A Guide to Industrial Asset Management Utilizing Drone Inspections   

Also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), drones are now considered vital elements of industrial asset inspection management. Drones are particularly useful for industries that require visual inspection of their assets. A small drone can be sent easily to areas that are hard to access or remote.    

Drones allow personnel the freedom to perform inspections from a safe distance, remaining completely safe and without any need to use expensive scaffolding or ladders. Moreover, drone inspections can cover large areas in much less time, even for inspections that are more intricate such as thermal imaging.   

Advantages of Drone Inspection  

Compared to traditional human inspections, there are many compelling benefits of drone-assisted industrial inspections. 

• First and foremost, it reduces the risk of inspectors by eliminating the need to put them in potentially dangerous situations.  
• Saves a lot of money because there is no need to build one-use infrastructure such as scaffolding to support a manual inspection.  
• In many industries, certain assets need to be shut down for performing an inspection. Naturally, this means a loss of revenue for them. With significantly lower turnaround time, drone inspections can minimise these downtimes and prevent revenue loss.  
• Companies can also reduce their liability insurance expenses so that their personnel are no longer required to operate in potentially dangerous areas.  
• As drone inspections are relatively inexpensive, it provides companies the freedom to perform inspections more regularly. This means that any potential problem can be addressed in a timelier manner.  
• Over a period of time, data generated from drone inspections create a meticulous record of an asset’s condition. This visual data can be archived by companies to create a digital footprint of the life history of an asset, which can be accessed anytime for maintenance or other requirements.  

Common Use Cases for Drone Inspection  

Though all industries can benefit a great deal from drone inspections, it can be a lifesaver for some.  

• Solar Farms: Traditional inspection methods are not suitable for solar farms because they are typically placed in remote areas and can cover huge areas. Moreover, it is solar panel inspections are mostly carried out when the sun is at its strongest, making it tiring and dangerous for workers. Drones can carry out thermal imaging, in addition to capturing standard visual images. Also, large areas can be inspected thoroughly in a quick time.  
• Oil and Gas Rigs: These inspections are always dangerous and time-consuming because they involve live equipment like flare stacks and spaces like the underside of platforms. This is why all oil and gas giants around the world use drones to inspect industrial assets.  
• Powerlines: Power lines and pylons pose not only falling risks but can also cause dangerous electrical hazards. Also, these critical pieces of infrastructure often pass through thick forests, mountain regions, etc. All major utility companies now prefer drone inspections for higher efficiency and lower risk.    
• Mobile Phone Towers: These towers are often tall and dangerous structures in hard-to-access areas or remote locations. With drone flights, there is no need for inspectors to perform the risky job of climbing these towers for inspection.   

At Coating Management Solutions, we have an advanced fleet of drones that have been used across industries with great results. Please contact our experts today to find out more.