Supporting evolving specifications in renewable energy

Internal J-tubes inspection: OMS successfully completes renewable energy project on time and within budget

Using our award-winning robotic inspection technology we inspected hard-to-reach welds in the fabrication of large offshore wind turbine jackets using a crawler-type system rather than gauges. The critical welds were located within vertical sections of J-tubes reaching up to 70m in height and with the only access point located at the bottom. Our AGILITY.max crawler travelled vertically through the pipes, carrying out the inspection while navigating bends and inner diameter transitions, demonstrating that it is possible to inspect internal welds in locations previously thought to be unreachable.

J-tubes are steel tubes inside pylons that support cables between the sea floor and the turbines. Inspecting welds inside J-tubes reveals defects such as excessive penetration that can damage, impede or even block the transmission cable and allows remedial work to be carried out, thus ensuring that wind energy assets are installed safely and operate effectively.

Alex Felce, OMS CEO, said, ‘We are delighted with the performance of our technology and our team on this project. Our crawler has again demonstrated its capability to reach welds that were previously considered un-inspectable, showing clients in this sector it is possible to access welds in the most difficult sections. We are very excited to shortly launch our remediation robot that will be able to fix certain types of weld defects. This will unlock huge savings for our customers where the only other alternative is to reject the weld.’

Read more about our work in renewable energy.