The Beugin Garay Group is immersed in a project whose main result “is the demonstration that an autonomous unmanned vehicle (UAV) or drone is capable of placing sensors measuring the state of the coatings on vertical and elevated surfaces of industrial assets”, details Samuel García Baquerín, director of Innovation at Beugin Garay.
This is the first time that an application combines Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) technology for the development of a sensor integrated into a specific drone capable of flying in confined spaces and “which will be the first autonomous inspection system for anticorrosive coatings.” of high thickness on vertical surfaces of industrial assets that work in extreme conditions of chemical attack,” he highlights.
The project represents a revolutionary innovation, since the combination of a drone that can adhere to vertical surfaces and place a sensor to measure the quality of a coating is new on the market,” he emphasizes. With this system, the coating inspection service will be changed, “by reducing the cost and risk of human accidents.”
Additionally, it enables asset owners to make decisions based on detailed data regarding predictive maintenance and useful life forecasting. “This solution allows industrial anticorrosive coatings to be inspected quickly and economically without the need to install scaffolding,” says the head of the Basque company.
A second outcome of the project will be an intelligent computing platform that will offer asset owners in the chemical process industry detailed reports on the status of their coatings “that will allow them to move towards predictive maintenance, increasing the useful life of assets and reducing the costs of inspections,” he acknowledges.
SOLUTIONS IN CORROSION PROTECTION
For more than half a century, Beugin Garay has established itself as a leader in the national and international market by developing customized technical solutions in protection against corrosion, abrasion and industrial chemical attack. Among the anti-acid coatings offered are soft rubbers, ebonites, rubbers for construction application, mortars, bricks, polymer resins or laminates, among others.
The Biscayan firm works for sectors such as the transport of dangerous goods, waste plants, steel mills, refining and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, mining, chemicals or consulting. It currently operates in more than 20 countries such as Belgium, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Chile, the United States, Senegal, India and Russia. “A new objective is the entry into new markets in the short-medium term such as Jordan with a desalination process,” he advances.
The Biscayan company, whose annual turnover is 5 million euros, has a staff of 40 people. “Depending on the entry of new opportunities in terms of desalination or offshore wind, we will consider expanding it,” acknowledges Samuel García.
*News source GRUPO SPRI: Full news.
