembcorp Buffer Tank Survey
The buffer tanks made up of Steel and reinforced concrete are continuously active 24/7 requiring consistent operations, transferring the untreated water from one to the other prior to treatment. So a scaffolded tank would never be considered the best solution. Due to the prolonged shutdown of that particular asset. Putting one buffer tank out of use.
The Buffer tanks are also sat below ground level so access and egress is a major issue with no fixed method of climbing in or out of the tank. Also due to the nature of the buffer tanks purpose gas monitoring must be continuously active in case of toxic or flammable gas presence due top the build-up of decaying organisms within the wastewater. Rescue teams would need to be continuously present and medic on standby in case of asphyxiation.
Company director Dan Maine added, “There is probably no better example of where drone technology trumps other methods of site survey, the speed, safety and superior data capture in comparison to other methods provides the preferred combination of eyes on visual inspection.” Dan explained, ” concrete as with any other structure requires regular inspection to judge it’s integrity and requirement for any remedial repair work. This requires a specific skill set and Scurator are the leading hand in this particular field.”
Scurator is a multi-disciplinary organisation specialising in providing total engineering solutions. This all-encompassing strategy enables them to provide a wide range of engineering services executed to the highest standard. Providing expertise in structural engineering, civil engineering, and geo-environmental engineering.
Greg Sills, Managing Director of Scurator added,”This particular job was fairly complex in terms of time and access logistics. Our client, Sembcorp informed us that we had a limited shutdown period, so we knew traditional methods such as scaffold weren’t going to be feasible. We had worked with DJM on previous projects and were aware of their service capabilities and engineering credentials.” Greg continued, “DJM performed the task whilst supplying a remote live feed to our team of structural engineers, Whilst we monitored each section for defects.
Drone Inspection and Survey
If you would like to discuss your remote inspection requirements using drone technology, then please either get in touch with our team via this link to our contact page or Call us on +44 (0) 1642 903779 We’d be more than happy to speak to you and go through the process.