Optimum performance in a process plant depends on maintaining a fine balance among many complex mechanical systems, while avoiding failure in key assets that could lead to unplanned shutdowns.   Risk-based inspection is a systematic, standard method for prioritizing inspection activities to focus first on “high-risk” assets.  Risk is described in terms of both the likelihood of occurrence and the consequences of failure.  The challenges to performing RBI effectively are:

• Knowing what to look at in a process plant
• Having a tailored methodology that is appropriate to the plant type  and history and its equipment inventory
• Having access to a technically appropriate empirical basis for estimating the likelihoods of failure and the consequences of mechanical failures
• Having access to and understanding of condition assessment technology
• Managing a very large inspection, safety and chemical process database
• Being able to track changing conditions in a plant

Quest Reliability meets these challenges with:

• Our team of highly experienced reliability engineers, and experts in materials engineering, metallurgy and structural integrity analysis.
• An industry-standard RBI methodology.
• A proprietary in-house database of more than 3000 asset inspections and condition assessments, used for estimating asset failure rates.
• Industry-leading proprietary advanced measurement tools for condition assessment and integrity inspection
• Versitile software package (RMS™ software) that calculates criticality, produces risk-based inspection and maintenance plans, and manages the associated data.

Knowledge-based  services

• 250 staff-years of related and relevant experience
• In-house “best practices” for repeatable results
• Process and Operations knowledge
• Benchmark comparison to similar operations

Quest’s RBI team uses a standard strategy, based on API 580/581, and applicable to all types of process plants and their assets.  We have customized the RBI data formats and inspection logic for several plant types and asset types in which we have specialized expertise, including ammonia, hydrogen and methanol plants, and process units involving steam reformers, fired heater systems, high energy piping and rotating equipment.

The real advantage of Quest’s RBI service is centered on our team of senior reliability engineers, who each bring more than 20 years of experience working in  ammonia and other syngas plants, oil refineries and steam generator and gas turbine power plants throughout the world.   The specialized expertise, breadth of precisely relevant technical knowledge and practical in-plant experience of the Quest team allows them to go quickly to “the heart of the matter” in identifying critical plant items, making the judgments that contribute to qualitative risk assessment, and prioritizing plant items for inspection and maintenance.  While each RBI program is unique to the facility and the assets at hand, our experts follow the general procedure set forth in API 580 (Risk Based Inspection) and the data and analytical protocols of API 581 (RBI Base Resource Document), typically in this order:

• Criticality assessment (identifying high-risk plant items, and establishing a priority for inspection and maintenance based on relative risk)
• Condition assessment of critical plant, using historical data and an array of advanced measurement tools
• Inspection and maintenance planning, and development of manuals, observing RBI priorities and industry best management practices.

These services are often delivered in conjunction with software that automates the criticality calculations and data management tasks.

Software Tools
Key points:

• Proprietary RBI Software (RMS™)
• 10 years proven success from use by our customers
• Storage capabilities for files, inspection records, pictures, comments, etc.
• May be maintained by customer or by Quest Reliability
• Interfaces with SAP
• Interfaces with proprietary FFS and life assessment software
• Interfaces with inspection data files (FTIS™, LOTIS®)

Quest Reliability has developed specialized software tools to support RBI.  The primary product is the QR Reliability Management System (RMS™) software, designed by our team of RBI experts and specially developed for syngas plants and related process industries.   RMS™ is  meant to be used in conjunction with the expert services described above.  RMS™ provides user ease and flexibility in inspection and maintenance database management, in generation of inspection and maintenance plans and reports, and schedule development and tracking.  In addition, RMS™ automates the calculation of asset criticality per API 581.  RMS™ is broadly customizable, and has been in use by our customers for more than 10 years.

Asset-specific RMS™ modules are also  available for Steam Reformers, Fired Heaters and High Energy Piping systems, and are designed to interface with either the main QR RMS™ program or selected  commercial asset performance management systems.

Quest also has developed a line of fitness-for-service and mechanical-structural integrity analysis software products that can be integrated with RMS™ or its asset-specific modules, or used independently.  Signal Fitness-for-Service™ is an industry-leading fracture mechanics software package that performs fracture and fatigue analysis in accordance with API 579 and BS7910.  LifeQuest™ is a remaining life assessment product that combines automated analysis with expert services and inspection data to achieve an optimum balance between resource reliability and performance.

See detail on all of Quest’s Software Offerings

Advanced Measurement Tools

Quest TruTec, our sister inspection company, specializes in high-speed, precision condition assessments of high temperature plant and piping, pressure vessels, and coking units.  QTT has broad experience in refining, chemical and gas process plants, and power plants around the world, using our proprietary advanced measurement systems, including:

• FTIS™ (furnace tube inspection system), ultrasonics
• LOTIS® (laser optical tube inspection system), laser profilometry
• MOI™ (magneto-optical imaging) external pipe flaw detector
• LaserScan™/video (radial laser scanner)
• ITS™ (induction thermography system – crack detection)

These tools, particularly FTIS™ and LOTIS®, are frequently used in conjunction with an RBI program during a facility turnaround to establish or update the asset condition database.

For futher information about Risk-Based Inspection, please contact us.