Electro Scan Completes Trial Project for new Pipeline Inspection Technology

(UC) — Electro Scan announced that it has completed a trial project of its new pipeline inspection technology with Sydney Water, Australia’s largest water utility. 

Elector Scan develops proprietary pipe condition assessment equipment, delivers field services, and offers cloud-based data processing and reporting applications that automatically locate, measure, and report defects in sewer, water, and natural gas pipelines, typically not found by legacy inspection methods.

The company’s Focused Electrode Leak Location (FELL) technology evaluated sewer mains ranging from 150mm to 400mm (6 inch to 16 inch) diameters, including clay, cured-in-place lined pipe (CIPP), earthenware, plastic, and Rib-Loc spiral wound lined pipes.

Traditionally, water utilities have relied on high resolution cameras and visual inspection to manually assess defects inside of sewer pipes having low flows or restricted flows. Pressure tests of existing and new pipe installations are also common but, when located in close proximity to shorelines, may falsely measure water tightness based on groundwater conditions.

“We will use the findings from this trial to see if we can improve the way we test our new and rehabilitated pipelines and prioritise our repair strategies for existing wastewater pipelines,” stated Jerry Sunarho, BEng MBus, Senior Engineer, Sydney Water, responsible for coordinating the project trial.

Sydney Water is a statutory state-owned corporation wholly owned by the New South Wales Government managing an area of 12,870 sq km (5,969 sq mi), including the management and operation of 22,342km (13,883 miles) of drinking water mains and 26,169km (16,261 miles) of sewer mains serving an estimated population of 5.14 million people.

Data was automatically processed in the field with results on Electro Scan’s cloud-based Critical Sewers application.

Similar to holiday testing used to evaluate protective coatings for defects and pinholes, Electro Scan uses a low voltage high frequency current that is able to create an electric circuit between the inside of pipes and surface.

If a pipe has a leak, for instance from a crack in the pipe wall, at a joint, junction, customer's connection, or through a lining or coating material, the circuit is temporarily completed and a measurable leak size & location is automatically recorded.

Defect locations, including pinhole leaks in trenchless rehabilitation materials are precisely located within 1cm (3/8 of an inch) and estimated in liters per second or gallons per minute.

All work for Sydney Water was completed in accordance with ASTM F2550-13 (2018), 'Standard Practice for Locating Leaks in Sewer Pipes By Measuring the Variation of Electric Current Flow Through the Pipe Wall.'

Electro Scan’s low voltage technology is also used for pressurized water pipes, in accordance with the AWWA M77 Manual of Water Supply Practices for Condition Assessment of Water Mains.

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