New technology for monitoring and assessing process plant structural integrity is introduced by IDEAS Ltd, the Glasgow based specialist engineering services consultancy.

Ideas Ltd has developed this revolutionary technology which is being described as the world's first truly automated fitness for service and real time integrity monitoring system. The technology, based on a combination of complex assessment linked to live measuring devices, gives a real-time, quantified assessment of mechanical integrity. This is being offered to clients for issues regarding Corrosion, Erosion, Leakage, Fluid Flow Transients, Acoustic Pulsation, Vibration, Defects, Support Loads, Settlement, High Temperature, Liquid Sloshing, Vehicle, Ship or FPSO Motion, Fracture and Fatigue, or General Integrity Problems.

An up-to-the-minute and detailed understanding of the integrity status of process plant and structures will be a key factor in improving safety and avoiding expensive, unplanned shutdowns and failures, in applications across a wide range of industries, from oil and gas, petrochemical and power generation, to unloaders, ship hulls and wind turbines.

The new technology will reduce operational costs by optimising inspection and maintenance procedures, and at the same time reduce risk by using quantified integrity data in the development of inspection plans.

Safety incidents such as plant failures, explosions, and ship fracturing will be reduced.

The methodology is a quantum leap forward beyond that used by existing monitoring systems, which are mainly dependant on identifying changes in trends and patterns, and from which integrity is not immediately quantifiable.

For the first time, clients will have quantified integrity information available in real time, avoiding reliance on guesses, statistics, trends, estimates and databases.

The technology will be used either as a problem solving tool, or as a method of providing regular health checks.

It will also be web-enabled as a remote monitoring system, with particular applications in offshore facilities, power stations and chemical plant, where access to the plant is difficult or dangerous.