Pipeline Integrity is regulated by the Department of Transportation and the Office of Pipeline Safety and is defined as the verification of pipeline structural integrity and continued functionality of the corrosion inhibiting equipment installed, along with the analysis of any active corrosion found. MISTRAS Services ensures the integrity of transmission and distribution pipeline systems by employing a variety of
NDT techniques.
MISTRAS Services supplies pipeline integrity experts that perform External Corrosion Direct Assessments (
ECDA) throughout the United States. The
ECDA's are performed as a follow up inspection to Internal Line Inspections (
ILI), which are normally performed using internal pipeline pig tools. The
ECDA's are used to comply with
DOT regulations that require pipeline operators to gather more definitive information regarding the extent and types of damage in the piping system in a timely fashion after initial defect location as determined by
ILI’s.
The main pipeline anomaly threats are internal and external corrosion, stress corrosion cracking, long seam anomalies and third party mechanical damage. These damages are evaluated during pipeline assessment "digs" and are assessed using a combination of
NDT technologies including Radiography, Ultrasonics, Magnetic Particle and Penetrant in conjunction with chemical analysis and visual inspection. In addition to
NDT Testing, topographical land and land usage categorizations must be made in order to feed potential damage assessments into a Risk Based Inspection type format. Soil ph levels are also recorded for future evaluation purposes.
All of our pipeline integrity reporting is performed in the field using electronic reporting formats that enable the down loading of electronic data from our inspection equipment to our field computers. Our report is standardized, concise, efficient and thorough and uses a centralized web server to allow our clients (utilizing a secure web server) to down load their reports electronically.
