LiN SCAN was established around the millennium. In those days, all In-Line Inspection service providers for pipelines were either American or European. Based on the fact that more than 20% of all the pipelines of the world are located in the Middle East area and considering the drive of the UAE to advance into Hi-Tech services, LiN SCAN started to develop In-Line Inspection services for live pipelines.
The condition of pipelines can be assessed without interrupting the flow, supporting the no leak policy of many of the Middle East pipeline operators.
“The only strategy LiN SCAN employs is to commit to excellence in all that they do” says, CEO, Cornelis Bal.
LiN SCAN has grown from a 5 man operation in the year 2000 for local services to 300+ employees and they provide services from Peru to Canada, Indonesia to Spain, Middle East to Far East, Russia (CIS countries) to Africa.
Their services are executed in pipelines that are susceptible to inspection equipment. They have however adapted their equipment to suit the pipeline with innovative solutions.
LiN SCAN’s services include inspecting pipelines that are not designed for In-Line inspection, advising on mitigating corrosion processes. They have collapsible equipment for multi diameter pipelines. They have crawlers if there is no flow. LiN SCAN truly serve the pipeline industry with people that care about pipelines; They are passionate about pipeline integrity.
LiN SCAN’s operate globally but are organized locally. They market their service around the globe and when they get an order for inspection, they organize a local facility to do the field work (survey the pipeline and run their cleaning and inspection tools) assess the quality of the data collected and process it here into a report so the pipeline owner can take preventive repair action before the pipeline leaks.
- Inspection sensor technology (Magnetic Flux Leakage, Ultrasonic, Eddy Current, EMAT, etc.) identifying, locating and sizing pipe wall integrity threatening anomalies. These may be cracks, corrosion (internal/externally), pipe wall deformations, coating loss or disbondment, damage by construction contractors, etc. etc.
- Mounting these technologies on robot type tools that can operate under the hoarse conditions in the pipeline as being subjected to vibration, pressure, temperature, speed variations, etc. They inspect gas pipelines that run at 10 meters per second (that is 36kms per hour).
- Providing software to initiate these inspection tools, download the collected data and produce a pipeline inspection reports.
All 3 technologies are bordering to state of the art with new developments every day.
LiN SCAN’s Research and Development department cannot rest on their laurels longer than one day as new developments need looking into.
Cornelis Bal goes on to say ‘I am in this type of business for a long time but I am still impressed when 2people with a GPS pinpoint a location in the middle of the desert and indicate that an anomaly is present here which is underground on the pipe wall threatening the integrity of the pipeline. The reason why only a handful competitors are in this market is that the potential market is limited to maximum one billion US$ and the risk of failure is considered high with these multiple technology requirements requiring a high rate of pre-investment.’
LiN SCAN’s goal is to always want to be better no matter how good they are now. It is their vision and mission to serve the pipeline industry with reliable inspection information even though the data is collected under hoarse conditions in pipelines that may even not been designed to accept inspection tools under live conditions.
LiN Scan offers their services to the pipeline industry & mainly hydrocarbon carrying pipelines.
It is because of LiN SCAN (and their handful competitors) that pipelines move really large volumes of hydrocarbon products over sometimes very long distances with a minimum of incidents and accidents. The risks of doing that by road or rail road are 10,000 times higher.
Their determination to serve and always get better gives LiN SCAN the competitive edge, claims Cornelis.
Pipelines carry large volumes of both volatile gases and liquids over long distances. These pipelines are buried (the saying that both pipeline engineers and doctors bury their mistakes, is a joke with some truth in it). They run through areas not always under full control of the pipeline owner.
The difference between being operational and failure is often less than 12milimeters thick (or thin) steel shell.
There is a Pipeline Operators Forum with many international members that have accepted that the present In-Line Inspection technology is limited to guaranteeing a roughly 85% probability of detection of possible pipeline integrity threatening anomalies. LiN SCAN wants to push that to 99.99%.
