Digiray® hardware and software provide
high contrast imaging and advanced image processing to facilitate interpretation of pipes.
Two people can easily maneuver the system in the power plant or refinery environment. The
eight detector array that enables Motionless CT™ (layer-by-layer 3-D analysis) weighs
only 10 pounds.
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3-inch Steel Pipe (elbow section)
Isodensity Contour Plot (each color represents a narrow density range)
The black area between 2 and 3 o'clock represents the lowest density because fluid flows
fastest around the outside curve of the elbow, and therefore erodes this region most
severely.
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The figure above maps density as color. The
three figures below also map density as height.
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The 3-D density plot below shows the black
region (most severely eroded) as next to the outside elbow (high rainbow-colored wall).
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In the topmost figure, the white area between
the inside and outside curve represents the least eroded area. In the "3-D"
density plot below, this region is depicted as the yellow ridge at 7 o'clock.
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The figure below zooms in on (magnifies) the
region of least erosion.
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When the user plots density as height,
inversion is a technique to make voids in welds appear as upward spikes. The higher the
spike, the deeper the void; the wider the spike, the wider the void.
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The Digiray® system acquires more information
than film because it has greater "sensitivity" and "latitude". The
user can move the mouse to "tint roll" through various density ranges. For
example, voids or pipe thinning can show up as bright red or white. Because RGX® imaging
avoids the fogging caused by x-ray scatter, the raw data has a higher signal-to-noise
ratio, which facilitates automated evaluation of critical regions. The figure below
reveals a corroded area (red and white) in a weld.
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(sample courtesy
of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd)