Covering both Offshore and Onshore Applications with the HD-CR 35 NDT

Winner Inspection, founded in 2010 and headquartered on the island of Labuan in East Malaysia with around 60 employees, offers various conventional and advanced NDT inspection services to the local region. One major computed radiography inspection customer is KPOC, a joint venture in the Kebabangan gas field between PETRONAS Carigali, Shell Energy Asia and ConocoPhillips Sabah Gas Ltd.

Winner Inspection has been a user of DÜRR NDT’s HD-CR 35 Computed Radiography scanner since 2017 and utilizes it primarily for pipe wall thickness profiling during service and production stop using Iridium-192. The HD-CR 35 system is also used to inspect weldment, flange and valve conditions in oil and gas plants and platforms.

The HD-CR 35 sees frequent use by Winner Inspection: typically, 2 continuous weeks per month generating several hundred images during this time. For profile inspection, Winner Inspection uses high sensitivity 35x43 cm white imaging plates whereas for weld inspection, high-resolution 10x24 cm blue imaging plates are used. For these applications, imaging plates have a typical lifetime of around 1000 scans and Winner also utilizes cleaning wipes and provides additional operator training in order to further extend plate lifetime.

The HD-CR 35 delivers superior image quality in a compact package which makes it perfect for easily moving between offshore and onshore inspection jobs like Winner Inspection does. According to Siew Teck Tai, Operations Manager: “The image is very sharp; our clients love the digital images. So much in fact that in 2018 we bought another unit to cater to client demand … compared with the cost of conventional film radiography, we believe CR is better in the long run.”

As profile inspection is the major application for Winner Inspection, easy to use software tools for image enhancement and analysis are extremely important. On the overall performance of the DÜRR system, Edi Mahamud, CR Operator commented: “the exposure time is less compared to conventional radiography and the imaging plates are very easy to handle. In term of the D-Tect software, it is not only user friendly, but the image filters and measurement tools are also superb.”

On the topic of the DÜRR NDT D-Tect software, Mr. Tai continued: “(with D-Tect) we can have more contrast on the image and there are other tools available to edit the image. Our job becomes easy with the automatic measurement tools and most importantly our clients are also satisfied with the results.”

Winner Inspection is also fully supported by NDT Instruments Malaysia Sdn Bhd (a subsidiary of Singapore-based NDT Instruments Pte Ltd) who performs annual maintenance and any other required service activities to ensure the system is always running per specification.