RENTED VIDEOSCOPE FROM ASHTEAD TECHNOLOGY SAVES TIME AND MONEY

RENTED VIDEOSCOPE FROM ASHTEAD TECHNOLOGY SAVES TIME AND MONEY June 2008 LETCHWORTH - ENGLAND - JUNE 2008 - A high-tech videoscope hired from Ashtead Technology Rentals helped an environmental services company to significantly reduce down-time during routine health and safety checks. Veolia Environmental Services used an Olympus IPLEX MX Videoscope to survey packing material in a cooling tower at its Ellesmere Port hazardous waste incinerator and in doing so the company was able to ensure that the operation was completed as quickly as possible, with minimal disruption to the plant. Cooling towers must be well maintained and kept clean to prevent the build up of potentially hazardous bacteria including legionella. Slime, scale and algae can also affect the performance and physical obstructions can often be found during checks. In the past, it has been common practice to remove the cooling pack for the purposes of the inspection and cleaning (regardless of whether the tower needed to be cleaned or not). However, depending on the size of the unit, this can take anything from a few hours to two days to complete. During this time the cooling system would be shut down resulting, in many applications, in the closure of the entire facility. However, endoscopic inspection can be undertaken in just a few hours and full colour digital images can be obtained and kept for record. The UK Health & Safety Executive (H&SE) now explicitly accepts the use of endoscopes to obtain images of the packing material condition. These images can be used to assess the cleanliness of packing material in cooling towers and by inference the effectiveness of the cleaning regime. Dave Smith, Technical Manager at Veolia, explained: “We operate the site around-the-clock and had a short shutdown planned when we had an opportunity to inspect the cooling tower. This was the first time we had used this kind of equipment and we were able to carry out the check with minimum disruption. When we have carried out checks in the past without a videoscope the inspection would take a lot longer but with this equipment the process is quicker, more efficient and with full colour digital images of the packing material.” The IPLEX MX is a lightweight, ultra compact videoscope system which uses an internal battery resulting in new levels of portability. Applications include gas turbine and engine inspections, aircraft engine and airframe inspection and engineering surveys. ENDS Words: 396

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