SGS is issued with US patent for PMI system

SGS has been issued a United States Patent number for its inspection system for performing retro Positive Material Identification.

United States Patent No.

7,596,419 was issued on 29 September 2009, published by the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office.

SGS' protected inspection system was created to meet client requirements related to retro Positive Material Identification (PMI).

PMI is a critical part of Asset Integrity Management (AIM) programs.

Clients use the PMI system to determine the alloy composition of piping and vessel materials to verify that only the correct materials are being used for their intended service.

This increases the effectiveness of the inspection process and enhances the usefulness of the collected data, while ensuring higher levels of accuracy and completeness.

The SGS system links CAD drawings, a PMI database, field load sheets, and third party commercial data loggers.

It enables pre-selection of required inspection locations where PMI analysis should be conducted.

Information is entered into a PMI database, which enables the preparation of field work packages, and also manages the process of loading collected measurements into the database.

This approach provides significant improvements for finding and reporting non-compliant materials plus performing future evaluations in response to constantly evolving fluid processing changes.

The portable nature of the system's equipment enables PMI to be performed by trained inspectors almost anywhere.

Plants and facilities, critical process components, and raw materials can be verified, and the resulting details can be mapped into the Mechanical Integrity Management System (MIMS) to help prevent unexpected failures, unplanned downtime, and extended time between maintenance.

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