Application of In-Pipe Visual Inspection Robot to Piping Internal Surface Lining

In most cases, it is difficult for inspectors to directly inspect the extent of contamination and damage to the internal surfaces of small diameter pipes, as access to the inside of these pipes is limited due to size of devices and associated in-pipe environmental conditions. Accordingly, the utilization of remote-controlled inspection technologies promises great advantages for such inspections. We thus implemented research on in-pipe remote-controlled inspection technologies, and developed a crawler-type, self-propelled traveling device. Subsequently, we used such a device for the visual inspections of the internal surfaces of the seawater piping at a nuclear power plant before and after periodical lining maintenance was conducted on this pipe, thereby allowing the schedule to be shortened by about 40%, and also permitting the cost involved to be reduced by about 30 40%. Accordingly, we feels that the adoption of this remote-controlled inspection technology per this report, will bring great benefits to the user. 1. Preface At the above nuclear power plant, embedded piping whose internal surface was lined was periodically replaced with new piping, in order to maintain its in-service safety assurance. We visually inspected the damage to the lining of such piping using an in-pipe traveling inspection robot (Fig. 1) and found that the piping could he re-used if the internal surface was relined. Accordingly, the surface of the piping was re-lined in place using a turning seal lining method. As a result, the schedule was shortened by about 40% and also the cost involved was cut by about 30 40%. Thus, JGC introduces an outline of this turning seal lining method and the lining work as follows: 2. Turning seal lining method The following are procedures for lining the internal surface of piping usinq the method adopted by us. f