Surveying assets
Surveying assets
Written by Nye Longman Produced by James Pepper
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MISTRAS Group brings decades of asset protection experience combined with the latest technological solutions, backed up by highly skilled technical staff
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ISTRAS Group has grown to become the go-to company for asset protection solutions, having developed industry-leading technology, solutions and skills that have been deployed across a number of key projects around the world. Supply Chain Digital speaks to Phil Cole, International Vice President about how the company can provide the assurance to clients from a range of sectors that their assets are safe, productive and compliant.
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Operations MISTRAS Group’s main offerings are heavily technology-focused, and enable a degree of asset protection that is not only world-leading and proactive, but is also adaptable to meet a diverse range of client needs including those coming from industrial sectors, energy companies, and those in charge of infrastructure assets. Using acoustic emission, vibration analysis, advanced ultrasonics, and a portfolio of unique conventional and advanced NDT products and
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M I S T R A S G R O U P LT D
Services • NDT Consultancy • Procedure Development Forth Inspection Service Ltd Enterprise Business Centre Admiral Court Poynernook Road Aberdeen AB11 5QX
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& Approval • Advanced NDT Validations • Specialized Witness • Technical Auditing
Tel: +44 1224 289751 Mobile: +44 7827 406627 Email: darren@forthinspectionservice.com www.forthinspectionservice.com
services, the company monitors mechanical integrity and can deliver both destructive and nondestructive testing. It can achieve all this while supplying customers with customised wireless data analytics.
“Our ability to do turbine blade inspections comes from our expertise in the aerospace sector in composites” Phil Cole says: “We routinely inspect oil and gas assets and civil structures such as bridges. Many of today’s offshore platforms that are operated in the UKCS are at their stage in life where life extension programmes are required. The skills and expertise of Mistras to perform RBI and NII is key to the success of these programmes to ensure operational and structural integrity safety.
“We are market leaders in technological advances in NDT with specialist systems for the inspection of areas of known concern in today’s environment such as CUI, trunnions, pipe supports, vessel saddles, and valves. Utilising technologies normally regarded as difficult to access or to interpret results from with our highly skilled personnel places Mistras in the position of being able to offer solutions which many others can’t.” All told, MISTRAS Group is present in 100 locations across the globe giving it coverage of the UK, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Its ability to adapt to the nuanced requirements of the industries in providing its services is impressive, whether this be oil and gas, nuclear, petrochemical maritime, paper manufacturing, automotive, or buildings. Renewables Manager Nicola Mcglynn says: “MISTRAS Renewables Services offer a full and complete suite of inspection, repair and monitoring services.
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These range from structural monitoring of composite blades where our expertise was born from our extensive experience in the aerospace sector, condition monitoring of Nacelle and Monopile structures, to visual, photographic and video. “Our experienced Renewables Team has worked alongside the world’s largest energy providers on some of the world’s largest projects such as the London Array, Gwynt y Mor, Whitelee, West of Duddon Sands, and Riffgrund.” Cole adds: “Renewables is a great new area because people come to us with their problems, and we have provided solutions for them. For example, in the last couple of years we have invested heavily in advanced technologies, much of which is developed and manufactured in-house in our extensive R&D facility. We have also invested in excess of £1 million in our bespoke rope access training facilities ensuring that we have the capability and capacity to continue developing our skill set to service this growing area.” Talent management The work that MISTRAS Group undertakes necessitates a well-
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M I S T R A S G R O U P LT D
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educated, thoroughly trained and, similarly, there’s a large workforce with industry-specific number of people who have skillsets. With around 7,000 global been here for 20 plus years.” employees on its books (1,500 The company has solidly of which are based in Europe) invested in both practical and the resources and time that the theoretical training. Its rope access company dedicates to training capabilities are supported by a and employee development dedicated training centre certified cannot be overstated. by the Global Wind Organisation; Cole highlights that MISTRAS Group also investing in talent utilises a variety of development does online materials a lot more than for both training simply ensuring testing purposes a skilled in line with its workforce: “On global presence. Number of employees some offshore “Within the oil at Mistras Group projects, our & gas services employees might division we believe have had £20,000 strongly in training for into £30,000 spent on service inspection and regular training in the previous 12 months trade testing to ensure that not to get them to the level at which only are the technicians formally they are required to operate. certified but that they are also “Most of the people who work competent for the tasks that they for MISTRAS are very long term will be undertaking,” adds Cole. employees. We don’t tend to have a high staff turnover in Technology fact it is well below the industry Cole is keen to stress that the norms. I’ve been here since 1979 technology-intensive solutions
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MISTRAS Group offers can save clients millions. He says: “If you look at the history of failures in process equipment, whether it’s power or oil and gas, there are far fewer catastrophic accidents today as a result of a more proactive approach to monitoring, inspection, and maintenance. “Go back 20-30 years and it was not uncommon for boilers to blow up; that never happens now because you will know when you have a leak early enough to take action. It’s the same if you’re doing structural monitoring - the advanced notice allows you to plan what you do and to mitigate the occurrence of further damage.” As a services-based company, Phil says, MISTRAS Group spares no expense when acquiring the latest technology in order to meet and exceed the evolving demands of the market but “if it doesn’t exist but we know what’s required” then
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the company’s engineers have the expertise and creativity to develop bespoke technological solutions. He adds: “If you can perform an operation non-invasively using automation that of course saves countless millions for the client. On the Gabbard wind farm we ran substantial tests and trials on five turbines in the first year as a sort of trial demonstration, to make sure the technology was working properly. We then made the necessary changes and expanded it to close to half of the current wind farm in the following years.” Having accrued nearly 40 years of experience, MISTRAS Group has grown to become a world leader in technology-driven asset protection solutions. The company’s expansion into the renewable energy sector – particularly offshore wind – has enabled it to weather the fluctuating oil price while strengthening its skills base and business offering.
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“MISTRAS Group spares no expense when acquiring the latest technology in order to meet and exceed the evolving demands of the market”
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Norman Way Industrial Estate, Over Cambridge Cambridgeshire, England CB24 5QE +44 (0) 1954 231612 +44 (0) 1954 231102 Info@mistrasgroup.co.uk www.mistrasgroup.co.uk