Laser scanner captures as-built documentation

Faro Technologies' Laser Scanner has been used to assist in the refitting of petrochemical facilities built with little or no architectural plans.

Petrochemical facilities built in an era before Computer Aided Design often have little or no documentation of what was constructed.

Even those with detailed plans often do not accurately match what exists today; pipes, valves, and reducers may have been moved or replaced, or storm damage may have caused rework of a particular area.

In order to plan refits or alterations, accurate data of what currently exists (as-built documentation) is necessary to ensure an on-time turnaround.

Even a one-day delay during a refit can cost millions of dollars of lost production time.

Plant Design Engineers, a company that specialises in providing services to the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries, purchased the Faro Laser Scanner LS to document the as-built condition of these facilities.

The LS takes a digital "photograph" of its surroundings, resulting in a highly-detailed 3-D image.

At a capture rate of 120,000 points per second, 27 million points within the unit's 360deg x 320deg field of view are produced after only about 7 minutes.

Scans can be registered together to give a virtual representation of the entire facility, which can be used for a virtual walk-through.

The LS' enhanced colour option enables scans to be viewed in colour with almost zero parallax error.

This is particularly useful with piping, where colours can designate what is being carried within each pipe.

PD Engineers used INOVx to model the captured data.

Planners, engineers and surveyors were able to easily separate piping systems, highlight sections, and remove clutter or areas that were not of interest.

Once the entire visual overview of the facility is modeled, the "intelligence" shows exactly what each specific pipe would be carrying, including vital information such as temperature, pressure, etc.

PD Engineers scanning teams can now perform an on-site capture in an unprecedented amount of time.

They can do this while the facility is still in use, causing minimal disruption to the daily operation of the platform.

Ron Bauman from PD Engineers commented, "We can complete on-site scanning in a fraction of the time, making our teams more cost-effective and reducing the inconvenience for our clients.

Our delivery to customers has become more comprehensive and the benefits of as-built documentation are being seen by a wider audience".

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